Tips for hot weather care Heat Can Kill: High temperatures combined with dehydration, exhaustion, and heat stroke can cause serious illness and death. Take steps to protect both yourself and your horse during competition, trailering, and trail riding. Drink Water: Allow your horse access to water at all times. Drink plenty of water. Hot horses drinking cool water do not experience colic or other medical issues; however, dehydrated horses can have serious medical illness such as gastrointestinal impaction and shock. Encourage drinking at every opportunity- between classes or from a creek on the trail. Sometimes a little hay will encourage water intake. You can also make a slurry out of pelleted food to get extra water into your horse. Shade: Provide as much shade as possible. Limit: Limit activity during peak heat periods. Instead, ride in the morning or later in the evening, shorten your ride, take frequent breaks and ride more slowly. Also encourage drinking. Ventilation: Open vents and windows on trailers- but don’t let your horse hang his head out while on the road. Fatigue and Overheating: Stop before your horse gets worse. Persistent elevation of the respiratory rate and effort is the first sign. A change in mentation, decreased energy, and reluctance to continue are other signs to consider. Also look for dry gums, elevated CRT- the time for color to return to normal after pushing on the gums (>2 seconds)- and check them periodically. Then listen to the intestinal sounds before your start and during your activity. If any of these signs are present, it is a warning to cease activity, and monitor closely to determine if veterinary intervention is warranted. Ventilation: increase air circulation in the barn by use of fans in front of the stall or in the isle way. Be sure to keep electric cords out of your horse’s reach. Hose: Cold water poured over your horse removes heat via convection and evaporation. Using a sweat scraper to remove the water as it warms is quite effective prior to additional hosing. This is a very effective means to lower body temperature. Water Source: Keep water available for your horse. Use clean 5 gallon cans when you travel. (Are you noticing a trend, here?) Electrolytes: Electrolytes are helpful when there has been heavy sweating. They may also encourage drinking. Only use electrolytes made for horses. Trailering: Travel in the cool parts of the day whenever possible. Take your horse off once parked; temperatures rise quickly in the trailer’s interior (>140F) and can cause heat stroke. Provide plenty of ventilation while on the road. Fox Run Equine Center foxrunequine
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 23:41:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015