Equine fluid therapy

- Basics of Body Fluid

-   An adult horse contains about 60% fluid of its body weight.

-  Intracellular fluid (ICF)

which include (Ca, Mg, K, PO4 and protein) consists of about 2/3 of total body fluids.

-  The extracellular fluids (ECF)

 which include (Na, Cl and Hco3) consist of about 1/3 of the total body fluids. It is divided into three sub compartments interstitial, intravascular, and transcellular.

a-  The interstitial contains 3/4 of all the fluid in the extracellular space.

b- The intravascular contains1/12 of body fluid, the fluid mostly plasma, that is within the blood vessels 5% of body weight .

-  The fluid in the transcellular compartment is produced by specialized cells responsible for cerebrospinal fluid, gastrointestinal fluid, bile, glandular secretions, respiratory sections, and synovial fluids.

- Daily water intake is about 10% of the body weight (can vary from animal to animal with respect of their age, environment, feed intake etc.).

- Daily water loss equals daily intake and this loss occurs through the skin, lung, kidney and gastrointestinal tract.

- Body water contains solutes (substances that dissolve in solvent).

- Electrolytes are substances that split into ions when placed in water.

-  Primary ions in the body are sodium, potassium, chloride, phosphate, and bicarbonate.

- Cations are positively charged ions.

-  Anions are negatively charged ions.