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RE: [RC] sodium bicarb - Susan E. Garlinghouse, D.V.M.My niece bought some electrolytes that have sodium bicarb in them. Since it has a few vitamins and lactobacillus stuff in it, I told her she could use it in his daily feed and it would be fine but I remember that it is NOT appropriate for competition. I could not tell her exactly why. Does anyone have the short short version that I could explain to her? 1) Bicarb makes the system more alkaline, regardless of whether the bicarb is produced internally by the kidneys, or is introduced orally (or sometimes in IV fluids). 2) When horses exercise at sprint speeds, they produce large amounts of lactic acid, which makes the system more acidic in general and contributes to fatigue. Thus the idea of feeding bicarb to buffer the system and keep it from getting overly acidic. Sepsis also makes the system acidic, so we use it sometimes in various disease processes. 3) Endurance horses produce some lactic acid, but not a whole lot in comparison to race track thoroughbreds. So they're not particularly acidic and not in need of being "buffered". 4) What's more likely is that endurance horses produce a lot of heat through muscular exercise, which they get rid of through sweating and panting. If it's humid, or they're hairy or whatever, then sweating isn't very efficient, and to make up the difference, they have to do a LOT of panting. 5) Panting blows off a lot of carbon dioxide, and via a really boring and complicated biochemical equation, the entire system becomes increasingly more alkaline. Adding bicarb on top of this makes the system even MORE alkaline. 6) A highly alkalotic horse is a bad thing because a lot of things going on in the body are picky about the pH at which they perform their job happily. Cardiovascular function suffers, gastrointestinal function suffers, neural function suffers and a biggie for endurance horses, the active form of calcium (very important in muscle function) binds itself tightly to a carrier protein and refuses to let go to go do its job like it's supposed to. The result is higher incidence of thumps, tying up, cramps, etc. Bad things. 7) Moral of the story, no bicarb for endurance horses if they're going to wearing a saddle that day. Susan Garlinghouse, DVM, MS =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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