To much salt

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Alltype

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I have a horse that is on box rest so having not exercise, she is a cribber and got a salt lick in her box. She is being walked out for three 10 minute sessions quietly to keep her colic down. However, she is still collicing once a week, she is on soaked hay because of laminitis. She has strted to drink alot and wee a lot, can she overdose on salt or could there be another problem underlying. We might think she is getting colic gastric that is, but could it be due to too much salt and a kidney or diabetic problem. Personally think she is lacking minerals and is overdosing on the salt. What are your thoughts everyone.
 
I'd be checking her for ulcers. Your vet can scope her to check for them.

ETA- I don't think they can overdose on salt- they drink more because of it so it balances out. Can you take the salt block out and give her a vit/min supplement instead?
 
You can overdose on salt, in fact too much salt is fatal. However it would be a very large amount of salt required to kill an animal the size of a horse.

As to ingestion, the rat LD-50 dose for sodium chloride is 3 grams per kilogram of body weight.
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*mineral lick if you think she is lacking, but I should think it is a good thing to get plenty of water going through her system to flush things out.
 
The cribbing and colic suggest ulcers, the laminitis with excessive drinking suggests something metabolic such as cushings, I would be getting her scoped and blood tested to find out what is going on. I think she is unlikely to just be having too much salt.
 
Check bloods for tapes, i had a horse with intermittent low grade colic, she had mod tape burden although had been wormed routinely for tapes, gave her double dose of equitape on vets advice and shes not colicked since
 
She has been scoped and does have one ulcer at the back which is quite deep. She is on coligon for that. Didnt know about the too much salt though. She's cribbing (three sucks) then licking the salt excessively, she looks as though shes doing it as part of her habit. Like weaving, she does crib then licks, cribs then licks permanently thats why I wondering about the salt. Has got through 3/4 of a block in two weeks and thought it mint affect her kidneys.
 
Alltype said:
She has been scoped and does have one ulcer at the back which is quite deep. She is on coligon for that. Didnt know about the too much salt though. She's cribbing (three sucks) then licking the salt excessively, she looks as though shes doing it as part of her habit. Like weaving, she does crib then licks, cribs then licks permanently thats why I wondering about the salt. Has got through 3/4 of a block in two weeks and thought it mint affect her kidneys.
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If I remember right, the only thing that will actually treat/heal ulcers is Gastroguard. It's expensive, but I would put her on a course and see if she improved.
 
Can she not be turned out on a starvation paddock to help reduce the stress she's obviously in from being stabled - that won't help the ulcer or the colic at all! And it sounds like the salt licking has become part of her routine so I'd either move it to the back of her stable so it's away from the area she cribs on or remove it and just give it to her on the floor a couple of times a week. Is she on add lib soaked hay too to help the ulcer?
 
be positive said:
The cribbing and colic suggest ulcers, the laminitis with excessive drinking suggests something metabolic such as cushings, I would be getting her scoped and blood tested to find out what is going on. I think she is unlikely to just be having too much salt.
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This ^^

I don't think that animals tend to overdose on salt. They tend to take in what they need. All the horses here get through their salt licks pretty quickly.
 
Obviously rule out any physical issues but a friend's horse when stablde on box rest drank excessively (and hence weed alot) due to stress/boredom, it was a coping mechanism for him.
 
criso said:
Obviously rule out any physical issues but a friend's horse when stablde on box rest drank excessively (and hence weed alot) due to stress/boredom, it was a coping mechanism for him.
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Friends horse also did this, vet referred to it as 'box flooding', apparantly its not that uncommon, though I'd never heard of it before!
 
She does have the hay soaked in fresh water every time and she is also on Gastrguard for the ulcer, down to half a syringe now. :-/
 
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Alltype said:
She has been scoped and does have one ulcer at the back which is quite deep. She is on coligon for that. Didnt know about the too much salt though. She's cribbing (three sucks) then licking the salt excessively, she looks as though shes doing it as part of her habit. Like weaving, she does crib then licks, cribs then licks permanently thats why I wondering about the salt. Has got through 3/4 of a block in two weeks and thought it mint affect her kidneys.
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Take the salt lick out and put something else in? She might have hind gut ulceration that doesnt show on camera, try some, i think it was, wheat/ oat flour in her diet as its been shown to coat the affected areas in the hind gut
 
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