Feed’s Effect on Horses’ Dehydration Response

A research team concluded that providing food without water can increase dehydration in horses.
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Horse owners are fully aware of the importance of free-choice water in a horse’s diet. However, in some situations, such as during transportation for domestic horses or during droughts for wild horses, horses might have access to feed but not water. How do these situations affect a horse’s hydration status?

A group of researchers led by Moira Norris, DVM, of the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, set out to answer this question when they conducted a study evaluating horses’ fluid balance changes due to water deprivation, with and without available feed.

The team employed six Shetland-type pony geldings in their study, housing each in a stall for 24 hours during each experiment to allow for urine collection and returning them to pasture between experiments. The team subjected each pony to each of the following treatments:

  • Control (both water and food available ad libitum, WWWF)
  • No water but with food (NWWF)
  • No water and no food (NWNF)
  • Water but no food (WWNF)

The team offered ponies in the food groups free-choice hay and ponies in the water groups a water bucket. They measured the amount of water each pony consumed and collected blood samples hourly up until 22 hours and whenever the pony urinated. For Hours 23 and 24, the team only collected blood samples when the pony urinated

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Written by:

Kristen M. Janicki, a lifelong horsewoman, was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and later attended graduate school at the University of Kentucky, studying under Dr. Laurie Lawrence in the area of Equine Nutrition. Kristen has been a performance horse nutritionist for an industry feed manufacturer for more than a decade. Her job entails evaluating and improving the performance of the sport horse through proper nutrition.

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