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Re: [RC] Apple cider - heidiDepends on the alkaline buffers the vinegar has to overcome. If you get down to the chemical equations, you have to feed a LOT of vinegar to affect the hindgut pH in the slightest. Which makes sense, given that the normal pH of the stomach is 10,000 times more acidic than any vinegar, and yet the pancreas has no trouble whatsoever neutralizing it back to 7. Wouldn't put much (or any) stock in apple cider vinegar for anything other than masking the flavor of "strange" water. Again, "enterolithology" is not my field, and I'm out on a limb here, but I was under the impression that it wasn't the pH that was the issue here, but something else altogether about the apple cider vinegar. Clearly if it was the pH, any old acid would do, and the stomach has most of them beat anyway. And from what I vaguely recall, the feeding of apple cider vinegar was not a general preventative for enteroliths, and was only useful with specific hays--some of the specific types of bermuda that had issues, as I recall. I know this was explained to me in great detail by a vet down in your neck of the woods (Ramona or somewhere in that neighborhood), Susan, and it made sense to me at the time, but the chemistry of it didn't stick in my mind. I'm just grateful to live in an area where we don't have to deal with them, and where the only ones I've seen were the ones on display in the vet school museum at WSU... :-) Heidi (who knew there were LOTS of reasons why she didn't want to move to California... <g>) ============================================================ There are 2 ways to win at this sport. You take a horse and race him for a short time and then find a new horse or you can take one horse , do the homework and spend many miles and years enjoying that horse. ~ Paddi Sprecher ridecamp.net information: http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/ ============================================================
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