Re: heat fatigue and dark urine

[Teddy Lancaster <Teddy@runningbear.com>]

You remember my horse tied up at the Posse ride in Montana last September.  There were
super vets there...we put her on IV right away and there are no permanent damages.  BUT,
they key to that was the blood work done.  Draw blood right away...you can find out what
happened and prevent the same situation in the future as well as being educated enough
to know how best to treat the horse during the recovery time.

In my case, I withdrew alfalfa hay three days prior to the ride...thinking it was too
rich.  In actuality, I did not allow her body enough time to adjust to the hay change
and caused a calcium deficiency.

Teddy


Steph Teeter wrote:

> p.s.
>
> Any of the vets or experts out there want to comment on what effect over-heating
> has on the horse's metabolism? We pulled our older Orlov (my husband was riding
> him) at 40 miles. He pulsed down ok at the last check, but was very sluggish
> at the trot out and just looked plain tired. Didn't seem worth it to subject him to
> another 10 miles in the heat, but more important in our decision to pull him was
> that he peed a small amount of very dark urine. The reduced volume and the
> dark color looked like trouble.
>
> I later talked to several others who saw the same thing in their horses - no obvious
> muscle problems, just fatigue and dark urine... so what's going on to cause
> the dark urine? Must be some muscle tissue breakdown somewhere...
>
> comments??
>
> Steph