Thanks! For some reason, my gelding, who will eat medication in powder or pill form straight out of the bucket, has decided that Platinum Refresh is the hill he is willing to die on. I can’t get enough of it into him to get to their minimum recommended amount. Which is a bummer, because I have heard good things about it.
I’ve had him on the standard dose of One AC since April 1st. I tried doubling it this week. He’s definitely not eating his grain as well this week, although if that is due to the heat, to the doubled amount of One AC, or the addition of table salt in his grain (he has a Himalayan salt lick also), I don’t know.
Refresh does seem to be untasty. I feed soaked cubes, so I am able to dilute it pretty good, I still have to mash in the feed to get him to eat it. So far it’s working, but if he starts refusing I’m going to have to switch.
I agree that Refresh seems to not be as palatable. Of course, the serving size is so much larger, too, at the recommended rate of two ounces a day, as compared to One AC, for example.
I just received an order of True Sweat, from Choice of Champions. I wanted to try it, as the ingredient list is similar in several respects to Refresh, while the serving size is much smaller (and the cost is less per dose, too, which is nice). A smaller amount is much easier to feed to my 800# horse who gets pretty tiny, grain-free meals. He’s never had a problem eating One AC, but some of the Refresh ends up at the bottom of his feed pan.
One AC did nothing for my horse, although he willingly ate it. Acupuncture also failed. Good old Guiness finally got him sweating a bit. Stopped the One AC and tried HorseTech’s Sweatwerks along with some beer and he sweated pretty normally.
After a break over the winter, I started adding in SweatWerks as the weather warmed. He decided it tasted terrible and was easy to sift out and leave behind. He was offended when I added some to his beer mash (Guiness +low carb grain) but I could get some into him. Started crushing a few peppermints to add to the supplement baggie (boarding situation) and that seems to have helped. Fortunately I can get peppermint flavoring added (no cost) for my next order. I am still pleased to see him sweat!
So far, no problem with my horse eating the True Sweat, although I haven’t yet begun doubling the dose, as recommended for the first couple weeks – I wanted to try the smaller amount a few times first. Size-wise, it’s on the One AC end of the scale, which helps a lot mixing it into a handful of pellets.
I’m really appreciating all this feedback on Refresh.
My horse is super picky as well. It’s nice to know not to waste my money on something she likely won’t touch. She eats One AC, but I don’t think it’s helping much. She will eat a very small amount of elytes, but nowhere near the amount I would prefer for an anhidrosis horse. Thankfully she is handling the July heat mostly ok, though I definitely couldn’t work her in this heat.
That’s a good idea. I have been pretty conservative with paste elytes after a near fatal electrolyte imbalance that the vet suspected was from giving paste elytes to a non-drinking horse. I don’t think that was the cause, but it’s made me a little jittery, probably unnecessarily.
I did Equiwinner patches for my mare this year, but not sure how helpful they were. Last year, they helped. She’s on One AC twice a day, and ditto. Next step is to try Let Em Sweat instead. And maybe add salt? Beer isn’t really possible at the current barn. She sweats under her fly sheet at night so I know she’s capable of sweating. No fly sheet during the day, to keep her from overheating. She spends a lot of time in her shed if it’s really hot.
She is retired, so I don’t do much with her. It’s too hot and there are too many bugs to walk her on the trails right now.
No need to clip her as her summer coat is very short.
My picky eater won’t take elytes or plain salt in his feed so paste. Paste elytes really help him sweat. I’d have to check, but I think he gets 2/3rds of the lowest label dose just once per day.
Maybe I have this all wrong, but I thought electrolytes were a problem for non-sweaters, because they can’t sweat the chemicals out. Or am I imagining things?
Getting this horse to drink water has never been a problem.
I’ve never heard of that except the time you posted similar on another thread. I’ve worked with, cared for and owned a goodly number of anhidrosis horses. I can’t think of a single one that didn’t benefit from electrolyte supplementation.
No, that is incorrect. Sweating or not, that’s why animals have kidneys. The body can maintain homeostasis without sweat by excreting the excess in urine.
But electrolyte imbalance has been theorized to be one of the triggers of anhidrosis.
And completely anecdotal, but I’ve seen a horse go from daily heat stroke and epistasis to being able to manage the summer heat more readily simply by replacing plain salt with a more complete elyte blend.
I’ve been offering plain salt as well. I’ve never used electrolytes before. @Texarkana do you have any suggestions for electrolytes to use? I’ve seen people say summer games is a good one.
For what it’s worth, I’m beginning to think my horse is similar to your horse #2 with anhidrosis.
I’m on day 3 of the equiwinner patches and so far, no improvement
Not really. Something with potassium, magnesium, and calcium. I either buy whatever the feed store carries or SmartLyte Pellets, because they eat the pellets better. Right now I’m using Apple a Day.
So mare had electrolytes last night, and was a bit sweaty under her fly sheet this morning. She only wears the fly sheet at night because it’s so hot and humid here.
BO has changed to giving electrolytes only on hot and humid days, as opposed to every day as she did with the other horses last summer. I don’t really know why. I don’t really want to add another supplement and don’t want to overload on the electrolytes, but I am not sure what to do.
