# Drinking Seawater?



## DancingArabian (Jul 15, 2011)

Horses should not drink seawater. It can kill a human!


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## waresbear (Jun 18, 2011)

A few mouthfuls here & there haven't harmed me yet! No, not on purpose!
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Reno Bay (Jul 8, 2012)

A few mouthfuls won't kill him, but I wouldn't let your horse drink a lot of it regularly.

The reason sea water is so dangerous, aside from all the other chemicals in it, is that the body tries to compensate for all the salt by taking water out of its own cells to keep hydrated. It would take a substantial amount of sea water for this to happen though. In essence, drinking salty water will net you 0 in hydration and may actually _de_hydrate you if you drink too much of it. Make sure he gets plenty of fresh water to compensate for whatever salt water he ingested. He should be fine.


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## Sharpie (May 24, 2009)

Yes, generally speaking, you are all correct. I am speaking in the case of a horse who is sweating though- a hard working and sweating horse loses more salt than water, so after work (before drinking or salt) they wind up with a loss of total free water and a loss of salt, so that the salt in their blood is actually LESS concentrated than it should be, along with less volume than there should be (due to the free water loss).

This is the opposite of humans, where our blood salt levels get MORE concentrated as we loose the water in sweat. That high concentration triggers thirst, which is why horses that are dehydrated from sweating don't tend to drink- their blood electrolyte concentrations are actually already too low, and drinking too much straight (fresh) water will dilute the concentration further. A study also found that when offered salt water, horses drank more water total after heavy exercise. (Drinking salt water enhances rehydration ... [Equine Vet J Suppl. 2002] - PubMed - NCBI) 

I was wondering if, given that, sea water would really be so bad? I hadn't thought about the toxins and all of that though, which makes it an obvious YES!


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## iRide Ponies (Aug 10, 2012)

I think your horse knows better than anyone if your horse wanted to drink the water, then it was fine to drink. Short of a half-dead, emaciated horse who has no other options, I have found a horse will simply refuse to drink bad water.

Don't let him have too much of it tho.


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