Electrolytes for your dogs?

[boyo 1,398]

if you go to a farm shop you can get the one they use on sheep and cattle i use it for my greyhounds after racing and always take it coursing with me in a little bottle gives them a pick me up after a hard course .and its half the price of the recharge and does the same job as my greyhound vet supplies me with it .

[TEXICAN 10]

We have a product called pedialite it's for babies to help hydrate them, it can be found in the baby section with the baby milk formulas. I use it on the dogs in hot weather but it's always best to give it to them a couple of days before a hunt and small amounts along with plenty of water during a hunt. Someone mentioned creatines in an earlier post, I'm no doctor but I have experimented a lot and creatines are a no no for working dogs, your dog will overheat, thus causing shock & or stroke and even..... you know. Just keep it simple good dog food and plenty of water and the main thing is taking good care of them after a hunt and giving them plenty of time to recover FULLY. Oh yea the pedialite is used for babies with diareah, it works well for this purpose in puppies as well. YFIS, the TEXICAN.

[neil cooney 10,416]

IMO anyone who keeps working dogs should have some way of re-hydrating a dog. Either after a hard bit of work or when an accident has occured.

Lectade or Liquid Life Aid is used for calves with scour and is around 7 or 8 euro here in Ireland. Re-Fuel thats designed for greyhounds has the same ingrediants and is 3 times the price.

It doesn't make sence to me to be filling a lurchers stomach with liquid when it's still working but after a grueller and the dog is ready to go home electrolytes are a must.

[sandymere 8,263]

Electrolyte solutions were developed for human and horse athletes to replace the salt lost in sweat, in the main sodium chloride commonly known as table salt, so horse electrolytes are high in this. Dogs don’t sweat to any great degree so the question needs to be where are they losing salt? Basically there’re not so why replace that which isn’t lost? Supplemental sodium may well increase urine output as the body tries to excrete the excess and thus lead to increased dehydration rather than re hydration, while increasing blood pressure in the interim, neither of which is a good idea. If a dog is suffering illness and or diarrhea then the may well be a case for electrolyte replacement as they will be lost in the stool fluid but for a healthy dog they just don’t add anything and may well unbalance a delicate system.

Glucose solutions I discussed before and will find a post.

[sandymere 8,263]

This was posted some time ago and it plus the replies can be found with a quick search. in goes on to discuss glucose/recovery feeding/suppliments

 

Carbohydrate in the Working Canine diet

 

It’s pretty much accepted that different types of exercise and lifestyles require different feeding regimes i.e. a lap dog in a posh pad will need a markedly different diet to a sled dog during a long distance race. Most dogs will fall somewhere between these two extremes with working dogs, in particular, needing individual management of their diet to optimize performance.

 

Canine athletes depend on fats as their main fuel source when resting or at gentle exercise, 60% of energy supplied by fats at 40% of effort, however glucose converted from glycogen is needed especially during high intensity exercise such as sprinting. As exercise intensity increases the amount of glucose used increases whereas fat use remains relatively stable. So % of energy is supplied by glucose at 85% of effort. Studies have shown that dogs undergoing high intensity exercise were only replacing approximately 65% of their stores of glycogen in the first 24 hours when fed a “normal meal†an hour or more post exercise This can result in dogs undertaking high speed type work, such as lurchers or any breed that push their own personal limits, not fully replacing their energy stores by the next day. Fine for the once a week workers but this may well have a negative impact on those that work their dogs on a more regular basis.

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The process whereby glycogen is taken up by the dogs muscle cells is normally controlled by insulin but this is superseded while exercising and for approximately ½ an hour afterwards by another, faster, process, that could be described as direct uptake. As this process is so short acting, to utilize it, appropriate carbs need to be made available to maximize re-stocking of energy stores during or within half an hour of exercise. There is a reduced blood flow to the gastrointestinal system during exercise and for a period after but that does not mean that there is a complete cessation of digestion and appropriate carbs at this time will be digested and enter the blood stream, as glucose, to become available for this direct uptake system to utilize.

