Re: TM salt blocks

[Susan Evans Garlinghouse <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

Tamara Putman wrote:
> 
> What about the yellow sulfur/salt combo blocks?  My horse licked/ate about a
> pounds worth in the last week.  The only think I've noticed is his liquid
> intake as about doubled judging from how often I fill his water tub and he
> is consequently urinating more, which make keeping his run and stall clean a
> little more difficult.  There's no way I can afford a blood panel every time
> I make a tiny change to his feed, but I am wondering about the sulfur.  Any
> thoughts or opinions?


Your horse won't ingest enough sulfur to hurt him even if he ate it all
day long.  Sulphur is one of the minerals that (in horses) doesn't cause
problems if overfed and doesn't interfere with absorption of the other
minerals.  Horses don't absorb inorganic sulphur very well, so most of
what he's eating is being excreted in the urine and feces, anyway.  He
might be eating more just because he likes the taste more than he does
the TM salt.  You might try giving him a plain salt block and see if he
still eats as much.  Some horses just eat tons of salt out of boredom. 
An average horse needs about 30 grams (about 2 Tablespoons) of NaCl
daily for maintenance (work will obviously increase this alot).  If your
horse continues eating much more than that, it won't hurt him, just
increases his water intake and urine output (as you've already
noticed).  If that's the case, you might want to add loose salt to his
feed and not allow free access except after a workout---it'll cut down
on the excess peeing, but you really have to pay attention to make sure
he doesn't become salt-deficient.

Hope this helps.

Susan G