# Frog eggs



## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

No. If the horse drinks up the eggs accidentally they'll hatch into tadpoles in his stomach, which can cause colic. 

I'm lying. I'm sure it's okay.


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## Celeste (Jul 3, 2011)

The main thing is to be sure that the water is clean and fresh.


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## george the mule (Dec 7, 2014)

Equine batrachian caviar ;-)


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

My horses drank around dove guts in their trough. Dang ravens killed the neighbor's doves and cleaned them up in the trough. My dog must've been in the house, he patrols the water trough for ravens. Anyways, horses lived, seemed fine, looks like they might've drank some raven poop too.


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## horseluvr2524 (Sep 17, 2013)

waresbear said:


> My horses drank around dove guts in their trough. Dang ravens killed the neighbor's doves and cleaned them up in the trough. My dog must've been in the house, he patrols the water trough for ravens. Anyways, horses lived, seemed fine, looks like they might've drank some raven poop too.


Oh my lord that must have been disgusting. The only thing I would have worried about is the deadly bacteria growing from the dead and rotting material. If the trough was dealt with not too long after though, then it should have been fine. Obviously was, since your horses were OK. Glad they were OK!

OP, I wouldn't worry about frog eggs. Just make sure to clean your water trough regularly. Don't let it get so bad it looks like a pond. Apple cider vinegar can help kill algae if you pour enough in the water, and won't hurt your horse. Or just dump it on the algae after you empty the trough before you scrub it, and the algae dies right away and comes right off. The tadpoles may help clean the trough too lol. But again, I hope your trough gets dumped and scrubbed at least once a month, if not every couple weeks. At the DIY stable I used to board at, a couple of the boarders never dumped and scrubbed their waters. The water smelled quite bad. Their horses didn't like to drink it and didn't drink very much water at all (especially bad as it was in the desert).


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

I check it all the time, those ravens are relentless. I had to swap out the large stock tank to a smaller trough because I had to dump it daily, what a waste of water! One time last year, I found a piece of a dead snake, ewwww. Those horrid birds leave in the winter, only decent thing about winter around here!


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## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

I'd be more concerned about the quality of the water. I dump out the water from my outside water trough daily, and rinse it. Once a week or so, I scrub it with a brush. Horses much prefer drinking fresh, clean water. 

This is why I don't use a huge water trough. I'd rather use a small one that I can easily dump, refilling it daily. I'm not a fan of those huge ones that look like bathtubs. They get pretty gross because they're too hard to clean. That said, I only have two horses so I understand that it may not be practical if you have a large number of horses.


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## blue eyed pony (Jun 20, 2011)

Acadianartist said:


> I'm not a fan of those huge ones that look like bathtubs. They get pretty gross because they're too hard to clean.


I have literally used a bathtub!

If you raise it off the ground and use a plug to plug the plug hole (lol) instead of just sealing it, you can clean them out easily. I had three horses on one bathtub trough and I think it got gross once in 3 years.

I do live in Australia and between the 3 they drained it daily over summer.


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## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

blue eyed pony said:


> I have literally used a bathtub!
> 
> If you raise it off the ground and use a plug to plug the plug hole (lol) instead of just sealing it, you can clean them out easily. I had three horses on one bathtub trough and I think it got gross once in 3 years.
> 
> I do live in Australia and between the 3 they drained it daily over summer.


Great idea about the plug! Yes, I understand that in some cases, you need something bigger. As long as you can and DO clean it regularly, that's fine. I prefer to fill mine a little more often and keep it small, but I have two small horses. 

I have just seen way too many of these big troughs green with algae. I certainly wouldn't want to drink out of them.


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## blue eyed pony (Jun 20, 2011)

Acadianartist said:


> I have just seen way too many of these big troughs green with algae. I certainly wouldn't want to drink out of them.


