July 2008

Chloride Deserves Dietary Attention

Low blood chloride is the most common electrolyte abnormality found in horses that work for longer than a two-hour period.

We’ve all heard of chloride. It’s the "Cl" mineral that tags along behind sodium in sodium chloride or potassium in salt-alternative products. You probably also know that chloride is the major mineral in electrolyte supplements matched to sweat composition. It’s required to produce stomach acid (hydrochloric acid), regulate fluid balance in cells, control the excitability of muscle and nervous tissue, produce sweat and is the major negatively charged electrolyte in the blood and tissues surrounding the cells.

A racehorse on a high-grain, low-hay diet may be flirting with low chloride levels at baseline.

Despite all the body functions that require chloride, however, it’s received little attention in equine nutrition—at least until now. …