Beware of Dehydration in Horses

There are certain signs and symptoms that tell us quickly if a horse is getting dehydrated:

A horse's mucous membranes (their gums and tongue) should normally be pink and moist. To check for what is called capillary refill time or cap refill for short, you press on the gums.
When you push on their gum it will turn white, it will blanch, and then when you release it the pink should come back within 2-3sec. If the gums stay white or pale after 3 sec or if the gums are real dry and sticky then your horse is getting dehydrated

If you look at the gums or tongue and they are purple than this is very bad and the horse is already in heat exhaustion and needs immediate care.

You can check the horse's skin turgor (how elastic the skin is) by pulling the skin up tightly on the rib cage area which is the best place to see what the skin does in a normal horse. It will snap back quickly into place normally.

If the horse is becoming dehydrated, the skin will begin to tent or stay up after you pull on it to stretch it up. When it begins to be slightly sluggish or kind of stays up a few seconds instead of snapping back, then your horse is beginning to dehydrate and needs more fluids and possibly oral electrolytes, powdered in the feed or in the water.

If the skin after pulling it up, really "tents up" or stays folded up looking and takes a long time to go back down or stays tented, then this is a big problem and your horse is definitely dehydrated and needs immediate attention and re-hydration and first aid along with electrolytes, a bolus paste if the horse is drinking alright.

The horse's resting respiration and heart rates will both increase above normal during dehydration. Take your horse's resting respiration and heart rate so that you know what his resting normal rates are. Each horse varies a little, but usually around 12 breaths per min for an adult horse and a resting pulse around 35-45 for an adult horse. When a horse is getting stressed he will flare his nostrils as he breaths and you will see the pink lining (mucous membranes) of his nostrils. This shows that he has to work harder to suck in air and breath. He is working too hard to breathe especially if it is really hot and humid. Let him stand in a cool place and rest a while, let him cool down a bit, walk slower do not push him. Slow things down and when he is cooled off let him drink. Practice taking both your horse's respiration rate and his heart rate.

Watch the horse’s nostrils or his flank areas to watch him breath. One complete in and out of air is one breath. Take the heat rate with a stethoscope behind and above his elbow down in the area in front of where the cinch would go. One complete lub dub of the heart is only one beat, not two.

A well hydrated horse usually will urinate about every 3-5 hours or perhaps at least once while on a typical trail ride. His urine should be fairly clear and light yellow to a kind of deeper yellow, but still clear looking.

Abnormal urine is brownish or orange or mulberry colored or bloody or black which these are all signs and symptoms that there is definitely a huge problem going on with your horse's renal system and his kidneys could shut down. Get a Vet quick, if available, but if not, than an experienced horse person needs to be contacted, get help and advice quickly, and transport to the nearest Vet.

We all pick up tons of poop so you know what your horse's poop looks like, smells like, as you probably have even worn some of it around on your clothes if you are like most of us.

A dehydrated horse's poop is dry and infrequent and when you listen to their belly the gut sounds will be decreased or absent which means that there is not much motility going on there and he is at risk for colic.

When a horse is stressed or dehydrated or possibly trying to colic there is not much sound in his gut. There are 4 areas or quadrants of the horse's abdomen that you should listen to. Place your ear up against your horse, behind the front leg a short distance then listen again back toward the back leg but still well in front of the back leg, then the same on the other side. (2 areas on each side) Be careful as some horses may kick at you. I am assuming you have a gentle horse that has had you lay all over him and rub all over him and is desensitized to someone checking his bowel sounds. If not, get someone experienced with horses to help you. Your ear is better than not listening at all. You will learn what sounds normal and how to locate the sounds then you will recognize what is NOT normal for your horse. Using a stethoscope, again, is better, but your ear can work well for this too.

A stethoscope is always best, to listen with, most all experienced horse people carry one in their horse first aid kit. It is a good idea to have one for checking both bowel sounds and heart rate and breath sounds too. You can use just your ear pressed up against your horse's belly though if you have done your homework and gotten him used to this. Normally the gut sounds of horses are loud and frequent, kind of like when our own tummies are getting really hungry and they growl and carry on (most especially in church or somewhere). Abnormal gut sounds are very quiet and very infrequent or what we call decreased bowel sounds or absent bowel sounds. Sometimes you will hear bowel sounds in one quadrant, but not in the others. Dehydration can stress the horse so that he can develop another very dangerous problem which is, colic.

Taking your horse's temp is important too. You will need a horse thermometer and Vaseline or some lubricant. You have to shake the thermometer all the way down prior to taking a temp. Place the thermo. in the rectum GENTLY PLEASE then hold on to it as the horse's bowel can literally suction a thermometer all the way up and it is gone!! Then you REALLY have a problem! Some Vets have a string tied on to the horse thermometer which has a place on it to loop a string to be tied or looped into it. Then they use a paper clip and clip it to the horse’s tail. Perhaps though in the beginning, you should just hold onto it for safe keeping. The horse's temp normally runs around 99.6 to 100 F.

Horse's body language tells us so much. Learn about your horse and what is relaxed and normal and then what his stressed behavior is like and you can then tell, by his body language, that something is really wrong. They want help.

Take electrolytes for your horse in powder form which can be placed into their feed for your horse as it is not as likely that you will overdose your horse on electrolytes by powder. If they do not need all of them, they will leave some of them. Save the paste bolus electrolytes for the emergencies and severe dehydration. Any time you give electrolytes make SURE your horse is drinking plenty of water. If you give electrolytes in his water, make sure he has a separate bucket of clean clear fresh regular water to follow up after the water with the additives. Never give an electrolyte paste bolus if the horse is not drinking water as this could over dose your horse and make the dehydration worse.

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