Re: [RC] need info on possible link between hard water and tying up - Sullivan
For those who have so kindly helped, i might add
that I feed, over the course of the year, two types of grass hay, oat hay and
alfalfa.
The alalfa is about 50% of the hay...but the horses
also get some grazing. I always thought Calif. alfalfa was high in
magnesium...one of the contributors to enteroliths? This gets
confusing....
Subject: [RC] need info on possible
link between hard water and tying up
I am hoping to get some imput as to any
possible link between horses drinking hard water and being more prone to tie
up.
I read an article in the ridecamp archives that
explained a posters consistent problems with her horses tying up,
despite good conditioning and warmup, supplementing with Vit E se,
etc. They finally tested their water and found it was very hard, which
means high in calcium. This might be my story also.....most of my mares,
over the years, having minor problems with tie up...and one bad one which
went to U.C Davis. Davis did not run a test for Se, but reccomended adding
the supplement.
I finally had our water tested. IT came
up with a ph of 7.4, and a hardness of 14....which they said was in the
medium range of hardness. They also said the calcium was 14g/gal....or
240 ppm. I am hoping perhaps a vet can comment on this. Anyone know if
this degree of hardness is going to cause any problems? Of course, at
my age (47), I would personally thinking drinking water high in calcium is
perhaps a good thing....
Problem would be doing anything about it; we
have a softener at the house, but the horse water is way out at the barn. We
could not give softened water (which takes out the calcium but leaves
sodium), but would then need a reverse-osmosis filtration system ($1,000 to
$2000), and again, it would be up at the house and we would have to run very
long hoses back to the barn area.
Any thoughts or comments appreciated. We
have our own well.
