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Extracellular Water and Dehydration in Sheep ^{1, 2}

Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station

Abstract

The volume of the extracellular fluids in sheep normally hydrated, as measured by the dilution of thiocyanate (–SCN), is equal to 30 percent of the sheared body weight. The extracellular fluid volume is extremely consistent in any given individual.

Sodium chloride and sodium bicarbonate are hydrating while potassium bicarbonate is dehydrating to lambs. Dehydration due to high dietary potassium intake is produced by a resulting sodium diuresis which may be continuous or transitory.

Administration of sodium chloride to lambs deficient in sodium expands the extracellular fluid volume rapidly and provides for the storage of sodium, much of which is exchangeable and may, in metabolic emergencies, contribute to maintenance of the normal extracellular fluid volume.

Equations are presented for estimation of total body, total exchangeable, and extracellular sodium from determinations of serum sodium and extracellular fluid volume.

Sodium chloride supplementation to lambs in the amount of 20 gm. daily hydrates the extracellular fluids to an increase of 3 percent of body weight as compared with unsupplemented lambs. The superior gains of salt-supplemented lambs appear to be due to retention of water as a result of hydration.

The sheep has a particular faculty for conserving body sodium. With two lambs, after 339 days of supplemental salt deprivation, the extracellular fluid volume decreased 13–14 percent of the normal value.

¹ A portion of a study supported by funds contributed by the Salt Manufacturer's Association, Detroit, Michigan.

² Contribution No. 193 from the Department of Animal Husbandry and No. 128 from the Department of Veterinary Medicine, Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Manhattan.

³ A portion of a thesis presented as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Animal Physiology at Kansas State College.

⁴ Departments of Animal Husbandry, Anatomy, and Physiology respectively. The authors are grateful to Mr. B. L. Glendenning, Department of Chemistry, for his assistance in instrumentation, to Dr. T. Donald Bell, Department of Animal Husbandry, for supplying the experimental lambs, to Dr. J. S. Hughes, Department of Chemistry, for laboratory facilities, and to Dr. R. F. Cox, Head, Department of Animal Husbandry, who aided the senior author in designing and executing the experiments of which this paper is a part.