# Urine, urine, gallons of urine



## lchad (Oct 26, 2010)

I folks! Been a very long time since I've been here.  

I'm having a problem in my barn with massive amounts of urine. The stalls are drenched and no matter what I do, I cannot get it dry. 

History:
I have a 15+ year old barn with a cement slab with 3/4" rubber mats in all stalls. I use shavings to bed. My horses are out on pasture all day. The pasture is fertilized and very lush and healthy. The water content in the grass is high. So they come in at night and pee gallons. (Sorry this is crude):shock: 

I use a generous amount of shavings and the mats and floor under the mats are drenched. I have tried more shavings which is expensive which didn't fix the issue. I have tried "stall dry" which is a clay-like powder. It helped a bit but urine still makes it's way under the mats

Obviously this is not healthy and I'm sick of it. I have tried pulling the mats, washing out, only to be flooded the next day. My mats are old. They are almost 16 years old. Is it just time to replace them and try for a tighter seams? There are some gaps. 

The foundation has settled over 16 years so I now have pee running into the aisle from one stall. Would love some feedback to help me resolve or at the very least improve my situation. 

Thanks so much for reading!


----------



## cakemom (Jul 4, 2010)

Put a layer of pellet bedding under your shavings. Soo much better for urine.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## SEAmom (Jan 8, 2011)

Have you tried the pelleted bedding and sawdust rather than shavings? IME, sawdust has been more absorptive than shavings. The pellets might work well with the sawdust and the Stall Dry stuff.


----------



## AQHSam (Nov 23, 2011)

I've used a layer of lime in my dog kennels to control odor. maybe a layer of lime over the cement followed by a layer of sawdust or pellets? Unfortunately with the cement there is not much you can do since it has nowhere to drain.


----------



## Saddlebag (Jan 17, 2011)

Have you considered leaving the horses out overnight and letting them pee au natural? That would eliminate the problem. They'd probably prefer being outside.


----------



## lchad (Oct 26, 2010)

I have not tried pelleted bedding. is this like Woody Pet? Will give that a try! Thank you. I like my horses in at night. No one is picking on another and I don't have to worry about wild animals.


----------



## SEAmom (Jan 8, 2011)

I think the barn where I board uses Equine Fresh pelleted bedding, but I imagine it all works pretty well the same. I agree that a layer of lime at the base may help, too.


----------



## lchad (Oct 26, 2010)

Thank you everyone. I will try the pelleted bedding.


----------



## GrittyCowgirl (Oct 21, 2009)

I had this problem as well and started pulling my mats every few weeks and sprinkling lyme underneath them, it really draws all the moisture out and helps keep it dry but it is a back breaking job. It did help a little but the biggest impact was switching my bedding to local sawdust from a lumber mill. It really absorbs the urine and keeps it contained to a small spot rather than being able to flow everywhere. Its also much easier to pick out my stalls now and I have MUCH less wasted bedding (even my manure pile is smaller and breaks down faster!!! ). In my area one pickup truck load does roughly about 5 12x12 stalls a week for only $20 but you can usually get them delivered in larger quantities for under $100.

I also tried pelleted bedding too. It worked well but was not cost effective for me and too time consuming as each bag has to be watered down in order to puff up and absorb urine (if not you are left with rock hard pellets that are hard to walk on and roll all over the place so I can only imagine what my horses would think of them). Plus when you water them and they puff up and break apart, they literally turn into a pile of fine sawdust!!! It took 5-6 bags to do my 12x12 stalls and only lasted about 1 week for my really messy guys. I'm sure you can find youtube videos on pellet bedding to help you decide what would be best for you. Depending on where you are it may be more cost effective for you, just wasn't for me. That being said however, I would use pellets any day over shavings after seeing how much better they absorb and how much easier and less time consuming it was cleaning stalls.


----------



## lchad (Oct 26, 2010)

Thank you GrittyCowgirl! Glad to know someone else has/had the same problem. I would also pull my mats and it was pointless. Just flooded the next day.

I have started using Stall Dry and that has helped. I am going to try pelleted bedding in one stall and see how it is and how much it costs. This is so frustrating. Thanks again.


----------



## Kayella (Feb 11, 2012)

My yearling is the King of pee. He drinks 15 gallons in less than 24 hours and drenches his stall in one day. I put the pellets where he pees the most, wet them to fluff them up, then the micro mini flakes on top of that. I don't have mats, the flooring of his stall is dirt. I rarely ever stall him(only during crazy thunderstorms) so I don't have to worry about it constantly but I would love something to help keep him from swimming in his own pee. It doesn't help that he pees where he sleeps, either. :lol:
_Posted via Mobile Device_


----------



## GrittyCowgirl (Oct 21, 2009)

lchad said:


> Thank you GrittyCowgirl! Glad to know someone else has/had the same problem. I would also pull my mats and it was pointless. Just flooded the next day.
> 
> I have started using Stall Dry and that has helped. I am going to try pelleted bedding in one stall and see how it is and how much it costs. This is so frustrating. Thanks again.


I also forgot to add that two of my stalls on the ends of my barn had poor drainage no matter what bedding I used. A friend helped me brainstorm and I finally tried spreading out sand (about 1-1.5" thick) over the entire stall under the floor mats and this REALLY helped! The urine drains into the sand without running into my aisle, dries over time and for some reason has helped with the smell. I ended up doing this to all my stalls and my older horses love it ( I have 2 retired horses with arthritic joints and it really helped give extra cushion and less stiffness in the cooler months rather than just the matted concrete floors). I'm not sure about your stall mats but mine fully cover my stall floors and don't have any gaps anywhere so my horses ingesting it isn't a huge worry. So if a new bedding type doesn't help 100% you may try this in one stall to see if it works for you. If not, you can always add the sand to your high traffic areas in the winter months or riding area. (Sorry for the book like reply!!! lol) Good luck! :wave:


----------



## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

We have sand under our mats too - but ours are laid onto crushed stone and not concrete and we used sand to level the floor - definitely drains better than concrete which is only really OK if its laid to on slight slope so the pee goes off into a drainage system and you then have to use rubber mats that have channels in them on the underside- the pee just gets trapped between it and the rubber if not
Deep shavings and pellets mixed is about your only real solution that I can see other than taking up all the concrete
Sweet PDZ seems to remove smells better than Stall Dry.


----------



## lchad (Oct 26, 2010)

Thank you ladies!! You've all helped me very much!! Sand might be a good option for me too!


----------



## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

Of course you could always restrict their access to so much of that lush grazing by fencing them off on to a smaller area


----------



## apachiedragon (Apr 19, 2008)

If you are at the point of replacing your mats, you might want to look into stall skins. Instead of having seams, they are designed to fit the entire stall floor and be waterproof. I haven't personally used them, but it seems they would work better over something like concrete that doesn't drain, as it would keep the urine on top where it could be soaked up. I haven't compared the price of stall skins vs rubber mats, but I would imagine it would be similar. Just a thought.


----------



## lchad (Oct 26, 2010)

Oh yes.... I looked into those. I think the skins are the best direction. Thanks for reminding me.


----------

