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[RC] Feeding loose salt/trace minerals - Soli Sorokin

My arabt recently coliced quite badly. He has recovered, but the vet
and I have been trying to nail down the cause - there was no change in
feed/routine/activity level and this horse does not have a history of
colic.  We think that it was partially due to a lack of
electrolytes/drinking combined with the fact that he has a small
(3-5lb) supplementation of alfalfa cubes which he was eating - but
then (as I discovered) sometimes stealing the remainder of the other
horses' cubes - making his diet mostly alfalfa cubes. This probably
wouldn't have been an issue normally, but with the extreme
heat/humidity we've had, combined with the fact that this horse just
will NOT freely take in salt from his salt/trace mineral block,
probably combined to make him 1) not take in enough water and 2)
become impacted on those cubes.

Vet recommends feeding him separately and soaking the cubes - which
we've been doing - and feeding supplemental salt/trace minerals thrown
in his feed. He will eat it this way, but I am concerned with how much
I am supposed to be giving. He says thrown a cup in. That seems
excessive when using the trace mineral formula, but I could be wrong.

So, my question is - how much of this should be given on a daily
basis? And should it be increased on particularly hot days and/or days
that he gets ridden? We ride a 5 mile loop about twice a week and a
15-25 mile ride about once a week. I've not had a horse before that
refuses to use their salt block entirely, so this is a new thing. His
rations right now are 3-5lbs of cubes per day (weight before soaking),
about 1-2 lbs of Ultium per day, and as much medium quality grass hay
as he'll eat (which isn't much).


Thanks!

~S

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