Capillary Refill

[Wendy Milner <wendy@wendy.cnd.hp.com>]

Cheryl commented that the capillary refill on her horse went
from 1.5 to 4 seconds while the horse's hydration was good.

Capillary refill is not directly related to hydration.
It is a test of stress level.  For example, look at your hand.
Now make a tight fist and hold it for 5 seconds. Open your hand.
Your hand is white. After a few seconds, the blood comes back
into the capillaries.  That is the capillary refill time.

With a horse, as their stress level goes up, and their pain level
goes up, the capillary refill time also goes up.  They can be as
hydrated as possible, but the stress will tell.  If they are dehydrated,
their stress level is also up, so capillary refill is usually high.

To reduce the capillary refill time, before you go to the vet,
make sure the horse's mouth is wet - squirt water in, or rub your
wet hand around the horse's mouth.  Then get your horse to move
his mouth around.  If the horse is tight lipped, tight jawed, then
the capillaries will seem stressed just by the tight muscles. If 
the horse's mouth is relaxed, the capillary refill time will be less.
Feeding a carrot, sugar, or whatever will help relax the muscles.

--
Wendy

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  Wendy Milner                     HPDesk:   wendy_milner@hp4000
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