I have never used hypertonic fluids for aftercare, but there is evidence for it's use though it's not significantly greater than the use of Normal Saline. The thought process behind hypertonic fluids is you don't have to administer as much to achieve the same effect as Normal Saline. That's the only significant upside to using hypertonic fluids over saline or LR.

Heta Starch is a colloid. That link I posted goes into a lot more depth about that subject than I could ever be unless dedicating ample time to the subject.

I can't disagree with the difference of how a human or a dog gets to the point of shock, but once there, shock is still the same in human or dog. Not enough blood flow to organs which can result in shutdown. So the treatment is the same even if how they got there is not. I agree about the anti-inflammatory issues, but that's not ultimately what kills dog or person. The inflammatory response is second on the list of things to worry about when it comes to shock. You need to expand volume so blood and oxygen can start to reach through the body. That has to be corrected first before worrying about inflammatory response.

I've never used any of those products as I simply can't find them anywhere short of a hospital setting. One thing I am going to look into is maybe sodium bicarb if I can find it along the way. It will decrease the acidity of the body after such sustained trauma. We've heard a lot of lactic acid buildup during the dog's work out. While most of that has been disproven to have a negative effect, a very real thing is lactic acid from sustaining trauma due to the body releasing lactic acid, and that will kill you regardless of what you do. Anyway, I don't want to get off track with my rambling about cascading issues from the trauma dog's suffer from shows.

I can't really say if dogs live from the fluids they receive, the GC, or a combination of both. I know I've seen dogs saved with just fluids and a combination of GC/fluids. I know they need the fluids moreso than the GC, but I can't say the GCs didn't help at all. The only thing I can say is I can't find any significant science stating the the administration of GC during hypovolemic shock contributes significantly to the survival rate.