Electrolytes?

[harveydales]

The "chief vet" came to day to take Harvey's bloods for retesting and gave him a throrough looking over. He was very happy with how Harvey is moving and how his muscles feel to touch now and is hopeful the bloods will come back normal and I'll be able to start riding again.

The vet is convinced it was stress which caused Harvey's tying up episode, in this case the night of passion spent mounting Dolly. Apparently this is quite common. Looking back, Harvey has often reacted adversly to stress such as when Frankie got into his field. He either comes down with a virus or a skin allergy or, as happened this time, tying up.

The vet has left me with some Electrolytes - Azodine - and has told me to use them once or twice a week, more if there is a particularly stressful situation coming up. This is what he would give to the race horses he deals with who are prone to tying up. I wonder whether this is the same for Harvey? As I understand it, tying up is a symptom and can have a number of causes; EPSM is a genetic condition affecting makeup of muscle type found in many horses, particularly heavy breeds and quarter horses and one of the effects is that it predisposes horses to tying up.

What is the general opinion on giving electolytes to EPSM horses?

[harleydales]

I'm not a huge advocate of electrolytes fed in feed, as they can upset the balance if over fed. I've seen endurance horses fed with electrolytes in the feed or forced with a syringe end up with metabolic issues at the end of the ride and being vetted out, and it takes a long time to get it sorted once it's got out of kilter. I know generally endurance riders don't worry about electrolytes until they are up into the 30 mile rides at 7 mph; they tend to just feed table salt instead - which is the bulk of what is in branded electrolytes anyway.
Race horses are a totally different league to a Dales pony, both in their general demeanour and their daily lifestyle, but if that's what he recommends then all you can do is try it.

I don't know about electrolytes and EPSM - I would think it will be the same principle as for a 'normal' horse. I'd rather have a block in the field and give free access so they can self regulate - which Harley does, he goes at it when he's hot, tired or has been worked hard (and by hard I mean 20 miles and over), but if he's not doing much he doesn't bother with it at all.

You could try e-mailing Beth Valentine at Minnesota uni, she's good. Or have a look on the Facebook EPSM group and put a post on there, someone else might know more than me. Other folk will probably totally disagree with me!

[harleydales]

Here's a good page about electrolytes - with a bit about over-dosing.
www.tufts.edu/vet/sports/dehydration.html#be

[harveydales]

Thanks. Will do some reading up first. Interestingly, while Harvey was bad with the tying up, he spent a lot of time licking his Red Rockies and now he is barely touching it. Frankie, on the other hand, has suddenly started on his pink himalayan lick with a vengance while the others don't touch it and never have done.