Home Current News News Archive Shop/Advertise Ridecamp Classified Events Learn/AERC
Endurance.Net Home Ridecamp Archives
ridecamp@endurance.net
[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]

[RC] Heat - Salt licks - loose stools - lumps - WRSINOSKY

Jeannie posted: >>>Living in "cattle country" I was told by the cowboys that
horses need loose
salt, as they don't have the same rough tongue as a cow, and therefore don't
usually get the salt they need from a salt lick.<<<

It is not just cowboys who say this, I've read it in several horse magazines over the years.  Unlike Jonni's horses, mine seldom, if ever, touch a salt block.  And I live in the Arizona desert with the 115+ temps.  Yuck. 

My poor horses are standing in the shade, sweating.  The TB seems especially sensitive to the heat and I know she was born and raised here in the valley. The mustang, Angie, ran with a herd in northeastern CA near Reno, NV. She hates the heat, but doesn't sweat near as much as Miss Cali, the TB.

I've been putting some electrolytes in their beet pulp and also loose salt.  They scarf it up. 

Now I have two separate problems. First, my 4 y/o Egyptian arab filly has got the severest case of diarrhea I've seen in a long time.  It is practically all water squirting out of her.  I've given her pepto bismol and taken her off all supplements until I can figure out what's going on with her.  Is she drinking too much?  Is it just from the high temps and humidity?  Ideas out there?

The other problem is with my TB mare.  There is always something wrong with this "free" horse.  No sooner do I get her walking correctly from hiring a masseuse, then she started limping with an abscess in her RF hoof.  I'm taking care of that, but yesterday afternoon when I went out to hose them off for the second time that day, I noticed two very strange "lumps" on her left side.  They are located about two-thirds the way down her side on her rib cage and appx. 1 ft below her spine. The "lumps" are appx. 4" in diameter and perfectly round, rising up about 1/16th of an inch. They are not hard when I palpate them and seem to cause her no discomfort. And this horse is a real wimp when it comes to pain. 

The lumps are about six inches apart, so they are too close for a kick. There is no breakage of the skin, so it isn't a horse bite.  What the blazes are they?  I think I read about something similar in some book or magazine a while back, but cannot recall where it was or what it is.

Any suggestions?

cindy edwards
buckeye, az