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RE: [RC] Hydration/Angie - heidiOverhydrated, or underelectrolyted? The way I understand it, the mix is important and it's better to have the right "mix" and less of it than to have extra water that dilutes the mix (intracellular fluid?) Very simple layman (my) visual image. Am I right in that thinking? If this horse had the electrolytes in it...would this same amount of water have been "to much"? Elytes are not a magic bullet. You can pump in all the elytes you want and still have a horse die from too much fluid. ti Tom is right on the money with this one. When you start messing with large doses of e-lytes, you mess up the "mix"--or what is more accurately called the tonicity of the body fluid. First you get it too concentrated, and the horse responds by drinking, and the teeter-totter starts. E-lyting really takes good knowledge and skill. And I've seen all too many horses have to pull because they were given too many e-lytes and then DIDN'T drink. Another consideration is that for the horse to pump e-lytes onto the proper side of cell membranes where they belong, there also has to be energy available. Those little pumping mechanisms in cell membranes don't just work automatically. Some compartments of body fluid have more potassium, some have more sodium, etc.--and THAT balance has to be there in order for the horse to stay alive. If he doesn't have enough energy, giving him e-lytes can really mess up that balance. If a horse is eating well, he will not only keep up his energy levels, but he will also consume considerable e-lytes, as they are a natural part of food. There's been so much math out there calculating how much of various e-lytes that horses lose in sweat, and too many people look at those numbers and start shoving those amounts down the poor horse's gullet. But if the horse is eating really well, he will actually consume more e-lytes than he loses. I've done the math on that, and my horses that eat upwards of 40 lbs of hay per day consume more than adequate e-lytes to make up for the losses on the charts provided by the people who have done the math on that. So even horses that don't eat quite that well will take in a considerable amount of e-lytes, and don't need near as much replacement as what too many vets are advocating. Additionally, if the horse is running out of gas, it may be literally that--he needs calories, not e-lytes. And if he gets some calories on board, chances are he can start pumping e-lytes back onto the proper sides of cell membranes, and will do just fine in that regard as well. Heidi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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