Why isnt she drinking

RubysGold

RubysGold

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Can anyone tell me what would cause my horse to stop drinking enough??

She is on box rest, so not getting water from anywhere else.

She normally drinks about half her bucket a day/night, sometimes more. Last couple of days she's been drinking only a couple of inches of it :S

I've pinched her skin, it isnt going down quick enough so she is slightly dehydrated

She seems fine in herself. I have some apple juice to put in tomorrow to see if that persuades her to drink, if not, vet will be coming tomorrow.
Can anyone tell me some reasons why she would stop like this??

Someone else mentioned salt in a feed, but if she doesnt already know shes thirsty when shes a bit dehydrated, I think that would be a bad idea.
 
Shes been in for a few months, and its only the last couple of days shes stopped drinking :S
The horses were in with the bad weather, and now their all out, so that could be stressing her?
She has no feed, and hay is same as always :S
 
another couple of months :S
The vet wants her to have a ridden canter first :S

But she doesnt drink much on a night either when her friends are back in the stables.

What will vet do if he comes out?? Any ideas :S
 
Well if you can pinch her skin and it's not going down as it should, she's dehydrated which is bad and you could try salt in her food, to make her drink but it could make her worse,if she still not drinking, have a word with your vet tomorrow morning.
 
Thanks for your help

I'll use the apple juice to try get some liquid into her but will also ring vet and ask for advice/get him to come have a look at her.

Must not worry, must not worry, must not worry :/

I'll update you on how it goes :S
 
The most likely explaination is that we have had a change in the weather and the water might be a bit cold for the time of year, try taking the chill off it and doing a complete change of water in the stable several times a day so it is always fresh and not tainted
 
Silly question but do you change her water daily? ie not just leaving the undrunk water and topping it up? Could be something died in it or she peed in it or drip from the roof in it. I'd steer right away from adding salt to make her thirsty since it would just make her more dehydrated (if she is now). Are all the other horses drinking overnight? I'm thinking maybe something happened to the water supply where you fill buckets. Be careful with adding apple juice. I'd still leave a bucket of fresh plain water. She might not like the apple juice "taint" and then you'd have possibly 2 separate reasons why she wouldn't drink and it would cloud the issue. Is she still peeing and pooing ok? If you do the pinch test, is she dehydrated? If so, it could be a veterinary emergency. Why is she on box rest? Could the 2 things be linked? If she doesn't appear dehydrated you might need to do some lateral thinking to work out where she's getting enough water from.
 
Thanks for all answers :)
Today, I put apple juice in the water (and gave her a plain water too) She didnt drink much of it.
So I rang the vets, lovely new vet came out, checked her gums, stomach sounds, heart, temperature, and took some blood to check red blood cells. All is fine :D
She said that with the change in weather, she may just not need as much, apparently they are good at regulating it themselves.
Such a relief :D

Shes gonna read Roos notes on Monday and give me a ring, to talk through with me (Again) what I should be doing with her. (Box of Frogs: she had surgery to cut her annular ligament and has to have a ridden canter before turnout)
 
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