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As Paulus will be aware after the research he has done following problems with his dog there is a lot of talk about electrolytes on the greyhound data forum and there seems to be an informed opinion a

Sandy how are you meant to get a exausted dog to lift it's head up never mind eat anything..a squirty bottle full of recharge is the way forward to blast it straight down there throat..that way you kn

interesting read on electrolyte,feeding and excercise from a greyhound vet and surgen http://www.monashvet.com.au/greyhounds.htm

Sometimes when our dogs are ill and vomit or have diarrhea, they lose fluid - severely dehydrated animals can lose up to 10 percent of their body weight in fluids. One way to tell if they are dehydrated is to gently pinch a bunch of skin on their neck or shoulders and if it falls back quickly, they are fine, if not they need fluids.

 

 

Electrolyte solution replenishes this fluid. Make your own rather than pay for expensive brands at grocery stores which also have preservatives and chemical in them that your dog may not be able to handle.

 

 

 

 

 

1 quart clean water (no chlorine or fluoride)

 

 

1tablespoon sugar or honey

 

 

1 teaspoon table salt

 

 

 

 

 

Mix well and refrigerate unused portions in a clean container. Warm only amount to be used to room temperature before use. electrolyte solution that is left out will turn mouldy. For extended use, make a fresh batch every day.

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Would depend on what and when but in general for a healthy dog no.

Dogs don’t sweat to any degree so don’t lose salts as humans and horses, for which these products were first developed, racing dog owner jumped on the bandwagon, myself included 30 odd years ago, as we didn’t understand the concept. The manufactures saw a new market and so produced a product.

Most contain glucose and this may help recovery.

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Would depend on what and when but in general for a healthy dog no.

Dogs don’t sweat to any degree so don’t lose salts as humans and horses, for which these products were first developed, racing dog owner jumped on the bandwagon, myself included 30 odd years ago, as we didn’t understand the concept. The manufactures saw a new market and so produced a product.

Most contain glucose and this may help recovery.

 

 

so is gluecose water better than recharge to give the dogs a drink when working hard in season?? or is plain water better again??

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Thanks for the reply and the recipe Sowhat :good:

 

Would depend on what and when but in general for a healthy dog no.

Dogs don’t sweat to any degree so don’t lose salts as humans and horses, for which these products were first developed, racing dog owner jumped on the bandwagon, myself included 30 odd years ago, as we didn’t understand the concept. The manufactures saw a new market and so produced a product.

Most contain glucose and this may help recovery.

 

Sandy the bit about sweating that you mentioned is why I asked. If I'm not mistaken I thought Electrolytes replace lost salts and minerals that we lose through sweating! I know dogs don't sweat so whats the point in giving a dog an electrolyte drink?

 

Would a sugary drink or a drink with added glucose be a better option?

 

Sandy you've made plenty of very interesting posts on this section of the forum, some I agree with and some I don't agree with, but never the less I do find what you say interesting. If you don't mind me asking do you work dogs or do you just look into the science and theory?

 

I'm just interested to know what you've found to be true through your own experience?

 

Thanks for posting pal.

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I have seen a dog recover within 1hr of using electrolyte after exhaustion..so i would say they do have there benifit's..

 

Edited to add...i know dog's don't sweat like us and loose salt's but they do loose water from panting.

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I have seen a dog recover within 1hr of using electrolyte after exhaustion..so i would say they do have there benifit's..

 

Edited to add...i know dog's don't sweat like us and loose salt's but they do loose water from panting.

 

Could salts be lost in this way do you think mate?

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My Dad gave the greyhounds some kind of stuff that pigs got....dont know the name of it sorry and f**k knows what it done for the pigs..... :thumbs:

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My Dad gave the greyhounds some kind of stuff that pigs got....dont know the name of it sorry and f**k knows what it done for the pigs..... :thumbs:

 

:rofl: HAHAHA! Thanks for the input Lab lol.

Always happy too help.... :D I'll ask him what it was..... :tongue2:

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Thanks for the reply and the recipe Sowhat :good:

 

Would depend on what and when but in general for a healthy dog no.

Dogs don’t sweat to any degree so don’t lose salts as humans and horses, for which these products were first developed, racing dog owner jumped on the bandwagon, myself included 30 odd years ago, as we didn’t understand the concept. The manufactures saw a new market and so produced a product.

Most contain glucose and this may help recovery.

 

ISandy the bit about sweating that you mentioned is why I asked. If I'm not mistaken I thought Electrolytes replace lost salts and minerals that we lose through sweating! I know dogs don't sweat so whats the point in giving a dog an electrolyte drink?

 

Would a sugary drink or a drink with added glucose be a better option?

 

Sandy you've made plenty of very interesting posts on this section of the forum, some I agree with and some I don't agree with, but never the less I do find what you say interesting. If you don't mind me asking do you work dogs or do you just look into the science and theory?

 

I'm just interested to know what you've found to be true through your own experience?

 

Thanks for posting pal.

Ideation it doesn’t matter so much if you agree or disagree more that you consider what is posted, we are all wrong sometimes, even me lol. In answer I’ve owned working/racing dogs for most of my 50 years. So I base my post on a mix of experience and science, stuff mores forward and in working dogs we tend to lag behind at times. As to losing electrolytes via drool, some will be lost but likely a negligible amount unless it is going on for a long time in which the first question would be why is it drooling? I’ve covered the idea of electrolytes before at depth as well as corresponded with vets on the subject, basically they are replaced via a normal diet and it’s a finely balanced closely controlled system that in a healthy dog is best left alone, adding in random electrolytes is as likely to unbalance as it would re balance. The companies themselves don’t recommend them in any but very mild cases, certainly not for dogs that have been run hard and so have even the slightest risk of rhabdomyolysis.

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Small amounts of fluid such as a couple of laps of water every now and then during a night’s lamping is sensible. These days I tend to be out for only 3 or 4 hours so and so depend more on preparation and post session intake but for the all nighters then I’d give regular water as well as a carb source such as breaking an energy bar into bits to spread out over the night.

 

I did this some time ago and it touches on the subject.

 

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 optimise 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 80% 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.

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