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I've been prompted to write this article
about breathing problems because there have been a number of questions
recently regarding COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) ,
coughing and SAD (small airway disease) and as I have a horse with
asthma/hayfever symptoms, I have a fair bit of experience
with this type of problem that I feel it's time I shared with
everyone.
Madame Ginger Bits (Hayley) is a 15.3
hand Anglo Arab who is teaching me to ride (along with lots of help from
my instructors) . She is 23 years young and usually very fit. Until 18
months ago, her breathing was never an issue.
I went away on holiday for 5 weeks at the
beginning of January 2001 and when I came back, I noticed that she
was coughing a lot - great big hacking coughs that would shake her body
and make her sides heave with effort . I felt mean just riding her. She
made a gurgling noise in her throat and left her feed most mornings.
I got the vet out to see her and he
examined her mouth and told me that I should really have a
split back tooth removed as it was digging into her tongue and causing
her distress and stopping her from accepting the bit. He didn't at that
time feel that there was any cause for concern with her breathing
and even put her under a general anaesthetic to remove the tooth. She
still coughed. The vet said that slow cantering would help clear the
airways as the rocking motion would loosen the phlegm in the
airways and make it easier to cough up. However, slow cantering a horse
having difficulty just breathing felt cruel - there had to another
and better way.
Horses are not very good at clearing their
airways if they become congested and so coughing is like physiotherapy
to a horse - it's the only means he has of clearing all the gunk out of
his upper respiratory tract so coughing in itself is good - it means the
horses immune system and response to debris in the tract is working.
When that cough starts to affect the horse's
way of going and the horse's sides are heaving with exertion and
effort, it's time to have a re-think.
I started by buying Ventipulmin granules to
put in my horse's feed which was a complete waste of time and money -
the drugs go into the horse's stomach NOT into the respiratory tract so
giving medication of this type orally is a waste of time in my opinion.
I also bought a herbal remedy (there are many on the market) which,
again was useless even after several weeks of feeding it to her.
You've Done Your
Best - Now CALL THE VET
Time to get the vet involved and so I called
him out to examine her properly.
First of all, my vet found
"whistling" in one bronchial tract which meant she was having
difficulty breathing and that explained the "heaves". He
suggested two things. The first was that she had a shot of cortisone
which suppresses the immune system and stops the horse from having
the allergic reaction to whatever it was that was causing the
allergy. Now, cortisone is not without it's problems and shouldn't be
given to overweight horses or ponies by injection. The reason for this
is that it can trigger an attack of laminitis so it's not the answer in
all cases. However, my mare was not overweight and it was worth the
risk. There are two doses that can be given. The first has a
shorter effect than the second but is less likely to cause laminitis so
we opted for the short dose. MGB was terrified (she hates needles) and
wouldn't relax her neck so it took some doing on the vet's part.
MGB reacted badly to the cortisone - she
sweated up in minutes and had to be turned out to cool off
quickly. This can be a totally normal response even in humans although
not all humans or horses experience this. The horse isn't dying , just
get it cool as quickly as possible. I went up again later in the evening
and she was fine.
The vet suggested that we move her to a
different box. Her old home ( for 19 years) was in a "box of
four" where the boxes looked at each other rather than the more
usual arrangement of a line of loose boxes. We moved her into the
"line" into a larger box , across from her old box , with more
air flow (a great big hole in the ceiling) and also this box was sealed
off physically from the box next door. This also meant that the pollen
generated by the trees could flow over her box rather than into it .
He also wanted her on shavings but I thought
that if I did too many things at once then I wouldn't have a clue
which of them had worked so she stayed on straw.
MGB moved house the next day and seemed
happy in her new upgraded bedroom.
I talked at length to my husband, a
life long asthmatic who has a vast knowledge of the kinds of drugs
available and the effects that these drugs have on the body - he also
told me that the very last thing he wanted to do when his breathing is
compromised is any kind of physical exercise so I stopped riding
immediately. I also talked to my vet again who was going to a
trade show in Scotland and he offered to track me down an equine
"spacer" which is a similar device to the one used by human
asthmatics to take their sprays. The difference is that humans take
their medication through their mouths and horses take it through their
nostrils.
Now just a word about sprays here.
Sprays administer cortisone and bronchio-dilators
using actuated particles which are the most effective way of getting the
drug into the horses bronchial passages where it can have an effect.
Even using a nebuliser either electric or a foot pumped one does not get
the particles fine enough to line the tubes properly and so the effect
is reduced.
On average, a horse of around 15.2 requires
10 times the daily dose that a human requires as a maintenance dosage.
The only way of giving these sprays is to
use a proper equine "spacer" with a one way valve system
which is clamped over one nostril whilst the other nostril is closed
using your hand. The spray is then inserted into the end of the spacer
and depressed into it . The horse breathes in, taking the drugs through
the spacer and the one way valve through the nostril and up into
the nasal passages and finally into the bronchial passages and lungs.
The fine particles line the tubes and lungs where they can begin their
job.
The first spray is a corticosteriod and the
brand name is "Becloforte" or "Becotide" . The spray
is usually in a brown "puffer".
