Mounted search and rescue

["Susan J. Duke" <susanjduke@yahoo.com>]

I always kept the paste tube of quick electrolytes around as an emergency backup in the med kit, I also used the apple flavored granules for both horses and dogs, and all  drank the water just fine.

The time I actually used the tube was one winter we had a water tank heater develop a short in it, unbeknownst to us horse owners at the barn.  When the horse would try to get a drink, the water tank would zing them slightly.  So they stopped drinking out of the tank, and it was a day or so before I got a call that my horse acted disoriented.  I rushed out there, made a diagnosis of dehydration, yet the tank was full with clean water, upon further investigation then we tracked down the short in the heater.  While we all checked the water levels as habit, no one thought to notice whether they were drinking any, and we all came out there at different times and would think somebody else had filled the tank.  Lesson learned.  I tube pasted my horse with electrolytes and got him in own bucket of water in a stall and it all got solved shortly. We replaced the heater, and had no more problems.

But i got called out there at 9pm at night after the stores were closed, so having those electrolytes in the med kit came in handy.  I recommend having some around, you never know.

Susan J. Duke
in Central Illinois