It’s the middle of winter, but I’m preparing for summer.
This past summer with days on end of 100 deg.+ temps my horse stopped sweating.
I’ve seen anhidrosis before, but nothing compared to how bad it was with my PPID horse. SE Texas.
“Heat of digestion” for hot months:
Recommended to decrease dry forage and replace with oils/fats for energy/calories.
It makes sense that digesting long-stemmed fiber/hay could raise core temperatures…
What about shorter stemmed fibers / easier to digest - grass hay cubes and pellets? Beet pulp?
Less heat produced?
(Timothy Balance Cubes / Bermuda pellets for example).
TIA.
I’ve never heard of that as a management practice for anhidrosis. Not that it couldn’t be, just I’ve never heard of such.
My own horse with anhidrosis also has a choke history and would need hay cubes / pellets soaked. In our summers, soaked foods go rancid pretty quickly and my horse does not tolerate being without forage so I think this would be a non starter for us. He’s also eating mostly grass in the summer.
Curious to hear if anyone has tried this management practice
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Also known as, “heat increments”.
This is all new to me after decades of having horses.
Article, for example:
https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/135602/digestive-health-through-the-seasons
Scroll down to summer.
Google and find more about this.
What to feed to help with summer heat.
I’m trying to figure out hay vs hay cubes vs hay pellets.
It would seem pellets would be easier to digest and create less heat.
But the fiber content is approx the same for the three forms.
@JB ?
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