This is why I don't really like troughs that fill themselves, it's too easy to just not look at them & then have them end up really gross. I need to clean my mare's automatic trough out really well sometime soon. I'm on self care so I have to do it, I can't just palm it off - much as I'd love to!


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

I'm more surprised that the frogs are able to jump into the water trough and then be able to climb back out. 
If the frog spawn turns to tadpoles you're going to have a trough full of baby frogs at some point in time!


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

Algae in and of itself in a tank is not an issue. Your trough is its own ecosystem and given the right conditions will regulate itself and water quality will not be an issue. Where it becomes an issue is when there is too much nutrient matter (typically phosphorous) that causes the algae to bloom. The bloom itself takes care of the nutrient overload but once it consumes the overload it dies off depleting the oxygen (which it put there in the first place), causing foul odors, scummy conditions and releasing toxins that can cause issues. We have kept gold fish in the tank to help with overgrowth (algae uses the fish poop to grow, fish eat the algae and produce poop) but one of the drafts liked to catch them and swish them around in her mouth then spit them back out. Pretty hard on the fish.


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

Acadianartist said:


> Great idea about the plug! Yes, I understand that in some cases, you need something bigger. As long as you can and DO clean it regularly, that's fine. I prefer to fill mine a little more often and keep it small, but I have two small horses.
> 
> I have just seen way too many of these big troughs green with algae. I certainly wouldn't want to drink out of them.


This reminds of when my daughter kept her horse at my place for a bit until their house sale was final. She brought over her big water trough. Had a spot for the de-icer, held lots of water. In the dead of winter, HER mare pooped in it. It was at least -25C out, I totally missed the drain plug at the bottom of the tank. So here I am, freezing my hands, had to run inside every few minutes, bailing out water so it was light enough to dump over, clean out and refill. It was brutal, chapped my hands! I tell her about it and she say Oh Muth-er, there is a drain at the bottom! DUH! Kept that in mind when I got a big stock tank. Right now I use the smaller dump-easy trough because those horrible ravens, everyday, dump, scrub, refill.


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

Avna said:


> No. If the horse drinks up the eggs accidentally they'll hatch into tadpoles in his stomach, which can cause colic.
> 
> I'm lying. I'm sure it's okay.


:rofl: My grandmother used to say to me, when I was little, "Be careful not to accidentally swallow an apple pip when you're eating an apple, or you'll get an apple tree growing in your stomach and branches coming out of your mouth!"

Frogs laying eggs indicates good water quality.  Accidental ingestion = extra protein!


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

QtrBel said:


> ...We have kept gold fish in the tank to help with overgrowth (algae uses the fish poop to grow, fish eat the algae and produce poop) but one of the drafts liked to catch them and swish them around in her mouth then spit them back out. Pretty hard on the fish.


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


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## Avna (Jul 11, 2015)

Acadianartist said:


> Great idea about the plug! Yes, I understand that in some cases, you need something bigger. As long as you can and DO clean it regularly, that's fine. I prefer to fill mine a little more often and keep it small, but I have two small horses.
> 
> I have just seen way too many of these big troughs green with algae. I certainly wouldn't want to drink out of them.


Nothing wrong with algae. All algae is edible and safe. Not that there aren't Other Things in those big troughs. :shock:


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

I especially love algae in this form:











Most of our algae in Australia are fine in water, although we do have a few toxic ones to watch out for, associated with nutrient overload as others have pointed out already! The fish and the frogs make excellent canaries in the coalmine, but it's probably better if you have horses that don't enjoy gargling with them! ;-)


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

Avna said:


> Nothing wrong with algae. All algae is edible and safe. Not that there aren't Other Things in those big troughs. :shock:


A relative used to say, when I asked which mushrooms are edible: "All mushrooms are edible, some of them only once." ;-)

_Other Things_! :rofl:


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## Allison Finch (Oct 21, 2009)

Let the frogs mature in the tanks. It will not hurt the horses and tadpole eat algae. The frogs, when mature, are great for keeping insect pests at bay, including FLIES!! Encourage the frogs to keep laying eggs there by not dumping all the water. Just refill until they are grown and gone. 

