Hello, I have had wonderful advice from you before so I thought I would run this by you. I just moved my horse home for the first time and I am having water problems with him. We have well water that is rusty/irony and he does not want to drink it. He normally drinks about a 5 gallon bucket a day and now he has only had a few inches in the last few days. I have been doing pinch tests on him to check for dehydration but so far he has not been tenting, but it is making me very nervous. Do you have and suggestions? Right now I have 3 bucket in with him; 1 with normal well water, 1 with well water and apple juice, and 1 with tap water from my work.

Thanks, Kelly

Hi Kelly,

Gee -- this is something that you need to pay close attention to and I commend you for looking into fixing the problem.

The first thing to be aware of is the iron content. It may be too high and this can cause problems with other minerals getting out of balance. Forage and pasture are very high in iron, and excessive iron can lead to a variety of health problems.

The easiest thing to do would be to have a filter placed on your water system to remove the excess minerals. But, he should be drinking at least 8 gallons of water each day, and preferably more, to avoid dehydration. By the time the skin tents, dehydration has progressed too far.

All the best,

Dr. Getty

Where are you from? Bayfield, CO