Sodium and magnesium deficiency in athletic horses
- effects on the electrolyte regulation and cardiovascular system
The content of electrolytes in horse sweat is high and athletic horses therefore loose large amounts of sodium, chloride, potassium and magnesium. The loss of potassium is of minor importance for the horses since the feed supply of potassium generally is excessive. However, for the other electrolytes the losses can not be compensated for with an ordinary diet with forage and/or concentrate.
In animals with sodium deficency the hormone aldosterone is released and it has lately been shown in other animals that high aldosterone levels might be cardiotoxic. How the cardiovascular system in horses respond to sodium deficiency is not known but athletic horses with reduced exercise performance is often diagnosed with an unormal ECG. However, the reason for this altered ECG is not known and we aim to investigate the effect of both sodium and magnesium deficiency on the ECG. Antoher aim is to find easy markers of sodium/magensium deficiency in horses.
Page updated:
2011-02-11.