In the summer there is a lot to read about electrolytes and giving extra salt. Various media and magazines write about electrolytes. The message is mostly that a horse in warm weather actually cannot do without electrolytes to prevent it from drying out. But is that really so? Can't the horse supply this in a natural way? You can find the result of our search in this blog.
We have found articles saying that supplementing salt for normal horses is exaggerated. In the calculations we found you can see that this is not the case, you have to replenish salt quite quickly. It sometimes happens that owners think that when their horse is working hard that they need extra salt quickly. Another point is that the deviation, the min and max of sodium in roughage is large and the amount and quality of roughage that horses receive. More about this later… ..
What is salt?
The salt we are talking about in this article consists of a compound between sodium and chloride, hence the scientific name sodium chloride or NaCl. Other compounds can also be referred to as salt and it is a collective name for a whole range of chemical compounds that consist of metal atoms. Many salts are found in the earth and of course in the sea. Examples of salts are calcium, magnesium sulfate and of course our table salt. Table salt often only contains iodine, which is not wise to give to your horse. We will tell you which salts are.
What are electrolytes?
The minerals, Potassium, Sodium and Chlorine are the main electrolytes. They are seen as the driving force for water transport throughout the body. Without electrolytes, a horse's body cannot retain water. In addition, they also ensure the functioning of muscle and nerve tissue. These affect performance, fertility and appetite. In the gastrointestinal tract, sodium, potassium and chlorine are very well absorbed. Surpluses are excreted in the urine.
Minerals are essential for the horse. Natural food sources contain a lot of minerals and often the mutual relationships are well put together. A horse can choose freely in nature from different sources, grass, herbs, branches, leaves, etc.
Vegetable feed materials are relatively low in sodium, but rich in potassium and chlorine.
Sodium (as NaCl) is added in compound feeds.
The horse needs minerals for many bodily processes, including the skin, hair and hooves. A shortage of minerals will become visible there first, because the few minerals that the horse has at its disposal are used for other processes that take precedence in the constitution of the horse.
What does Potassium do?
Potassium regulates water absorption by organs, bones and muscles.
Electrolyte; exudes.
Characteristics of a potassium deficiency are:
• poor appetite
• nervousness
• sweating
• muscle cramping
• ataxia (balance disorder)
• accelerated breathing
An excess of potassium is excreted in the urine and is relatively harmless, with the exception of horses suffering from HYPP (hyperkalemic periodic paralysis, which occurs in Appaloosas, Quarters and Paints in certain breeding lines), where potassium accumulates in the body.
What does Sodium do?
Sodium ensures the condition of nerve and muscle impulses. A sodium deficiency can manifest itself in:
• a decreased appetite
• constipation
• exaggerated licking behavior
• muscle cramping
• dry skin
Characteristics of a surplus are:
• colic
• diarrhea
• weakness
• stumble
• hindquarters paralysis
• horse wont stand up
What does Chlorine do?
Chlorine, together with sodium, is responsible for the fluid balance in the body and the transmission of nerve impulses. Like sodium, a horse loses chlorine with sweat; it is the second most important electrolyte. In addition, chlorine is an indispensable component of bile and important in the production of stomach acid (hydrochloride, liquid chlorine) and thus for good digestion. When sufficient fresh water is always available, any excess chlorine is excreted in the urine.
A shortage of chlorine always means that there is also a shortage of sodium. The symptoms of a deficiency are therefore the same for both minerals: a horse starts to lick everything.
How can a deficiency be determined?
A horse often has a shortage if the ration consists only of roughage and grazing. Contrary to popular belief, a horse does not receive enough minerals if the basic ration consists of roughage and / or grazing. In nature, sodium sources are scarce, potassium sources are more widely represented. The horse's body tends to retain sodium and excrete potassium. Potassium is also salty. An actual need for potassium can therefore resemble a need for sodium, so that salt stones shrink like snow in the sun.
It is therefore better to add a complete mineral and vitamin mix that is in the right ratio in addition to the roughage. Feeding concentrates is not the best choice. This also contains sugar and starch and this has adverse effects on your horse and you have to give more to supplement the vitamins and minerals enough.
A blood sample can be used to determine the exact values of essential minerals and vitamins, such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphate and (vitamin E) selenium. In the event of a shortage or surplus, adjustments can be made to the horse's diet.
How much does a horse need daily?
Until recently, a feed standard for minerals, trace elements and vitamins for horses was not issued in the Netherlands. This changed in 2013. Several organizations abroad publish standards for horses. However, these show considerable variation.
This may be due to other assumptions being taken or because one represents minimum standards and the other represents “optimal” standards. It is often difficult to find out what the standards are based on. For example, the demand for sodium is set at 0.14 g Na per kg LG by the German organization DLG for horses that perform heavy work and by the American organization NRC at 0.07 g Na / kg LG.
This large difference in sodium requirement between NRC and DLG is caused by the expected sweat production. The sodium requirement of the DLG is based on a sweat production of 5 L per 100 kg LG per day, while the NRC maintains a sweat production of approximately 2 L.
