Any ideas to get a horse to drink

[fivehorses]

My percheron mare is not drinking water at night...none. This is not usual behavior for her, and has been going on for a couple of weeks.

She is turned out all day, drinks out of the livestock tank, comes in at night, does not drink out of her bucket. She gets half her hay at night, so this isn't something I like.

Her bucket is clean. Actually it is scrubbed every day.
I have added warm water, thinking she didn't want to drink the 'cold' water.
I have crushed salt block in her grain bin.

She just doesn't drink. Otherwise, she eats, seems fine, etc.

I never had a horse not drink water when I have crushed a salt block in the grain bin.

Any ideas?

[mhtokay]

does her manure still look OK? You say this is not usual. Has she been coming in and drinking from bucket earlier in the year? or is the coming in at night new? Is she getting grain, so the crushed salt is getting eaten? Or is it just in the feeder, but she gets no grain.

[murphyluv]

hmm, especially with a draft that's weird. Have you tried getting a heated water bucket? Try getting one and see if that makes a difference.
Otherwise, since this is unusual, try adding some stuff to the water- figure out if she likes apple juice in there, any type of gatorade (i've heard the lemon/lime one is popular), bobbing for apples, there's also horse "tea" out there- I forget who makes it and where to find, but if you google it you'll probably find it.
definitely look at her poop and see if there's a difference.

[MCarverS]

I'd also add some water to her feed and make it sloppy to ensure that she's getting SOME hydration. Who knows, maybe it will kick start her system. I've also had one bucket that had Gatorade in it and one with clean water, my horses loved the Gatorade and it gave them a good dose of electrolytes.

[jlrcoats]

Horse Quencher, I love this stuff. Put a little "grain" in the bottom of a bucket and the horses are nuts for it. My endurance horses treat it like horsey crack and drink like crazy. They have a web site or lots of tack stores, vet offices carry this stuff.

[atr]

One of mine has started this malarkey too with the change in the weather, and the inception of our new well. The other horses are fine with the new water, but him, not so much.

So I end up pandering to him because colic I can do without.

I have discovered that warm alfalfa tea is apparently acceptable. I throw a handful or so of alfalfa pellets in a bucket, top it up with warm water so the pellets disolve, and hang it up for him. Down the hatch it goes...

I've also started adding half a bucketful of water to his feed.

And yesterday he drank a half bucket of regular water all by himself, so things are improving, I hope.

[VolteVT]

Adding lots of water to the grain usually works for us.

Also we've had several that will drink if we add half a cup to a cup of molasses to the water helps.

Also, for the stall-kept horse, giving a mineral/electrolyte paste, then hand grazing for 15-20 minutes. Bring them back in the stall and they almost always take a long drink.

[3Spots]

Ditto "horse quencher" and not "quench"

[stryder]

I've heard of some people who put an apple in the water bucket.

[cloudyandcallie]

Make "grain tea" by dissolving a handful of grain in one of the little 2 gallon buckets, let it dissolve, swirl it aorund with your hand and let the horse drink. Keep doing this over and over to get gallons of water into most horses.

My friend gives her quarterhorse mare black strap molasses in a big bucket with water poured into it and her mare will drink the whole 5 gallons. She gets the molasses thru her seminole dealer at ft. rucker.

I give my horse coca-cola, grain tea, and Metamucil, separately, all to get fluids in him all summer long. And I heat his water in the winter. And he drinks beer. And I have him on "summer games" electrolytes. All with the express purpose of hydrating him 24/7. And he drunks his own hay in one of his 2 water buckets.

ack I put drunks, lol

[Donkey]

I have a molasses based salt lick that my mare loves and will devour. I pull it out for a 5-10 minute chow fest before dinner when it gets cold or the weather changes as a bit of insurance that she'll drink more. The salt lick is huge and seems to last forever.

[murphyluv]

One other thing I forgot is that you could try a different color bucket- sounds weird, but I've heard of a few horses not liking dark buckets- if it's lighter I guess they can see the bottom???? Never hurts to try I guess..

[Bogie]

And he drunks his own hay in one of his 2 water buckets.

I'm guessing that he "drunks" his hay after he's had a couple of beers? :lol:

[Equibrit]

Put some Perform and Win in the water. Always works for my guys, they think it's candy.

[aahunterjumper]

I've found a "soupy" bran mash to work well. Not sure that it's a huge volume of water for a horse, but it makes me feel a tad better.

As one previous poster suggested, fresh grass seems to make them drink water. No matter how cold, yucky it is outside, if I've taken a horse to graze, they dive for the water bucket as soon as they get back to the stall.

I hope your mare starts drinking "normally" soon.

[fivehorses]

wow you guys, lots of great suggestions here.

I forgot to mention in original op, I have been checking her poop, and it is normal and moist.

The one thing I can do immediately is molasses and put in some alfalfa cubes...I will put up another water only bucket too, just in case she doesn't like the mixture.
I also have apple juice on hand that I had planned on giving them since we may be moving in a few months. I wanted them to get use to apple flavored water.

I have not heard of horse quencher or some of the others mentioned but will do a web search.

She is out on pasture all day, a livestock tank is out there, and she comes in to drink about the time I am on the second stall to clean. So she is drinking out of that, its just the fact her water bucket in the stall is not touched for a few weeks at night now that has me freaking out. All other 9 horses are drinking, but not her at night! She is in a stall, so cannot get outside to drink out of the livestock tank.