I have two troughs that I use to attract frogs.


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

We love our frogs. These are Motorbike Frogs, named after their calls. Good on Allison and others for trying to attract them and provide habitat! 


Young Motorbike Frog – Red Moon Sanctuary, Redmond, Western Australia by Brett and Sue Coulstock, on Flickr



Motorbike Frog – Red Moon Sanctuary, Redmond, Western Australia by Brett and Sue Coulstock, on Flickr


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

I think she thought they would clean her teeth......


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## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

QtrBel said:


> Algae in and of itself in a tank is not an issue. Your trough is its own ecosystem and given the right conditions will regulate itself and water quality will not be an issue. Where it becomes an issue is when there is too much nutrient matter (typically phosphorous) that causes the algae to bloom. The bloom itself takes care of the nutrient overload but once it consumes the overload it dies off depleting the oxygen (which it put there in the first place), causing foul odors, scummy conditions and releasing toxins that can cause issues. We have kept gold fish in the tank to help with overgrowth (algae uses the fish poop to grow, fish eat the algae and produce poop) but one of the drafts liked to catch them and swish them around in her mouth then spit them back out. Pretty hard on the fish.


Hilarious!!!


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## george the mule (Dec 7, 2014)

QtrBel said:


> We have kept gold fish in the tank to help with overgrowth (algae uses the fish poop to grow, fish eat the algae and produce poop) but one of the drafts liked to catch them and swish them around in her mouth then spit them back out. Pretty hard on the fish.


Lest this seem rather unlikely, consider that in Iceland, they used to (maybe still do for all I know), feed their horses dried fish in the winter. Tibetans fed them goat or yak blood mixed with milk.

https://thehorseaholic.com/the-forgotten-story-of-meat-eating-horses/

There is a great deal of evidence that horses may exhibit carnivorous traits, and their digestive system _is_ capable of processing animal protein, just so as you know . . .

This is a very interesting, and well researched book, and absolutely not a joke. Well worth the $15 or $20 it takes to score a copy from Amazon or wherever. Trust yer buddy on this one 

Deadly Equines: The Shocking True Story of Meat-Eating & Murderous Horses


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

QtrBel said:


> I think she thought they would clean her teeth......


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Like in this situation? ;-)











Dear @QtrBel, did your mare watch David Attenborough documentaries as a hobby?


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## Zexious (Aug 2, 2013)

This is not the direction I expected this thread to take xD
I love it!


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

Hello @Zexious! :wave:

The scenic road is so much nicer than the freeway, isn't it? ;-)


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## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

She would be the one to open doors and come in to watch TV so who knows what she saw on PBS...


I always take the scenic route when possible. Taking a short bypass, we had a Master Environmentalist (yea right I have a Master's so they won't hire me - but put someone that can barely read the cards on the podium to teach youngsters) come to introduce the issue of invasive species. My co teacher gets all excited because she has "native bamboo" (again yea, no.) and she knows this because it has been on the creek for decades. But I got to thinking about the canebreaks (North America's native "bamboo") that were used to feed livestock, including horses, in the winters when I was growing up. Now they are all gone. Burned out and replaced with pasture or farming. @*SueC* I think I found the answer to what to use for shelter belts. Now to find a source that actually has the cane and not some look alike.


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

QtrBel said:


> My co teacher gets all excited because she has "native bamboo" (again yea, no.) and she knows this because it has been on the creek for decades.


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Re hiring practices, reminds me of the old maxim, "The cerebral capacity of the primary producer is inversely proportional to the size of the tubers he grows in his field." ;-)


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## Celeste (Jul 3, 2011)

My pony used to steal my sandwiches if I wasn't careful. Ham, roast, chicken. It didn't matter to her.


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