Managing Dehydration, Exhaustion in Horses (AAEP 2012)

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By Erica Larson, News Editor • Feb 25, 2013 • Article #31371

Horses can lose up to 15 liters of sweat per hour during strenuous exercise, leaving them in a precarious metabolic balance that cold water hosing alone can't touch. At the 2012 American Association of Equine Practitioners convention, held Dec. 1-5 in Anaheim, Calif., Emma Adam, BVetMed, Dipl. ACVIM, ACVS, an equine practitioner performing research at the University of Kentucky Maxwell H. Gluck Equine Research Center, described ways veterinarians can manage severe dehydration and exhaustion in the field setting.

Why Sweat?

"Muscular activity is the best engine ever designed," Adam began, in her overview of sweating's purpose and effects. However, like any engine, it generates a great deal of heat that the body must eliminate; it does this by drawing it to the skin surface and dissipating it in sweat...

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