Ammonia is dangerous to your horses health, with young foals being especially susceptible; this article by Tox Town shows just how dangerous ammonia can be to not only horses, but humans who are exposed also.

Ammonia
Ammonia has a sharp odor and is used in fertilizers, refrigeration, and cleaning products.

What is ammonia?
Ammonia is a colorless gas with a sharp, pungent odor. It is both manufactured, and also produced naturally by bacteria, decaying plants and animals, and animal waste. In its natural form, ammonia is found in water, soil, and air, and is a source of nitrogen for plants and animals. It is commonly sold in liquid form, and is a corrosive chemical. The chemical formula for ammonia is NH3.

When ammonia is manufactured, it is primarily used to make fertilizer. It is used to manufacture synthetic fibers, textiles, pulp and paper, pesticides, explosives, smelling salts, cleaning products, rocket fuel, fuel cells, and some foods and beverages. Ammonia is also used to make other chemicals, including nitric acid and cyanide.

Industries that use ammonia include metal treating and chlorine water treatment. Ammonia is also used in the rubber industry to stabilize raw latex, and in the petroleum industry to protect equipment. It is used on grapefruit, lemons, and oranges to control fungal growth during warehousing.

Ammonia is used as a refrigerant in industrial facilities, including meat, poultry, and fish processing facilities; dairy and ice cream plants; wineries and breweries; juice and soft drink processing facilities; cold storage warehouses; and food processing facilities.

How might I be exposed to ammonia?
Everyone is regularly exposed to low levels of ammonia in air, soil, water, and food. You can be exposed to higher levels of ammonia by breathing it or having skin contact with it.

At home, you can be exposed if you use products that contain ammonia, including window cleaners, floor waxes, and smelling salts.

If you work on or live near a farm, you can breathe ammonia in the air if the farm uses ammonia fertilizers. Farmers, cattle ranchers, and people who raise chickens can be exposed to ammonia from decaying manure.

At work, you can be exposed to ammonia if you deal with chemical manufacturing, coal tar, compressed gas, dye manufacturing, explosive manufacturing, fertilizer, glass cleaner, organic chemical manufacturing, refrigeration, rocket fuel, and hide or leather tanning. You can be exposed if you work in a chemical laboratory, maintenance facility, petroleum refinery, or sewer.

How can ammonia affect my health?
Exposure to extremely high levels of ammonia can cause death, coma, blindness, lung damage, collapse, and seizures.

Breathing high concentrations of ammonia can cause fluid in the lungs to build up, and possible lung damage. Exposure to high levels of ammonia can burn the eyes, skin, throat, and lungs. Breathing lower concentrations of ammonia can cause coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, laryngitis, headaches, fever, nausea, vomiting, pink frothy phlegm, chest pain, asthma, rapid pulse, and increased blood pressure.

If you swallow ammonia, it can burn your mouth, throat, and stomach, and cause severe abdominal pain. If concentrated ammonia spills on your skin, it can blister or severely burn your skin, or cause dermatitis. Eye exposure may cause conjunctivitis, corneal irritation or damage, and temporary or permanent blindness.

You may suffer increased risks from ammonia if you have corneal disease, glaucoma, or chronic respiratory diseases.

Source: http://toxtown.nlm.nih.gov/text_version/chemicals.php?id=2

How Can Stall Genie Help?

Simple, by absorbing and eliminating deadly ammonia fumes and moisture. The absorption of moisture will help eliminate populations of parasites and flies which thrive with moisture, while the Ammonia absorption will improve the health of your horses and foals reducing veterinarian bills and resulting in a happier healthier horse.

Do you recall that burning sensation that fills your nostrils when you’re mucking out your stalls? That is the smell of deadly ammonia fumes, which hurt the health of your horse. Stall Genie can help absorb these harmful ammonia gasses and here are 4 reasons why.

Reason 1: Ammonia Absorption & Elimination
Stall Genie products were developed to absorb harmful ammonia gasses before they can reach the lungs of your horse or foal. Recent studies have shown that ammonia is harmful, especially in foals who can suffer from heaves due to ammonia exposure.

Reason 2: Reduces Fly & Parasite Populations
Stall Genie also acts as a dehydrator, reducing harmful fly and parasite populations in your horses stall. Stall Genie nutrients stimulate the growth of aerobic microbes that digest the biological matter in the bedding material. This activity and the increase in microbe population remove moisture out of the bedding and help keep it dry.

Reason 3: Compost Booster
Stall Genie treated bedding retains un-metabolized urea, a valuable nutrient in the compost.

