Home Current News News Archive Shop/Advertise Ridecamp Classified Events Learn/AERC
Endurance.Net Home Ridecamp Archives
ridecamp@endurance.net
[Archives Index]   [Date Index]   [Thread Index]   [Author Index]   [Subject Index]

[RC] Vet advice needed - horse with low potassium - Sheila_Larsen


I just had blood pulled on my 17 year old mare.  Fortunately I had blood
pulled in Sept of 2007 so there is a comparsion.  These are the results:

Bicarb (TCO2?) Sept 23  Feb 23 (Stable)

Sodium:  Sept 137  Feb 141

Chloride:  Sept 101  Feb 106

Potassium:  Sept 4.8  Feb 2.3

There hasn't been a change in diet she get grass/alfalfa in the morning and
meadow grass in the evening and she has not had diarrhea or been sick in
anyway.  She get about a pound of Purina 100 in the evening and I have just
started her back with her flax seed, she is currently getting about 1/2
pound (1 1/2 cup) of freshly ground flax seed and I am working her up to a
pound (3 cups).  She is hardly getting ridden (so no excess sweating) so I
don't know if the muscle mass loss is from low potassium or just lack of
exercise but to me it seems like she should still have more muscle mass
than she does. as she is out in a small hilly pasture during the day and
inside  at night.  Ok the weather is awful so I don't think she is moving
around that much.  When I do ride her she seems peppy enough.   I was going
to put her on 1/2 tablespoon of lite salt but when I went to the store I
saw a salt substitute that was all potassium ( 1/4 tsp has 610mg of
potassium) so I gave her 1/2 tsp last night in her grain.

My vet couldn't think of anything off the top of her head that would
explain the low potassium in light of the other numbers.  She is off on
vacation in Mexico this week so unless she thinks of something while
sipping a drink with a little umbrella in it I am not sure what else to do
so advice would be helpful as 2.3 is not far from 1.8 (which is bad news).


In my opinion, a horse is the animal to have.  Eleven-hundred pounds of raw
muscle,
power, grace, and sweat between your legs
- it's something you just can't get from a pet hamster.  ~Author Unknown



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

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!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=