Electrolytes
As the weather warms up, I have been adding electrolyte powder into the dogs food and water. They aren't true working dogs so are not running for hours on end in direct sun or herding or anything like that, but they are being worked for up to an hour in hot (80-90 degree) arenas doing agility run thrus, Obedience practices, and Ike recently, having to endure some of the stresses that go along with travel to poorly ventilated show grounds.
Dogs that are hydrated, rested and voiding regularly (as in not constipated and peeing) will perform the best and be most comfortable. Ike is a poor drinker away from home, so I bait his water with a little wet food or make soupy kibble with the lytes on the night before a big event. I also took a little spray bottle to the show with electrolytes mixed into it and sprayed a little into his mouth every so often. He was perky and seemed totally unstressed.
I have been using Nupro powder because it's what I could find in bulk, but I know people use pedialyte and things like that as well. What do other people here use? Do you think it's necessary? What are your thoughts?
Dogs that are hydrated, rested and voiding regularly (as in not constipated and peeing) will perform the best and be most comfortable. Ike is a poor drinker away from home, so I bait his water with a little wet food or make soupy kibble with the lytes on the night before a big event. I also took a little spray bottle to the show with electrolytes mixed into it and sprayed a little into his mouth every so often. He was perky and seemed totally unstressed.
I have been using Nupro powder because it's what I could find in bulk, but I know people use pedialyte and things like that as well. What do other people here use? Do you think it's necessary? What are your thoughts?
Comments
So I am also interested to hear what others are using and what changes you have seen in your dogs due to it.
This is interesting, and I'd probably be worried about our shibas if they weren't eating a raw diet (like 60-70% more moisture than kibble) because we work them quite a bit on weekends, but always hike in places with a water source (stream, lake, etc).
I'm interested to hear what other people do, and why.
I'm trying to find conclusive uses in dogs, mostly coming up with a way to avoid dehydration and exhaustion..
Some products with descriptions: http://www.vetvax.com/electrolytes.html
I bring a jug of water and ice from home and place in a cooler to keep my dog water bottles filled. My dogs won't drink strange water from another tap source. I also add water to kibble the day before or really early in the morning to make sure everyone is loaded before events. I also teach them the word "water" and will frequently ask if they need some as I keep offering them it as they need it.
Snf
I used the stuff sparingly, just on the really hot days and the night before an event. I didn't correlate the craps with use of this until you mentioned it, but I think they had some of that the next day, which now that I'm thinking of it, sort of defeats the purpose of maintaining good hydration. I wonder what chemical process causes that?
So, I should probably only use this sparingly if at all, and tank them up on lots of water instead the night before and mornings of/during? Screw the 80 degree heat wave and doing agility-sucks for me but it's worse for the dogs.
Once it gets in the high 70 degrees with the humidity here, I don't usually bother unless the runs and practice are early in the morning. However, it depends on your number and when you get called. By 11 am it is usually too hot to run my dogs so we just go through some focus exercises and I pick and choose depending on how much the weather is affecting the dogs. By the middle of the month forget running outside.
Some places have air conditioning which helps a lot at indoor facilities.
Some dogs do not like brothy or soggy kibble so it take them some getting used it.
Snf
I dunno. Dogs and people aren't that terribly different in terms of hydration needs, except that dogs don't really sweat. They cool themselves mainly with the evaporation off their tongues. People lose all kinds of salts (electrolytes, mostly, like sodium- and potassium chloride, but also urea) in their sweat because it makes the evaporative cooling effect more efficient. I'm not aware that dogs utilize the same trick with their saliva, so I can't imagine they're losing much besides water that really needs to be replaced.
There's a lot of hype over electrolytes. Idiocracy makes fun of it, but sports drinks really are incredibly overrated.
On the one hand, hyponatremia is a real danger. If you drink too much straight water, you will essentially throw off the osmotic balance of your body, essentially diluting the concentration of dissolved salts in your bloodstream to the point where it can cause kidney failure and death. There are documented cases of, say, firefighters dying of hyponatremia trying to do the "one-gallon of water in five minutes challenge" or some such. People do need to supplement fluid intake with some electrolytes in highly dehydrating conditions.
On the other hand, most sports drinks contain simple sugars (sucrose, high-fructose corn syrup, even straight glucose) in addition to high concentrations of various electrolytes, and 1)those sugars can cause diahrrea and stomach upset in humans - I can't imagine dogs' digestive systems are prepared to handle simple sugars at all, let alone concentrated ones - which is why you give kids pedialyte, and not gatorade when they're sick; 2)those sugars are designed to provide an additional energy source to athletes during long-term, sustained activity. Non-endurance athletes (and couch potatoes) don't need sports drinks, no matter how hot it is. There are lower-calorie options. Like bananas.
... I forget where I was going with that...
Oh yeah... the craps happen when you put something into the GI tract that it isn't prepared to handle. Like a bunch of sugar. Or way more salts than the body needs. What happens is that the high concentration of solute in the GI tract actually pulls extra fluid into the intestine because it messes with the osmotic balance. It's counterproductive in terms of hydration. If they're getting the craps, it's probably because they've had too much.
I've administered electrolytes to horses before... they sweat profusely when they're working in the heat, and they need it, but dosing is critical. As long as a dog's diet contains adequate nutrition and trace minerals, I'd think straight water should be sufficient. Bottom line: anyone considering electrolytes should 1)for god's sake avoid sports drinks meant for people and 2)consult an actual veterinarian.
Has someone reading this thread perhaps talked to a vet about this?
For heaven's sake, stay hydrated if you're working or exercising in the heat.
Water purges are dangerous. We call it potomamia when it becomes a compulsion. The guys that suffer from schizophrenia will often have a compulsion to guzzle water to a point that they become delerious and fall into comas from severe hyponatremia. An interesting side note, people that chronically drink beer everyday or so can develop a beer potomania. I wish my dogs were better drinkers and eaters on the road and at events, that's why I worry about their hydration status.
I've seen some of your other stuff on the board, Lindsay, do you have some veterinary experience yourself?