I should have put my brain in gear about one month ago to share this, but it is often not until ´something´ occurs that brains do go into gear! This summer started early, someone really cranked up the temperature at the beginning of June, and has been going on brutally getting hotter since then. This past month I have been adding extra lytes to all the horses feed (MagS, Glucose,Sodium etc) to be sure they keep well hydrated. Despite this, yesterday one of our horses got heat stroke. I´m not a vet (And the vet was none the wiser), but normal temp, normal heart rate, normal poop, yet racing respiration and conking out flat in the middle of the arena could only be explained as heat stroke. Quite a scare! Fortunately we have electrolytes in concentrate form for Endurance, so a shot of those, a long cool shower, constantly removing the water from the horse (which was instantly boiling hot!) and then my brain truly engaged and I remembered our Arctic Blast rugs. Quick dash to the barn office, empty a refill into the insulated bag the rug is stored in, shake, immediately drape over the horse and the ice cold liquid (with no freezing or chilling) is instantly drawing the heat from the horse, who recovered in no time - thank heavens! This horse is extremely fit, and only did a gentle early morning hack (before the heat picked up), so be aware. Having the Arctic Blast rug saved our bacon yesterday. I have a few in stock (with refills) from when I used to sell them, if anyone is interested. Also an ideal standby in case of equine influenza causing fever, or a colic, as they all require the temperature of the horse bringing down to aid recovery. |
Comments are closed.
|
AuthorRandom, though a perfectionist, is probably how family and close friends would describe me. I won´t settle for second best for my horses, whilst I´ll happily go without. Do they mean more to me than my beautiful daughter? Not quite :) Archives
November 2017
Categories |