Non-working horses can manage with little sodium, but a lot can be lost with sweat. As a rule of thumb for loss of sweat: 1 L / 100 kg LG / hour at moderate work and temperature of 18-20 ° C. In heavy labor, horses can lose as much as 15-20 kg of sweat in a few hours.
It is not possible for every nutrient in every situation that the horse finds itself to investigate the need. Therefore, standards of other animal species are often extrapolated to the situation of the horse. Standards can be presented in different ways, per kg feed, per kg body weight or per energy unit of feed. This does not make the comparison of various standards easier.
Example:
A 600 kg horse needs 12 grams of sodium per day, 30 grams of potassium and 48 grams of chloride according to the DLG standard of 2002 in Germany. This standard is wider than the Dutch standard.
In heavy work this increases to 85 gr sodium, 72gr potassium and 164gr chlorine according to this standard.
For comparison, Inge Nijkerk of Fibra Premium also conducted a study with the following results.
Salt requirement horse 600 kg:
• With no work: 15.6 gr
• With average work: 30 gr
• For heavy work: 48 gr
• Hay contains 0.9 gr salt per kg
• Grass contains an average of 1.4 gr sodium per kg ds, this is a minimum of 0.2 and a maximum of 3.4. A sport horse on poor after grass really has a shortage while a recreational horse on rich after grass gets too much.
How does sweating work?
Horses can lose electrolytes (sodium, potassium and chlorine) through sweating, urinating or diarrhea.
When people sweat, they excrete water, after which the electrolytes (salts) follow. As a result, the concentration of salts in the body increases and the fluid decreases (hypertonic climate), resulting in a thirst stimulus. Drinking water will ensure that the water is passively absorbed by osmotic diuresis and that the moisture balance is restored. When horses sweat, they excrete electrolytes / salts, after which the water follows passively, resulting in a hypotonic climate in the body (in proportion more water and less salts), horses do not get a thirst stimulus and want to drink when they are dehydrated.
For all horses that are ridden - say - above 25 degrees, it is wise to do something with dissolved electrolytes.
How much does my horse sweat?
The moisture loss depends on the work intensity, ambient temperature, humidity, wind and sunlight. In horses, the sweat glands are spread all over the body; most glands are in the neck, shoulders and lower abdomen. In these places, the amount of sweat in liters that the horse lost during a ride or training can be estimated.
What does a horse lose when sweating?
Humans produce about 1 litre of sweat per m2 of skin surface per hour and horses produce 3 litres of sweat per m2 of skin surface per hour. In addition, the composition of a person's sweat is usually somewhat hypotonic, which means that the body is left hypertonic, while the horse's sweat is clearly hypertonic, which means that the body is left hypotonic. This means that the dehydration stimulus often increases in humans when dehydration is caused by the production of sweat, while in the horse it actually decreases.
Horses that perform heavy work (in the disciplines of eventing and endurance) can lose significant amounts of sodium and chlorine through the sweat, especially at a high ambient temperature. The loss can amount to approximately 60 g table salt per day (3.1 g Na and 5.5 g Cl / l sweat). Potassium is excreted to a lesser extent with sweat (1.6 g K / l sweat).
How does a horse supplement this?
A horse loses electrolytes daily, through sweating and urine. Normally these losses are simply replenished in the diet. If the amount of electrolytes absorbed is less than the amount that is excreted with sweat, the kidneys can compensate for these deficits thanks to an electrolyte-saving mechanism. In that case it will take 2 to 3 days for the electrolyte pool to recover.
Some of the electrolytes are replenished from the diet. Not all nutrients from the food end up in the body. During digestion in the gastrointestinal tract, nutrients disappear with the manure. For the absorption of minerals it is important that the horse chews sufficiently. Too little chewing does not provide enough saliva and prolongs the stay in the stomach. Due to the awards, changes occur in the ph. The pH changes, among other things, reduce mineral utilization. These fermentation disorders in the large intestine can be prevented by intensive chewing of roughage (1 kg concentrate, chewing 10 minutes compared to 1 kg roughage, 40 minutes chewing). Lack of fiber and / or a surplus of starch and / or bulk food causes problems in the intestines. This also allows, among other things
The absorption coefficient per nutrient determines how much is needed in the feed to get enough of this substance into the body. This is called the feed standard and is established for the feed manufacturers and determines the minimum quantity or the minimum standard / requirement of this substance, such as minerals and trace elements. To compensate for complex formation with other substances or other losses, the minimum standard is usually increased by a certain margin. This amount is ultimately called the norm or the daily requirement. It also includes a safety standard.
These are the amounts of sodium in feed used by various feed manufacturers from Inge Nijkerk's research:
Fibra Premium: 4 gr salt per kg
Kentucky lite E: 2 gr salt per kg
Pavo condition: 5 gr salt per kg
Havens : 4.4 gr salt per kg
More than 5 gr of salt per kg in chunk (or muesli) is not actually produced. The danger is that horses that do not work / sweat a lot will get too much salt. This is not a problem temporarily, but in the longer term this means overloading the kidneys. Summer and winter should also be taken into account, because the sweat production differs greatly. It should also be taken into account by the manufacturers that people quickly find that their horse works "heavy" when that is not really the case, these people choose products for horses that do heavy work and therefore over dosing.
