ridecamp@endurance.net: Re: [endurance] Stones

Re: [endurance] Stones

Eugenie (oogiem@dsrtweyr.com)
Wed, 20 Mar 96 14:22:34 -0800

>have seen people suggest giving horses 1/2
>cup of apple cider vinegar a day as a preventative. Also, one suggested
>using the apple cider vinegar from the health food stores that have the
>"mother" in it. Any advice on this?
The study that was done at Cornell used regular vinegar. It's a whole lot
cheaper than cider vinegar and appears to work just as well. We've got
all of our horses on the vinegar regime. We feed 1/2 cup vinegar from day
8 to the end of the month. The first week of the month we add psyllium to
their grain to helpprevent sand colic. We have had one horse pass one
stone and it was partially disolved not smooth like the more normal ones.
Our vet thinks it was that way due to the vinegar.

> Also, one of our other Arabs has melanoma, so I am concernd that
>acidifying his insides may do his more harm that good (based on the idea
>that Tagamet that lowers stomach acid has helped some horses with
>melanoma). My current vet recommends NOT removing the melamona due to the
>idea that operationg can cause the whatever to migrate and start somewhere
>else.
We also have a grey w/ melanoma's Our vet has said not to operate for
much the same reason. I'm not using tagamet (way too expensive for me)
and instead just hoping I have the horse for a long time w/o it. I don't
know how the tagamet is supposed to work so I don't know if the vinegar
would interrupt it. I do know that melanomas are a long term problem but
that stones kill a horse more quickly. I choose to treat for the stones
and let the melanoma's go.

Oogie McGuire - oogiem@dsrtweyr.com
Weyr Associates - Multimedia and Web Authoring Services & Consulting
Desert Weyr - CMK Arabian horses & saddle mules for endurance and show
http://www.dsrtweyr.com/~desertweyr/