Hi Diann:
I give all my horses oral electrolytes (of course I also live in AZ)..I
use to provide them with plain and mineral salt licks, but the more I
read about them, the less comfortable I felt with them. My understanding
is that they are really geared for cattle not horses. Then I started to
give them just regular electrolytes for horses, until I read somewhere
that there is alot of sugar added to them and that the salt used is so
processed that it's not that good for them either. So... now I have them
on something called Trace Lytes, which I'm very pleased with. It
contains: kelp, sea salt, yeast, diatomaceous earth, biotin and they get
these all year , not just in the summer.
However, I'm kind of curious about the free choice salt and minerals..I
understand ABC has those, anybody out there want to share their feelings
on that.
I'm still looking for Ester Vit C for Tamera( my cushings mare)..I
checked out Walmart,like someone suggested , but they only had bottles
of 90 tabs (500mg each)..I figured I'd have to give her 20 tabs twice
aday so I'm looking for other options. KV vet has some I may go with
them. I also read that brewer's yeast is a good source of thiamine but I
don't know how much to give her..maybe Belinda, the resident vet on the
list could advise us on that ,if she has time.
You all have a super week-end and holiday !!
Claire

My horse also started eating/licking his salt block excessively this
winter - had hardly touched it before nor his free choice salt. During
about a week time span he was seen frantically attacking it - literally -
and then was peeing and drinking alot of water. The vet was consulted and
that's how I came to find out he had Cushings. My vet said to leave the
salt block for his consumption and thought he'd reduce his requirements once
he was on permax. I also stopped a new-to-him supplement that I had started
over the winter and his salt/water consumption reduced significantly even
before the permax. (would go up when I tried to put him back on that
supplement even when he was on the permax) I'm not sure why Cushings horses
have the excessive thirst/peeing episodes, but I am suspicious that my horse
was trying to balance/cleanse out his system which the supplement was
throwing off. He is doing great in many ways now, but still eats more salt
than he ever did. I have both a salt only and a mineral block as well as
ABC's free choice mineral salt up for him and he prefers the salt only block
and sometimes the free choice mineral salt.

Take care, Makyla & 4-legged friends