What can we do?
Give our horse good roughage of a constant composition. A constant ration composition, with a lot of roughage (a lot of crude fiber) and little, but easily digestible starch, can prevent food-related problems in the colon. A horse that gets enough roughage has a good belly filling. This is full of electrolytes and has a strong buffering effect.
When you water a horse with an empty gastrointestinal tract, the salt concentration will drop faster than when you add some water to a horse that has a good belly filling. In the latter case, the salt concentration will hardly decrease, and forced addition of electrolytes is not necessary. Therefore, its better to have water with salt already in it, with the same concentration as in the body, and then you will not disturb the salt balance while drinking. This is to prevent osmotic diuresis. The body thinks that there is already enough water in the body and will even excrete the absorbed water through the kidneys with electrolytes, so that the dehydration becomes even worse.
It is important that your horse also always has fresh drinking water available. A 500 kg horse drinks an average of 25 to 30 litres of water per day. With limited water absorption, an excess of salt intake can lead to a salt intoxication. This is also accompanied by a reduced feed intake and an increase in blood pressure.
Make sure your horse has access to a salt block, although it is not the case that you immediately solve a salt problem. Some horses don't like it and just don't use it, others like it and use it too much. Licks differ little from each other, all 10 licks tested consisted of between 92 and 99% sodium chloride, so salt. Ration calculation is better and add what is needed.
Under normal temperatures, horses need about 1 to 2 grams of extra salt per day. As a horse sweats more - like a lot of exercise or at high temperatures - the need increases sharply to 4 to 6 grams of salt per day, up to 10 grams or more. In warm weather, a horse would have to lick a salt block for a long time to absorb the correct amount of salt. You can therefore also feed loose salt. For example, give 4 to 6 grams of Celtic sea salt, fodder salt or grey seasalt per day in warm weather, this can also be done through the feed.
Or in addition to the normal drinking water supply and licks, give the animals an opportunity to drink water in which you have dissolved 1 to 5 grams of Celtic sea salt per liter! 1 to 2 hands in 1 bucket of water and let the animals choose. Celtic sea salt also contains the adhering seawater, so it is recognizable as a wet salt. This moisture ensures that this salt contains metal and mineral compounds that hardly any other natural salt contains, a lot of salt, including sea salt, is processed to get the moisture out of it.
The importance of water
The horse loses a lot of fluid every day through urine and sweat. This loss must be supplemented with good quality drinking water. Water also helps to keep the body clean and to remove waste products. Therefore, make sure that your horse has unlimited, good quality drinking water at its disposal. Water is vital: it is necessary, among other things, to maintain the moisture balance, to transport nutrients and to regulate the body temperature.
A horse at rest needs at least 30-35 ml of water per kg of body weight to maintain the water balance. This equates to about 18 to 21 liters for a 600 kg horse. A number of factors that can greatly increase the water requirement are performance, weather conditions and moisture content of the grass and roughage. With heavy effort or high temperatures, the water requirement can rise to more than 50 liters per day. When ingesting (moist) grass, the water requirement may decrease. Make sure that the automatic drinking water bowls provide sufficient water per minute and are kept clean. Horses naturally prefer to drink water from larger areas. When the automatic drinking bowl is adjusted too slowly, the motivation to drink can decrease.
It is best to provide horses with tap water. Groundwater is not of sufficient quality to give your horse, unless the pit is deeper than 150 meters. Ditch water or surface water are (in the Netherlands) very rarely clean enough to use as drinking water. It must be suitable for human consumption, which is generally not the case.
When to use electrolyte mix?
In our view, electrolyte feeding is only necessary in a number of cases:
• horses that do heavy work, we think of horses that work hard for a long time, such as in the disciplines Eventing, Endurance.
• horses that are kept on the basis of a concentrate feed with too little roughage
Supplementation of electrolytes dissolved in water is essential in those cases. If we want to replenish all electrolytes lost with the sweat for accelerated recovery, it is recommended to use a complete electrolyte mix . The dietary supplement takes much longer because the food must first be digested. This is certainly not desirable for horses that have to perform, are dehydrated. Table salt contains only sodium and chlorine, so we cannot supplement the lost potassium with it. All electrolytes affect each other. Thus, administering a particular electrolyte also affects the uptake of other electrolytes. Therefore it is recommended to give the electrolytes in the correct balance to the horse.
Horses cannot store electrolytes. Thus, electrolytes that cannot be used immediately will be excreted. Therefore, it is important to give the electrolytes just before sweating, and especially shortly after sweating. In this way, the electrolytes absorbed can immediately compensate for losses due to sweating.
- This blog was written by Jente Driessen HorseComplete in collaboration with Diana Dam-van den Broek of De Oorsprong , wellness and well-being for horses, which is to be commended for her research! And translated by The Horse Therapist
Source:
• Inge Nijkerk Fibra Premium
• The Blue Stallion
• Landwirtschaftskammer
• Paardenarts.nl
• Horse natural
• Virbac.nl
• Equilin
• Bio-Ron
• Holistic Veterinarian.nl
• Masterhorse