ridecamp@endurance.net: Re: urination problems

Re: urination problems

Dinah (dinah@vermontel.com)
Sun, 01 Jun 1997 17:05:28 -0400

Dear Liz,
>Anyone have any advice, info, thoughts on this? How are everybody
>else's horses at this weeing thing? Are we in serious trouble?
A couple of thoughts spring to mind; please realize they are humbly given,
personal and with no research backing them up. :-)
First, I would consider how much electrolytes I am giving for the job required.
You said your horse was only lightly sweating at a distance of 16+/- miles.
If the ambient temp/humidity and Basil's rate of speed were reasonable, then
perhaps he was suffering from too much electrolytes.
In my experience, horses will become "irritated" if they are
over-electrolyted. The behaviour (just practicing my U.K. spelling ;-) is
much as you describe -- wanting to but not able to -- almost like a bladder
infection. Sometimes the horses urinate more often (in small amounts) than
is "normal" for the individual.
I have also seen it in mares (long before we heard of electro-whats?). We
thought it was from holding on too long before urinating.
On to the absurdities of the sport of distance riding: our horses are
trained to go when we whistle.
I must admit this is a tricky subject to write about if I think that a
non-equestrian might read it . . . .
I would be interested in more details: what you are giving for electrolytes,
quantity, speed at which you trained when it happened, willingness, etc.
Perhaps some chemists/vets/researchers on the list could tell us both what
happens internally when we "pickle" our mounts.
Dinah

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