Reason 4: Beats the competition
Stall Genie Products outperform competitors in the performance chart below.

Stall Genie Products WORK

Simple, by absorbing and eliminating deadly ammonia fumes and moisture. The absorption of moisture will help eliminate populations of parasites and flies which thrive with moisture, while the Ammonia absorption will improve the health of your horses and foals reducing veterinarian bills and resulting in a happier healthier horse.

Your horses lungs can be adversely affected by ammonia exposure – this can become especially pronounced if the exposure occurred and continued from when the horse was a young foal; foals are especially susceptible. Studies are showing that the horses respiratory system is a primary factor for the performance of the horse, and ammonia performance and health impacts cannot be overlooked.

Ammonia in a horses stall is caused by urea due to urination, this urea breaks down into ammonia; this is the pungent odor you smell when you walk into your horses stall – now imagine living with this smell! Ammonia gas can burn the respiratory tract and eyes of your horse, resulting in heaves in foals and performance impacts on race horses.

In the workforce Ammonia is known as a deadly gas as reported by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, who warn of the dramatic lung and eye damage which can result from ammonia exposure, as read by their safety pamphlet:

Hazards of Ammonia

Ammonia leaks can be very dangerous. These leaks in the refrigeration pipes carrying ammonia to the coolers can endanger all workers in your plant; therefore, it is important to make sure you are protected when one occurs!

Ammonia is extremely irritating, and may severely burn your skin and eyes upon contact. During a leak, a cloud of ammonia gas causes burning and swelling of the air passages of the nose, throat and lungs. Workers exposed to very serious leaks may survive the accident, but may die later from pulmonary edema, a buildup of fluid in the lungs caused by the damaging effect of the gas. Workers may suffer permanent lung and eye problems as a result of exposure to high levels of ammonia.
Nausea and watering eyes from ammonia fumes pose an additional safety hazard to workers who must work with sharp knives and precision cutting equipment.

Not much is known about the long-term effects of ammonia. Frequent exposure to small amounts of other irritating gases can lead to bronchitis, persistent cough, and excess mucus production. It may also decrease your body’s ability to get rid of foreign substances, like dusts, from your airways. Chronic (long-term) exposure to ammonia may, therefore, harm you by itself or in combination with other occupational hazards and infectious diseases.

Click Here to View Entire Pamphlet

Often Foals are the target of deadly ammonia exposure due to their proximity to the stall floor where ammonia levels are the highest, which is why it is so important to reduce and eliminate ammonia levels when foals are present, reducing harmful diseases such as heaves which some research has shown is due in part to ammonia exposure.

STALL GENIE PERFORMANCE CHART

How Can Stall Genie Help?

Simple, by absorbing and eliminating deadly ammonia fumes and moisture. The absorption of moisture will help eliminate populations of parasites and flies which thrive with moisture, while the Ammonia absorption will improve the health of your horses and foals reducing veterinarian bills and resulting in a happier healthier horse.

Foals spend much of their youth near the floor of the stall where ammonia resides, leading to a much higher ammonia health risk in foals. In addition to this, foals are weaker and the ammonia’s adverse health effect’s are even more pronounced in young foals. According to Frederick Harper PHD written for the University of Tennessee, up to 15% of all foals will suffer from a severe respiratory health disease before one year of age.

AMMONIA AND FOALS DON’T MIX

Dr. Frederick Harper
Extension Horse Specialist
Animal Science Department
University of Tennessee

It is the time of year when many of us get colds, or at least do a lot of coughing and sneezing. Also, it is that time of year when foals are starting to be born. It is also a frustrating time for horse breeders. About 15 percent of all foals have a severe respiratory disease before they are one year of age. Problems appear from 1-12 months of age. But, most respiratory diseases occur when the foal is 2-6 months of age.

Not only are these diseases costly and time-consuming to treat, but they disrupt other farm activities, such as foaling, breeding mares, training and showing. Horse breeders need to review management practices, seeking methods to reduce insults to foals that place them at risk. One of these is reducing the level of ammonia. High ammonia levels have been associated with respiratory problems in foals, as well as other animals. Protein in the diet is broken down by the body, resulting in urea that is excreted in the urine and volatilized to ammonia in the environment.

Often, horse owners keep barns shut up to keep out the cold. They may even heat their barn in winter, especially if they have show horses. A strong ammonia odor can often be smelt when entering these barns. Much of the ammonia is near the floor where young foals spend a lot of time. Young foals also have an immature respiratory system, making them more susceptible to disease. Ammonia levels as high as 400 parts per million (ppm) were measured in foal stalls in one study. But, it has been reported that 10 ppm of ammonia is the level above which one might expect problems in animals. So, it is important to reduce the level of ammonia in foaling stalls, and all stalls in barns were foaling occurs.