This spray suppresses the immune system to
allow the other drugs to work. It can be reduced after a period of ten
days , halving the dose each day after the tenth day until the horse
cortisone free. The good news about this way of administration is that
it has not been known to cause laminitis like injected or oral steroids
so it's safer . I used 20 puffs daily (10 twice a day)
The second spray is a fast acting bronchio
dilator , brand name "Ventolin" or "Salbutamol" and
is blue in colour. This immediately opens up the airways and makes
breathing easier and the horse more comfortable. This is used in a
consistent amount and I used 20 puffs daily (10 twice a day)
The final spray is a long acting bronchio
dilator brand name " Serevent" in a green puffer and
this is the one my husband says he could not live without. Serevent
keeps the airways open for twelve hours at a time . Again, the dosage is
the same.
And so MGB lived on this regime all last
summer with no breathing problems until the coughing began again in
November of 2001. The vet duly came and gave her another cortisone
injection and shook his head sadly saying he thought we had really
cracked it. I still believed there must be a rational explanation for
her relapse and so we made sure that her hay was thoroughly soaked
before feeding it to her. She stayed "cough free" on wet hay
and her drugs until Christmas when it was cold and someone gave her dry
hay instead and the coughing began again.
We took her off hay totally and gave her
haylage which at another £20 a week isn't cheap but she coughs only if
someone accidentally mixes hay in with her bedding and she then tries to
eat it. She is also off all medication and I would only use it now if
she began to relapse but I believe that we have found the source of her
allergy -HAY !!
A lot of horses on our yard are coughing now
and I think it's because we are now feeding last years hay and
it's dusty. It might be OK for younger horses with stronger immune
systems but my horse needs a bit more coddling at her age .
In the past, vets labelled this condition
COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) but I thinks it's a
misnomer.
Almost all the humans who are
diagnosed with COPD are smokers - horses don't smoke and so I
believe it's an allergy to hay spores, nothing more than that. It gets
worse in winter when hay cannot be soaked because it's too cold and the
hay freezes and also because the hay is old and dusty. It gets better
for some horses if they are turned out because they are away from the
source of the problem - ie .HAY.
Questions & Answers
Q. So why should it
be that we have fed horses hay for years to no ill effects ?
A. Well, I would challenge that statement
because how many horses in years gone by were diagnosed as being
"broken winded" and destroyed, possibly as a result of an
allergy to hay ? This allergy has been around for years, we were too
blind to see it. Hay is not a natural first choice food for horses
- grass is the food that a horse would eat in the wild, hay is man-made.
Q. Do why do some
horses and ponies get worse when they are turned out ?
A. Possibly because like humans, horses have
different allergies and some may be allergic or sensitive to grass
pollen or tree pollen and so turning them out makes it worse. Also,
think of the increase in chemical spraying these days - how can anyone
know what has accidentally got into their field, borne on the wind or
into their hay when it was made ?
Q. Will my horse get
better - the condition is now pretty advanced ?
A. Only you can decide how far down he road
you want to go with your horse or pony. It's a long task and you have to
be prepared not to ride when the horse is bad and to access the
situation on an ongoing basis and to spend money on drugs that work -
that's not cheap. I personally can't put a price on the way
I feel about my horse. If the horse gets bad because the condition is
untreated for years, it may not be possible to reverse the
situation and euthanasia may be kinder than a suffering horse.
Q. Can I prevent
this happening?
A. You can take sensible steps to
safeguard your horse. Flu injections for younger horses, I think, must
be routine. A Flu epidemic can lower your horse's immunity and
cause long term breathing problems ,leaving the horse vulnerable to
allergies.
You can make sure that you always feed good
quality, wet hay. If the quality gets poor or the hay gets old or it's
too cold to wet it, feed haylage instead.
You can put your horse onto wood shavings so
he can't eat the bed and inhale straw spores but I don't think
that straw is the culprit here. It's harder and less dusty so less
likely to go mouldy and harbour spores.
You can take on board that older horses have
weaker immune systems so as your horse gets older be aware that his
dietary need will alter and his ability to shake off minor coughs
lessens and his lung function isn't as strong so your horse needs food
appropriate to his age along with all other considerations.
Q. Are there any
homeopathic alternatives to the use of the drugs ?
One suggestion that I was unable to try was
feeding locally gathered honey (within a 3 mile radius of where your
horse is kept). Honey is a naturally occurring anti-biotic and contains
histamine. Histamine can cause allergies in people and animals and so
feeding a little back strengthens the immune response and the horse can
fight the reaction using his own immune system.
I had no success with other proprietary
"herbal mixes" and it would have taken months to build up the
levels in the horse to have any noticeable effect and I didn't have
months - I had a sick horse !!
There may be some mileage in contacting a
homeopathic vet - one who trained in conventional medicine as well as
homeopathy as some horses have benefited from being given naturally
occurring anti-histamines to build the immune response and have
been "cured" of their hay allergy. I don't know the specific
homeopathic remedies but there are vets out their who swear by this
approach.
(I hate the word cured - only bacon is
cured in my opinion !!)
I am not an expert, I am not a vet and so
any of the information contained in this article is a statement based
directly upon my own experiences.
If I can be of help to anyone on this
subject , please
email me
,
I am happy to discuss even if I cannot promise a cure - but
please be prepared - I can be quite blunt if I think that you
should have called the vet out ages ago and your horse is suffering as a
result.
Horses are not cheap to keep and only a vet
can prescribe any of the drugs I mention here for your horse and that
may involve expense.
I cannot put a price on the life of my
little mare (This is her below )
- can you put a price on the life of yours ?
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