feeding vinegar
zx Nick Warhol (nwarhol2@namerica.kla.com)
Fri, 22 Nov 1996 09:09:40 -0800
Seeing the post about vinegar and enteroliths brings back bad memories.
Judy's horse Warpaint has never suffered any ill effects from his
surgery to remove the stones. We learned about feeding vinegar from
the doctors at UC Davis, where his surgery was done. They stated there
was no real "proof" that vinegar helps, but in theory it should help
fight the formation of stones by slightly changing the chemical mix in
the horses guts. The acid in the vinegar reacts with the material which
make up the stones. They also said it certainly can't hurt the horse,
as long as the horse will eat the stuff. We worked our way up to about
a cup a day. We use apple cider vinegar, mostly because it smells
nice. Of our three horses, only two will eat the vinegar soaked feed.
(Warpaint will eat anything that is not moving) My old horse wont touch
it, and my young one does not seem to care one way or another. One hint
is to feed a couple cups of alfalfa pellets, and soak the vinegar into
these. We buy the vinegar at our local grocery store in gallon
bottles, which seem very inexpensive compared to the two gallon bottles
of corn oil we buy at the same time. The horses get about a cup of corn
oil a day as well, so the way I look at it we are giving them a nice
crimped oats, rice bran, and alfalfa pellet salad. (just need to find
some croutons)
Linda Cowles mentioned a nasty reaction her horse had to vinegar, but we
have never seen anything like that. I also do not see any advantage at
all in terms of repelling flies. We have plenty of the winged demons,
and there is no obvious difference when you feed only a cup of vinegar a
day.
Nick Warhol
Hayward, Ca.
Shatta the powerful who likes his daily salad, but prefers bran mash.
Rowan the old, who might prefer ranch dressing.