 

Previously I have advocated glucose, usually in drink form, as an appropriate form of carbs for this replacement but there are some problems with this. Simple sugars like glucose need to be diluted in a lot of water for digestion so water needs to be given at the same time or body fluids will be utilized when they are needed elsewhere but a stomach full of water soon after high intensity exercise may cause vomiting, the glucose/water effect may cause diarrhea and a sudden increase in glucose can cause a matching insulin high which in turn may lead to a reduction in blood glucose. As a dropping glucose will be counterproductive other alternatives have been tried to overcome this problem. Complex carbohydrates, i.e. cereal etc, are slow to break down and better suited to being part of the main meal as a baseline Carbohydrate to replace the stores through the slower insulin process. Honey has been used in the past but it can have the same digestion problems as glucose plus it takes time and energy to be converted into glucose and may not be ready within the ½ hour time frame. Maltodextrins are sugars that fall between these two extremes they are easily/quickly absorbed, are less likely to case sudden rushes of glucose with the resultant insulin highs and are readily available.

 

Maltodextrin use in sporting dogs has been the subject of a number of studies, these seem to show dogs given a supplement prior to exercise had raised glucose levels during the exercise period, so glucose is available for direct uptake when needed; alternatively a supplement afterwards increased glucose levels within 15 minutes of administration. With both methods glycogen levels recovered significantly better during the following 24 hrs than those not receiving a supplement.

 

In conclusion the research suggests that a supplement of multodextrin may well increase work tolerance for sprint type exercise and improve recovery during the following 24 hours. Bearing in mind the above results and easy availability of maltodextrin type energy bars giving approximately one and a half grams per kilo of body weight to a hard working dog is defiantly worth considering.

[Tiny 7 1,694]

What sort of enengy bar you talking about S.... Names Please,

[Blue one 89]

IMO anyone who keeps working dogs should have some way of re-hydrating a dog. Either after a hard bit of work or when an accident has occured.

Lectade or Liquid Life Aid is used for calves with scour and is around 7 or 8 euro here in Ireland. Re-Fuel thats designed for greyhounds has the same ingrediants and is 3 times the price.

It doesn't make sence to me to be filling a lurchers stomach with liquid when it's still working but after a grueller and the dog is ready to go home electrolytes are a must.

 

Spot on.

I use Liquid life aid after a nights lamping ect, it stops the muscles getting eaten away by build up of lactic acid...

7 euro where i am, from my local farm co-op.

[optimus 447]

someone told me on sun they give thier dog creatine in the the day they go lamping at night?

CREATINE CAN BE BOUGHT FROM ANY HOLLAND & BARRET OR SIMILAR SHOP. AIDS RECOVERY & TRANSPORTATION OF OXYGEN IN THE CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM. HOWEVER IT IS A LEGAL PERFORMANCE ENHANCER & AS WITH ALL STIMULANTS ITS NOT 2 BE USED LONG TERM FOR BEST RESULTS. IVE SEEN PEOPLE & DOGS IT GAVE A BOOST TO & SOME IT JUST GIVES THE SHITS AS THEIR SYSTEM DOESNT TAKE TO IT. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE, THE 1ST TIME I TRIED IT I FELT A MILLION DOLLARS & PUSHED MY SQUATTING AT THE WEIGHTS TO OVER 250kilos. ENDED UP WITH 2 SLIPPED DISCS & AN OPERATION ON 1 DISC THAT LATER BURST. I DONT BELIEVE THERE ARE ANY QUICK FIXES TO YOUR DOGS PERFORMANCE THAT CAN BETTER EXERCISE, SENSIBLE RUNNING: & GOOD NUTRITION. CAN YOU PUT IN WHAT GOD LEFT OUT???? Edited October 29, 2010 by optimus