mollasses/mineral/calcium block for horse, hurt dog? - Page 1

started feeding out mineral block to mare to supplement her thru the dry season, dogs are biting off chunks and eating them, the blocks have much calcium (mainly) and multi minerals added.

stools did not change due to mollasses which i though would go straight thru them but nope, any problem consuming these concentrated minerals??

I would not worry about MOST blocks with ADULTS but I would not let pups touch them. I would worry more about what they were missing in their diets that they're interested in those at all, unless it's the softer blocks that are just full of sugar...

I use Himalyayan rock salt or the Redmond salt blocks or loose mineral/clay...look those up. I think you'll find that those might be what your mare needs. 

Some dogs have a sweet tooth.

i was concerned about the dogs having a mineral deficiency as well, seems unlikely given their raw diet and occasional royal canon 4800 (not available in US i think).

this is a starter block high in mollasses and soft-ish, after a month i switch to a harder block with less calcium and more wider balance of minerals. the hard blocks are unchewable, they are lick blocks.

will chat to the vet about it.

thanx

Dogs seem to love the molasses in horse feed.  I've had them eat the blocks and the actual grain.  I always limited their intake because an imbalance of calcium to phosphors is the real danger to their bodies.  The hard blocks they would occasionally lick on to. I always assumed that was because of the salt content.  I never had a problem as long as I limited their exposure and intake.

Yuck...no good reason for horse or dog to be injesting much molasses. I would definitely keep them away from those soft blocks. They can injest way too much, way too fast. 

Jenni,

For thee horses the molasses increases the palatibility so that the horses are willing to eat it. what you say is very true for the dogs.  They usually try and steal some when they'd come back in the barn and pastures with us. One of those dogs will be dogs things and we just tried to not make it a huge deal.

will limit their access to be safe, can verify the dogs will eat grain as well if it has trace mollasses.

the stools have not changed which is surprising.

another bigger issue is we have "invented" the Hendra virus here, goes from bats to horses to humans directly or to dogs then humans, kills people and gov kills dogs with it, i think only one dog has got it from a horse, scientists wanted to keep the dog as a precious resource to study but gov ordered it's death, nice much loved  family pet dog.

What is the hendra virus?

google is yr friend;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henipavirus

excerpt, a few hours from my shack, every horse in the state was ordered into lock down no matter ie no transport or movement even if you were caught at a show/on the road etc, a dog also got it and was destroyed.

Hendra virus (originally Equine morbillivirus) was discovered in September 1994 when it caused the deaths of thirteen horses, and a trainer at a training complex in Hendra, a suburb of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia.^[9]

from my gov, info;

http://www.daff.qld.gov.au/animal-industries/animal-health-and-diseases/a-z-list/hendra-virus/general-information/what-is-hendra-virus