Taking Care of Livestock and Ranch Animals in the Cold

In the Sheridan area, many people raise cattle for profit, and have horses for ranch work or for pleasure riding. Here are some tips for keeping livestock and ranch animals healthy during the extreme cold that that recently blew into the area.

Dr. Sarah Schreiber of Moxey Schreiber Veterinarian Hosptial of Sheridan had these tips to keep your livestock and ranch animals healthy during the extreme cold weather. She said that open water is more critical than anything for range horses and cattle.

She added that if you feed them any supplemental feed at all, make sure they are drinking water, “We see so many colics this time of year, because the horses aren’t drinking well, but we continue to feed them. However, when we feed them more, they often can’t get enough water to adequately process that.”

Keeping the water open in the winter can be a challenge. But there are several different types of tank heaters available to help and keep the ice melted out of the stock tanks. One can also chop water, especially in creeks or stock ponds.

When asked about blanketing horses, Schreiber said, “If they have no way of getting out of the wind, a blanket could be helpful.”

She added that if one does blanket their horse, it is best to have them near where they can be observed if the horse gets hung up or down one can get the blanket off them. Horses are made to withstand these temperatures, as long as they can get out of the wind.

She also said that it was best to let the horses go barefoot in the winter, and snowballs in the feet are more common in shod horses than unshod horses.

For barn cats and ranch dogs they need a place to get out of the wind, any kind of shelter helps during the cold, windy weather. Ranch dogs if they are used to being inside, make sure they have access to shelter. Some breeds of dogs actually prefer this type of weather, Schreiber said.

As long as they have good food and water and some kind of shelter, they can handle this weather fairly well. Blankets or straw are good to keep them from laying directly on the frozen ground inside their shelter.

She added again to avoid feeding your the horses more during the cold, feed them a little less to avoid colic. She said that most wild horses just wait out storms like this, and when the storm is over, they will catch back up on their food intact.

By taking extra precautions, ranch animals will weather the snow, cold and winter storms fine.