Re: horse temp

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

> HI - well under AERC VET guide lines - a vet COULD pull you for a
> rectal temp of 103F. ( with other issues)
>  A temp of 105F is a major concern over that the
> horse internal core temp may be 107 or higher  - could die .
> Susan will fill us in on that point.

Can't remember the exact number, but yeah, core temp is going to be higher
than rectal temps, and about two degrees sounds about right.  When we run
research horses on the high speed treadmill for sampling, we monitor rectal
temps pretty closely and horses over 103 are taken off the treadmill and
soaked down pretty quickly.

Tom Ivers once commented that he used to work a trotter with regular rectal
temps of 105, and he never had any problems.  I certainly have no reason not
to believe him, but I don't think that I *personally* would continue riding
an endurance horse with a rectal temp over 103 before cooling him down
first.  That much muscular exercise really generates alot of metabolic heat
and any little extra monkeywrench thrown into the equation to decrease heat
dissipation---dehydration, muscle ischemia, humidity, etc---would be asking
for trouble.

Susan G