>
>Which got me thinking. I think the post suggested adding a cup or so
>to the feed each day. Say you have two horses, so you end up using 14 cups of
>vinegar a week... where can you buy vinegar in these quantities?
Well we have 18 horses at our place right now and they all get vinegar
from day 8 to the end of each month. We go through just over a half
gallon a day. I buy gallons from Price Club or Smart and Final, depending
on who has the best prices. I have looked into buying it in larger
quantities but the next size up is 50 gallon drums and that is even a bit
much for me.
<smile>
>They stated there was no real "proof" that vinegar helps
Not entirely true. At Cornell they took stones removed from California
horses, put them into ponies there. Then they fed vinegar and carefully
measured the decrease in size of the stones. Vinegar does in fact
eventually dissolve enteroliths. The experiment found that an
intermitennt feeding of vinegar reduced the stones better than daily
application. Optimal seemed to be about 2 weeks on and one week off
vinegar.
BTW in response to other postings. I've been feeding vinegar for 6 years,
no noticable decrease in flies at all and no difference in palatability
between cider vinegar and plain white vinegar. In fact, if you carefully
check the cider vinegar label it's just plain vinegar to which they've
added back cider flavorings. So I buy whatever is cheapest, usually plain
distilled vinegar. Based on my experience it's an old wives tale that
cider vinegar decreases fly populations.
And on another note, we had one horse pass a stone. I'm not sure exactly
which horse, there were 3 in there at the time. It was not smooth like
most stones my vet removes at surgery but had started to dissolve. We
both felt that was indication the vinegar was working.
We do feed a small bit of bran to every horse each day they get vinegar.
The reason is we feed a pelleted grain and w/o the bran the vinegar runs
to the bottom of the bucket and the horses can't eat it. I feed less than
1/2 cup daily and haven't had any problems. We also feed exclusively
grass hay and so don't have the problems others do who feed alfalfa.
Oogie McGuire - oogiem@dsrtweyr.com
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