In a University of Illinois study, the ammonia level was the same regardless of whether straw, sawdust, sand or shredded paper bedding was used. But, 1-2 pounds of hydrated lime reduced the ammonia levels when sprinkled on the stall floor after cleaning and before re-bedding. Ammonia levels were noted 48-72 hours after the hydrated lime was applied with straw, but not until 72 hours with sawdust. A commercial product prevented detectable ammonia levels at either 48 or 72 hours with either straw or sawdust. In another study at the University of Pennsylvania, researchers lowered ammonia levels

to non-detectable levels when 10 pounds of sodium bisulfate were placed on the floor of a 10 x 10 foot stall (100 square feet), before bedding with 33 pounds of straw. Afterwards, sodium bisulfate was sprinkled on top of the bedding daily, then 4.5 pounds of straw was spread over the old bedding. Straw is the preferred bedding material at foaling. Afterwards, mare and foal can be bedded on sawdust or other suitable bedding materials. It is also advisable to check the level of protein being fed to broodmares. Excess protein in the diet results in greater levels of ammonia. Not only can this negatively affect the foal, but excess protein is a waste of money.

Horse breeders need to remove waste and soiled bedding daily, and apply hydrated lime, sodium bisulfate or a commercial stall product along with additional clean, fresh bedding to reduce levels of ammonia in foal stalls.

How Can Stall Genie Help?

Simple, by absorbing and eliminating deadly ammonia fumes and moisture. The absorption of moisture will help eliminate populations of parasites and flies which thrive with moisture, while the Ammonia absorption will improve the health of your horses and foals reducing veterinarian bills and resulting in a happier healthier horse.

Tip 1: Ammonia inhalation into a horses lungs can hurt the health of horses, with foals being especially vulnerable.

As written by Tracy Williams in Equus Caballus, Tracy discusses the hazard which ammonia places on your horses health, in which a very small inhalation of only 10 parts per million over a 5-7 week period can cause dysfunction.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, ammonia is a toxic, reactive and highly hazardous chemical. Their recommendations warn that concentrations of greater than 50 ppm can cause serious harm to human beings. Even in the cleanest barns, ammonia levels in equine stalls exist well above this concentration. Furthermore, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services warns that humans exposed to ammonia can suffer chronic inflammation of airways, airway hyperactivity, and chronic irritation of eye membranes

Read The Complete Article: Ammonia Beware

Tip 2: Pay Particular Attention To Foals

Foals spend much of their youth near the floor of the stall where ammonia resides, leading to a much higher ammonia health risk in foals. In addition to this, foals are weaker and the ammonia’s adverse health effect’s are even more pronounced in young foals. According to Frederick Harper PHD written for the University of Tennessee, up to 15% of all foals will suffer from a severe respiratory health disease before one year of age.

About 15 percent of all foals have severe respiratory disease before they are one year of age. Problems appear from one month to one year of age. But, most respiratory diseases occur when the foal is 2-6 months of age.

Not only are these diseases costly and time-consuming to treat, but they disrupt other farm activities, such as foaling, breeding mares, training and showing…High ammonia levels have been associated with respiratory problems in foals, as well as other animals.

Young goals also have an immature respiratory system, making them more susceptible to disease. It has been reported that 10 ppm of ammonia is the level above which one might expect problems in animals. But, ammonia levels as high as 400 parts per million (ppm) were measured in foal stalls in one study. So it is important to reduce the level of ammonia in foaling stalls, and all stalls in barns where foals reside.

Keeping a clean, ammonia-free stall is especially important when it comes to foals, who are at greater risk for respiratory disease than older horses.

Read The Complete Article: Ammonia and Foals Don’t Mix

Tip 3: Reduce Flies in Horse Stalls

Ammonia gas and fecal matter have the dangerous effect of attracting flies and parasites. Stall Genie will eliminate moisture in the bedding, insect and internal parasite eggs need moisture to survive, so the reduction in moisture will improve the horse’s environment in more ways than just odor control. Essential oils in the product replace the harmful ammonia gas with a pleasant smell and serve as an insect repellent.

How Can Stall Genie Help?

Simple, by absorbing and eliminating deadly ammonia fumes and moisture. The absorption of moisture will help eliminate populations of parasites and flies which thrive with moisture, while the Ammonia absorption will improve the health of your horses and foals reducing veterinarian bills and resulting in a happier healthier horse.