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Post by Electrolytes on Mar 31, 2017 22:55:33 GMT 10
hi tom the human electrolyte ( endura) what would the best way to give to greyhounds in training /galloping /&racing & amount to give & would you give pre race . Donnie .
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Post by Tom Meulman on Apr 1, 2017 5:36:21 GMT 10
Hi Donnie,
Endura being an electrolyte designed for human use is not a suitable formula for racing greyhounds. Humans perspire and lose sodium from their body while canines do not, therefore the formulation is too high in sodium.
At the same time I'm not a fan of so called racing greyhound electrolyte mixtures as they tend to overload a greyhound with both sodium and potassium and simply put more strain on the dogs kidneys. Nor am I a fan of giving greyhounds half a teaspoon of potassium either daily or even every second day as in my opinion it overloads the system with potassium, and in fact it is dangerous to give a dose of potassium to a greyhound suffering adrenal exhaustion.
But then I'm told by those who believe the advertising spiel by those selling racing greyhound specific additives "But it's needed to stop the dog dehydrating". All good and well except that too much "electrolytes" can in fact cause dehydration.
Why?
Well it works this way; one sodium molecule that is absorbed into the body takes approx ten water molecules with it so it hydrates the dog, but then for every sodium molecule that the dog has to get rid off it takes ten water molecules to get rid of it. So at low doses it rehydrates while adding too much so called "electrolytes" including sodium to the diet can actually cause dehydration, and if you take a good look at the formulation of most greyhound kibble and dry food formulations you will find that that already contains excessive amounts of sodium.
The simplest and cheapest way to supply enough sodium and potassium in a greyhounds diet is to lightly sprinkle some Lite Salt available from most supermarkets on their evening meal. For instance Lite Salt by Diet-Rite contains 27.6g of potassium and 18.2g of sodium per 100g which while not exact is close enough to the right balance of the two for a racing greyhound.
However if you specifically wish use this product for your racing greyhounds, as always for a product when you are not quite certain of the right dosage, you can use it at half the normal human dose and be somewhere near the dose for a greyhound.
Cheers,
Tom
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