Heat intollerance in 2 of my mares

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Candice

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I do plan to call the vet tomorrow however I was wondering if anyone has encountered this. I have two mares, one with a foal and one without and for the past couple of days both have not been able to tolerate the heat. I have plenty of shade and cool water is readily available at all times. Even in the shade both are breathing very heavy, almost panting with flared nostrils. I checked temps this afternoon. One mare had a normal temp of 101.5, not alarming in the heat of the day, however the other mare was pushing 103. For some reason she is not regulating her temp. The rest of my herd is fine. I am totally baffled by this. I have added electrolytes, to help them, and I hose them off a few times during the afternoon. They are fine the rest of the day. This starts around 1pm and will continue until around 4pm, then they return to normal.

It has been very hot however I've never had one exhibit this level of stress. Any thoughts???
 
Could they have caught some kind of bug that is making them feel a bit under the weather and also raising their temps moderately?
 
I suppose that is a possibility, however there are no other symptoms. Both are eating and drinking fine and otherwise "themselves" in every way other than the obvious heat distress.
 
Hopefully they are just tired of the heat. Gonna keep an eye on this thread.
 
Have you got a cool place in a barn to keep them with fans on them during the heat of the afternoon? We have a young yearling stallion that gets very lethargic when he gets overheated. We put him in the other end of the barn where the trees keep that side shaded with a fan on high with plenty of water. 2 buckets full. It has cooled off a lot here but the first week of August it was up over 100 every day. I would keep a close eye on them in case there is something else going on.
 
How good are they sweating? If for some reason they are not sweating as good as they should of normally would they would be hotter.
 
We had a filly born this year who was born with a condition called

anhidrosis (non-sweater) and she would run a fever every day 102-106

we had to hose her down 3 x's a day once she was hosed for 20 minutes

she felt great and ran and played like any other foal

yet at night she was fine because as hot as the days have been this summer the nights were cool

she would start to run the temp around 1pm till maybe 7pm then be fine all night

lucky we finally after lots of blood testing took her to an equine hospital for tests

and she was diagnosed with anhidrosis. 2 weeks of treatment with a supliment

called

One AC

it worked wonders and she sweats now and can be out all day with no problem

playing with the other foals.

she was born 6/12/08 and went to the hospital at 3 weeks old and has

been great for the past 2 months in all this heat

We were very lucky and the treatment worked to start her sweat glands working

any possibility your mare has this problem
 
I'm a Floridian and have plenty of heat stroke experience. They are strokeing out on you.

When I was there my horses could not leave the barn period during the day except for the crack of dawn and then inside by 9:00 AM or they would stroke out on me big time which they have and I have too. These by the way were mostly quarter horses and a few ponies who were very well conditioned physically but you cannot condition against Mother Nature. Your humidity is making things even more horrid for them.

It is key to keep the ponies body shaved and under fans during these hours. I know the fans just blow around hot air but they still need that movement of air which makes a difference to them. We had two to three box fans in each stall and plenty of ventilation and industrial fans in the isleways. Gatorade is your best friend. Do not dilute it and use it full strength. Soak your beet pulp in it and feed it during your worst hours. You can wet your hay and feed down too to ensure hydration. That should help along with your rinses but remember to use a sweat scraper and scrape the water off. Bring them in the barn and get some serious fans going on. This weather is even more dangerous to the young and very old.
 
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I have an IR (and previously thanks to high levels of dex- slightly lamanatic) Welsh pony mare who foaled out in june.

Her foal was pulling her down, so I started increasing her grain and hay quality- a few days later, I had the same thing happen.

All of mine are allowed out as much as they want, (Run in stall with fan in her case.) and she was choosing outside-

(On a side note, I drag most of mine in during summer time as well, but a few stay out by choice as she does and are fine, all were born and raised here in FL though.

I dropped her feed/hay quality back down, the problem was gone right away. Also she was in season when she did this as well- no clue if that means anything, but JIC.

One AC can be damaging long term BTW-

S.W.E.A.T is much more effective and works on the potassium and sodium balances which is often what is going badly wrong in Non sweaters. Acupuncture is pretty beneficial as well and removes the need for supplements if done by a good practitioner.

I have noticed as a rule, my easy keepers tend to have issues when I let them have all they want of the mostly O and A big 700 lbs pasture hay bales from Larsons and high quality grain. I have to limit their intake or I see heavy breathing and some sweating issues.
 
Please try a hose mister... We live in FL and all of our guys are loving running under the mister's after they graze etc. I hope they cool down soon. Its just been SO "tropical" and humid with the storms I think they are having a tough time cooling down. Goodluck
 
Do they access to salt blocks? Mine just chomp salt on hot days.
 
At this time our barn is not equipped with fans. Its a small open air barn and normally has a nice breeze thru it however with the storms that we've had and the ones out there and the uncertainty of them our barn is tarped at the moment. When hubby built a mini barn he built a MINI BARN and I haven't figured out yet how to set up fans high enough as the ceilings are low. The horses do have access to the barn however and plenty of shade trees.

I've owned these mares for 2yrs so both are acclimated to Fl. I have 3 newbies from MN that arrived in June and they're doing great. The heat isn't phasing them at all.

My horses all have free access to salt, plus I add loose mineral to their feed nightly. I have added powdered electrolytes to everyones feed since this started. I am hosing them off. At the moment all are happily grazing and no signs of distress yet. It usually comes on around 1pm.

I have wondered about the anihydrosis (sp?). I'm fairly certain they are sweating, but I was in such a hurry to cool them down I honestly can't say if they were or weren't.

We'll see how today plays out. Thankyou for all the suggestions.
 

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