August 29, 2003 H20 I tell students of veterinary medicine that half of my education was the 6 years at the university and the other half was the first six months in practice. I also remember my boss, Dr. Ralph Molnau told me many times during those first six months, "look for the easy answers first". At a Friday noon conference, I was struggling with an cow that had dropped in milk production, was off feed, no elevated temperature, good membrane color, reduced stool, no obvious external or internal lesions, breathing was normal, etc. I was advised to try some pills to stimulate intestinal movement and maybe some mineral oil. When I would catch a cow with a nose leader, I had a habit of sticking the leader in the water cup next to the cow. This time was no different except I found out the water cup was not working. The cow was tied in the stall with no access to water. After 10-15 gallons of water in a pail, the cow resumed eating and returned to normal body functions. The lack of good, clean, fresh water became the most frustrating thing I saw in equine practice. On bad days, I have asked the owner to get me a glass and then proceed to ask them if they would drink the water they expected their horse to drink. Can you imagine that water fountain at work with one tin cup for everyone to use and not being cleaned for a week or a month? What if some of those people chewed snuff , had a runny nose, you get my point. Water is the primary ingredient in the structure of the horse body. It is important for sweating when hot, allowing the kidney to function in removing toxic substances from the system, helping the gastro-intestinal system move and digest food in the GI tract. There are many more but these are what veterinarians see most often as possible causes of death in horses starved for water. Dehydration because of no water available is just stupid! My first choice of making water available to a horse is a bucket located close to the ground. If you check your horse twice a day, keep the water bucket clean, and make sure there is some water left at the next feeding, you will be doing a good job. Some have chosen to go with automatic waterers and they work fine if there is an easy way to keep them clean of feed stuffs. Remember the water glass? Rivers, lakes, creeks, etc. are fine if they are clean of environmental or disease contamination's. The biggest untruth out there is that snow is good enough in the winter as a water source. Remember it takes about ten times as much volume to equal water. Also consider the calories of energy that is needed to take water in the solid or frozen state to liquid and then raise it to 99.5 degrees, the temperature of the horses body. In the winter, the horse also must maintain his body at 99.5 degrees in the outside environment. As you buy energy to keep your house warm, the horse must also source energy to keep his body warm. Using snow or a frozen bucket of water as a source of water is asking too much. Water comes out of the ground at about 55 degrees year around and this is good for the horse in the summer and in the winter. We have a good supply of good quality water in this part of the country. It is the cheapest ingredient in your horses diet don't cheat him here or the rest of your efforts will be in vain. |
