Recently reported by thehorse.com, more than 830 of their readers responded to a poll asking, “What precautions do you take during hot weather when riding your horse?”

The Horse readers shared what they do to keep their horses cool in the results of their poll below, showing 7 of the most common responses on how readers keep their horses cool during the hot summer months.

The Stall Genie weekly blog articles feature tips and articles on common equine health conditions and what you can do to recognize, avoid, or treat them.

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.

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.

Stall Genie Products are quality manufactured at our state-of-the-art plant in the U.S.A.

Our plant is NSF certified – read the Benefits of NSF Certification for Consumers:

No other independent testing programs require companies to comply with the strict standards imposed by NSF and its product certification programs. From extensive product testing and material analyses to unannounced plant inspections, NSF is the only third-party testing organization to undertake a complete evaluation of every aspect of a product’s development before it can earn our certification.

The Stall Genie Bags, Pails and Liquid are quality manufactured for the health of your horse and foals. These unique products will absorb and eliminate deadly Ammonia from stalls, and the moisture reduction will help stem fly and parasite populations. This results in the increased health of foals and horses, resulting in lower veterinarian bills.

Stall Genie products supply you with the tools you need to keep your animals healthy and free from the hazardous effects of ammonia and other stall and trailer related gasses.