Tonight, her grain bucket, (yes, she does get grain) was so full of salt and I put in soaked beet pulp, and an hour later her grain, and I though, come on, ya gotta drink with all that salt! Nope.

So, tomorrow I will try alfalfa cubes and some apple juice. Don't want to add any molasses right now...she is chubby enough. I will look at the other recommendations and see where I can get them.
Thanks. I knew you guys would know how to lead a horse to water AND make her drink! Much thanks.

[fivehorses]

Oh, and I am going to get that molasses based salt lick. My pony mare when she was pregnant and after the colt was born had one. It was super...they love it...my big mare would, and I really need her to drink her stall water bucket, and not go all night without drinking. She has me worried, even though everything seems fine.

Don't they know they must drink water!!!! Their humans worry otherwise.

[LauraKY]

I second the new bucket in a new color. Also, try just a little molasses in the water, just to get him to start drinking again. We have an OTTB that is VERY particular about his water. He dropped manure in his bucket one day and no amount of cleaning could convince him to drink out of that bucket again. Gave him a different color bucket and now he will drink out of it...go figure. (We did give him the old bucket back a couple of months later and it was no problem.)

[FLeckenAwesome]

My horse won't touch a salt brick, and will eat around the electrolytes.... to the point where I had to disolve hay cubes in water with his lytes to get him to eat them. Since then... I've found Buckeye Perform N Win electrolytes!! They don't taste super salty and aren't just sugar, so I can actually put them straight on his feed and he'll eat it right up. Just like my other four horses! So... to me, that's totally worth it. I've been giving it to him daily to encourage him to drink and it does seem to make a difference!

And as a slight aside..... my horse has two water buckets in his stall, but will only drink out of one!!! Even when both are freshly scrubbed. And he'll suck the one almost bone dry, but doesn't move over to the other one?! Any thoughts? Both are navy blue, both are right next to each other in the stall. The one time he pooped in his "good" bucket, he did drink out of his other, but... weird?!

Maybe he just only wants exactly one buckets worth?!

[LauraKY]

We have one that won't drink out of a heat bucket, turned on or off. He will drink warm water. He also will only drink out of the bucket closed to his door...no matter what color, no matter which bucket. Weird, aren't they? Wish I knew what went on in their heads.

[cloudyandcallie]

I'm guessing that he "drunks" his hay after he's had a couple of beers? :lol:

Oops that was a freudian slip! dunks/drunks. I could not imagine a drunk WB. (altho I did once date a guy whose GSD would drink a lot of beer and then wobble when he was retrieving the cans.)

He also will drink mulled red wine at oyster roasts. Having a WB means never having to force him to drink any fluids. (I did draw the line when an alcoholic friend tried to give him some of her gin and gatorade.)

OP my friend buys the black strap molasses from seminole, they distribute it, but I don't know who makes it as Lucy and Dymond are now at Ft. Rucker, but anyway, she covers the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket with the molasses, and then she fills the bucket. She says it gets very foamy. Dymond being a QH doesn't like most things (as does my WB) so she is finicky, but Lucy says she drinks the whole bucket down to the bottom. So that is 5 gallons of water and the molasses dissolved in it.

[Penthilisea]

Is she a treat ho? My TB is, so getting him to drink was a piece of cake. Soupy bran mashes mixed with shop-rite fruit punch mix. It was sweet and red (made his pee red too!) and he loffed it. I got three water buckets into him and headed off a nasty colic. He also likes warm water in the cool weather.

[AM]

Mt mare started the same thing - not drinking at night - at night this summer. I mentioned it to the barn owner and she said she had noticed the same thing but found that she had just shifted her drinking to earlier in the day. I've checked and she isn't becoming dehydrated so I just stopped worrying about it.

[fivehorses]

well, the alfalfa cubes in the water did not work. Tonight its apple juice and tomorrow I am ordering the thirst quencher.

I don't care, when she drinks in the morning...she is not allowed(per me) to go from 6 in the evening till 8 the next morning without drinking! SHe gets grain, her hay, etc, and well, she needs some water to swish that stuff around.
I don't like it. ANd things will be changing LOL.
BTW, this is a 15 year old mare I have had since she was a baby, so I know her routine, and this isn't it.

[Nanerpus]

OP, my mare is doing the same thing all of a sudden - not drinking at night much at all and I don't know if it has something to do with the weather?

I have been taking a few alfalfa cubes and dissolving them in boiling water, and then adding about a small grain bucket of cool water to them and she will eagerly drink up all that "soup" but it's still just strange. I'm going to try apple juice too I think, and also put a new water bucket in her stall (she has a Nelson auto waterer when she is in at night in her stall). Can't say if she has changed her routine outside as she shares a big tub in the field.

I do add water to her food now, but the trouble is she only gets about a handful of ration balancer! She is too tubby to add much so hopefully she doesn't blow up with the addition of the few cubes.

She seems totally fine, pinch test is fine, and poop looks fine, but there aren't too many pee spots for me to clean out in the am...

Let me know if something seems to work for you and hoping both our mares get back to normal soon!

[tarragon]

I had an older mare that would stop drinking when the weather turned cold and had several bad colics as a result. I found that soaking her hay and grain helped a lot, as did an insulated bucket.

[Nanerpus]

Tarragon, good idea and I'm going to start soaking her hay. I gave her a mush of a few cubes this morning which is some moisture too.