FW: Dangerous body temperatures

["Steph Teeter" <steph@endurance.net>]

I thought I'd forward this post from Karl re  body
temperatures to the group. (from Ti's horsescience list).  Ti's
list is very active, and can be fairly technical, I have his 
blessing to cross-fertilize Ridecamp! There are a few 
others I've seen that I think many of you would enjoy.
I'll send them along soon.

Steph

=======================
Message: 19
    Date: Sat, 28 Oct 2000 23:44:39 -0000
    From: dixiemidnight@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Dangerous body temperatures

--- In horsescience@egroups.com, Sue Brown <sbrown@w...> wrote:
 > > One comment by one of the researchers was that the horses feet
can become extremely hot-almost to the point of cooking the feet!


I have seen founder initiate from overheating.  One particular case,
a very well-bred QH was being "conditioned" by running up and down 50-
60 foot sand hills in the middle of the Florida summer--Air temps
approx. 95-98F, humidity 80+, sand temp 140F+.  The work lasted for
1/2 hr., the horse was walked 1/2 hr to the hills, and walked 1/2 hr
back to the barn.  2 hrs later he was lame.  The next morning he was
foundered. 2 years later, he is still unsound, and the farrier and
vet bills have topped $8,000.00.  This is the worst case I have ever
run across.  The problem was brought about by a young teen-age girl
who, against the owner's wishes, took the horse to "condition" him.

I am a BIG proponent of cooling legs and especially feet, during, if
possible, and certainly after any exercise where the horse develops
or would develop a sweat under his saddle.

The thing to remember is this:  Sunlight can heat dry ground, with no
or very little moisture, to temperatures exceeding 120 deg.F.  These
ground temps are found mainly in the deep South and in the arid
Western areas of the US, but sandy patches or sandy roads also have
these temps in any area. Check this out by measuring the temps of
your horse's favorite sandy "rolling patch" around three o'clock on
any summer afternoon.

  You should also remember that the horse's hoof is traveling with a
range of motion which allows it to "dig in" to the ground, and this
hoof is backed by 800-1000 lbs of mass behind it. The abrasive action
of the hoof digging in during vigorous exercise will heat the hoof,
and surrounding bone and tissue, just like a grinder on a piece of
steel.

I cannot tell you at what temperature the hoof will begin to degrade,
and an instrument called a pyrometer will effectively give you hoof
temps when its probe is placed in the deep recesses of the frog
immediately after exercise.  I would guess that a temp in excess of 4
to 5 deg. F over the horse's normal body temp would be time to start
cooling the hoof.  THIS IS ONLY A GUESS.

Perhaps someone who has information from the treadmill hoof-heat-
generating studies of about 6 or 7 years ago might be able to help
more.



 > I read something a while back regarding the dangers of overheating
a horse during a long hot ride and then *stopping* as they do for vet
checks.  When stopping, the body temperature continues to rise and
could, essentially, "cook" the horse's internal organs.

I don't think you'd cook them, but it is entirely possible to damage
or break kidneys, liver, heart, and large-mass muscles by not
allowing the body to properly cool itself off, or to assist with
flowing water over the chest area, the inside and outside of the
legs, both front and especially rear, and the back, as well as the
entire head and neck.  When you do this, pay attention to the
temperature of the water as it runs off the horse--it will be quite
warm as it absorbs the heat from the body.  When the skin is cool,
and remains so, the horse's core (internal) temps are still higher
than normal, and the cooler blood from the surface is still absorbing
heat from the core and bringing it to the surface.  Check his skin
temp after a few minutes, and hose him again, until the water temps
flowing off his body are cool.


Internal temperatures will continue to rise until the blood near the
skin is sufficiently cooled off through sweat evaporation to begin
cooling the internal organs.  That's why the cooler one can keep the
skin, the cooler the blood will be as it moves through the horse's
body-core, the cooler those internal parts will be, and the more
efficiently the horse will perform--given fuel and waste parameters.

By reducing the horse's work-level during the exercise, he is
generating less heat by doing less work.  By keeping him moving
forward, it is possible for the skin to begin to cool, and
consequently cool the blood...etc.

High loadings of water (the nutrition gurus on here discuss that a
lot) will provide a reservoir from which to generate the sweat to
cool the skin...etc.



 > Is this accurate (possible?)...and what body temperatures are the
talking about?

  There are TWO temperatures...the skin temp and the core temp.
Please also remember that I am by no means an expert, nor am I a
medical guy.  I can only relate what I've observed and can remember,
so please don't hang me if I'm not 100% correct. I've recorded skin
temps on the horse's back, under the saddle, with a neoprene saddle
pad at 107 deg. F.  That's the highest I've ever seen.  I regularly
see back temps, under the saddle, of 104-106 deg. F, depending on the
work load, air temp, humidity, wind speed, and type of saddle pad and
type of saddle.


 >Are horses, who are unacclimated to hot, humid temperatures, in more
danger than ones who routinely work hard in the heat?

I would refer you to those horses who were brought in to Conyers,
Georgia for the 1996 Olympic Games, which were NOT accustomed to the
South's "Gateway to Downtown Hell" summer temps and humidity.  Those
horses from cooler climes had some problems.


 >Should we, as a routine, be monitoring the horse's body temperature -
-ie, determining what's normal and then tracking elevations?

I do.  I'm also a "motor head"--I certainly wouldn't use an engine
which didn't have a temperature guage on it, for fear of overheating
and breaking it.  Why should my horses be any different?

BUT--I monitored my horses' temps under varied conditions, and
carefully observed their sweat volume, areas of sweat and frequency
of sweating to be able to be "ball-park" accurate in determining a
close or potentially close overheating situation, so I don't use a
gadget.  Believe it or not, the palm of your hand or your lips are
great temperature sensors.  Be careful when you use your lips, though.



 >Would a horse's "resting" body temperature factor in here?

Sure.  That would be your base temp from which all other temps are
determined to be higher or lower.  Remember to use both skin AND core.



 > I have a couple of thermometer set-ups that I have used to track
the temps under the saddle pad -- only used them occasionally since
the probes tend to slide out with movement and sweating.  I have an
idea for securing them, but hadn't gotten around to doing it since I
wasn't sure that this information was really necessary at this stage
of conditioning (and in the cool weather of Washington.)  Would
monitoring the back temperature (and adjusting the work relative to
the readings) during hot weather/faster rides help and would
this "under saddle" temp accurately relate to the core temperature?


Well, since that would be one of the hottest spots on your horse's
skin, I would guess that, once you had a correlation between that
temp and the core temp (relative to changes in each), yes.  The
degree of accuracy can only be determined, in my view, through a
controlled testing program to determine which skin temp at which time
and which weather condition relates to which core temp.

Karl
Dixie Midnight
No-Sweat vent pads
http://www.dixiemidnight.nv.switchboard.com



_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at 
http://profiles.msn.com.