seassonal summer breathing difficulties (again ...)

[notpoodle]

ive googled my a*s off but can't find anything particularly useful. vet just puts it under the 'RAO cloak'.

basically, pony is heaving and wheezing in the summer for no apparent reason. it just started again, we're back on the Becloforte inhalers, which helped last year. pony also has sweet itch and chances are the two are related and possibly to do with her immune system in general. she doesn not cough, she just heaves :( and it's not a pretty sight :(

does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? or have any info on it I could read, because i'm trying to understand why this is happening to my poor little pony.

Julia
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[magicalmac]

Could it be an alergy - trees, rape or even grass?

[Skye94]

definatly sounds liek your pony is allergic to something! Poor pony! ** doing right by soaking her hay etc but you can get a feed supplement called Immuforte by NAF its for horses with allergic reactions.. either that or put your pony on a immune system supplement like D&H Echinachea(sp) that might help... sorry havnt really dealt with ponies like yours, mines has COPD.... :(

[Iron Maiden]

One of the horses on our yard had this just the other day. He has sweet itch too. He has been clipped now because he has a very thick coat & seemed to be struggling with the heat, don't know what else the vet has said - soz!

[Ptaty70]

how awful for you, it's devastating to watch. Mine got an allergy last summer and had a heave line, with muchos snot. The breathing problems have come back recently and he puffs a lot although not heaving any more. I use Freewave I think it is, from Hilton Herbs, then going to put him on human inhaler until it's calmed down. The herbs have helped a little, but he's still having problems.

[becs]

Had a mysterious similar episode late last summer.

Our retired 32 year old NF pony was just short of breath around midday. It started late morning and he was fine by mid afternoon. No nasal discharge, no cough, no loss appetite, no other changes, & no work as always! It was hot dry weather for weeks though.

Vet examined him and found no clues, so he had oral Ventapulmin granules for 10 days. It got better then a bit worse then went away in September.

We all wrote it off as a respiratory allergy, goodness knows what trigger - like looking for a needle in a haystack, I guess.

Ours didn't have an audible wheeze though - we first noticed it from his flaring nostrils, poor l'il mite.

[sozzie]

I can sympathize with you notpoodle. My pony is currently having breathing difficulties too. She's only 5 and has never had any problems before so it was quite a shock when she had a bad reaction to hay dust over the winter. She had ventapulmin and I switched hay for haylage and she made a full recovery. Unfortunately she's started heaving again over the last few weeks, no audible wheeze and no cough though, just nasal flare and a bit of mucus. She's totally fine apart from that, as in she doesn't look down, still has an appetite,and still bossy!
It's been unseasonably dry here in the south and her field is dusty in places which can't help but I'm sure it's allergy related. It might be a coincidence but I've been suffering from allergies more than usual recently, I even have eczema which I haven't had for years.
I'm trying different herbal supplements to see what helps if at all. I'm currently trying NAF Respirator but she's only had that for a few days and no real change yet. I'm going to try something to boost her immune system too but it's all so frustrating especially when she's so green and she needs to be ridden (obviously I'm not riding her in her present state).
I wish I could help you more but I'm having problems trying to get to the bottom of it all too.:(

[Ptaty70]

I'm going to try something to boost her immune system too (

Sozzie, out of interest, what are you planning on giving her for her immune system? I have used homeopathy tablets in the past for other issues, so are you thinking of something along these lines? would be interested to find out if you have something in mind

[Sam_22]

Hi, my pony has COPD and his symptoms worsen in the summer because of the pollen. He is relatively ok in the winter because he lives out and there is no pollen, but once the summer comes his breathing difficulties all start up again. It has been playing him up over the last couple of weeks.

A few tips - try turning your pony out at night and bringing him into the stable through the day. Being out at night will get him out of his stable and away from his bedding etc which can cause breathing difficulties. The pollen is also lower at night (or so I've been told :rolleyes:). If your pony is being turned out through the day then try and arrange for him to be turned out early morning or late afternoon (after 3pm/4pm), when pollen counts are at their lowest. You may have noticed that your ponies breathing is worse when riding in hot and/or humid weather. I now ride my pony at nights and late afternoon's on Saturday's and Sundays and this has made a real improvement to his breathing.

I've got a lot of information of a few good internet sites. I'll find them and post them for you, so you can have a look at what your dealing with.

[Iron Maiden]

Simple System do a supplement called Eclipse Recovery designed to boost the immune system. I used it after P had antibiotics for a respiratory iinfection, she picked up very well.

[Jessey]

Echineacia is also great for boosting the immune system :D

NA am I right thinking that the vet rules out allergies? if not then perhaps getting a short course of antihistamine might help with diagnosis - either it will help or it won't :o

[notpoodle]

there was a blood test last year (not a full blown detailed allergy test though as the vet said there wouldn't be much point in this ie. if she's allergic to a certain type of pollen it'd be impossible to keep those away from her anyway) which didnt bring anything useful back. last year vet said she must stay outside as much as possible (confusingly ...).

i will loook into immunesystem boosting stuff though, that sounds a very sensible thing to do and certainly won't do any harm.

with the hayfever course ... i asked the vet about this last year and was told that hayfever stuff didn't exist for horses and the normal human stuff would not really work on horses.

Julia
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[Mareish]

Actually when my pollen allergy and asthma is bad I go on a course of steroids - this CAN and HAS been prescribed for horses too

Lily has a bad pollen allergy, I have a nebuliser for her which I put in the human form of hayfever eye drops (sodium cromoglycate I think) and footpump it so she breathes it in, you can also use a baby-chamber to administor an anti-wheeze inhalor when it is really bad.

I once tried some Aloe-vera stuff that you drink, it tastes disgusting but it did alleviate some of my symptoms, a friend used to put it in her horses dinner so tere is another natural product to try if you don't want to go down the medical route straight off.

Lenrys Upper Respirtory Chinese herbal biscuits are also very good, I found these did help Lily two years running.

[notpoodle]

she has had two steroid injections last year (i wasnt best pleased ... what with laminitis etc) and they didnt make any differemce. not with the breathing, not with the sweet itch :(

her inhalers are steroidal as well though, i believe ...

any more ideas on that immune system thing? ecinachea for horses? but how?

Julia
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[Jessey]

any more ideas on that immune system thing? ecinachea for horses? but how?
You can buy it as a supplement pretty easily, its best given in short courses with longer breaks in between, I used to give it to Phoenix quite a bit as cushings is known to compromise the immune system and it did seem to help give him a boost :p
Have you considered essential oils? Something like eucalyptus would really help clear the airways (only treating the symptom but might offer her some relief) you could buy the neat oil then mix it and put into a spray bottle and apply daily over her chest/neck - kind of like Vicks for ponies :D it would probably assist in keeping the bugs off her too :p

[Mareish]

Dodson and Horrell do the Echinacea in a tub which you just pop into the feed, they seem to like it too.

[Mareish]

I would definately give the chinese herbal biscuits a whirl though.

I did trials on Lily for De Montfort Uni, they gave me fake biscuits for a while then real biscuits (I didn't know which were which) but when the second batch helped loads and the first batch didn't, they revealed that I was correct in my assumptions of which were the real deal :)

[bevy]

Actually when my pollen allergy and asthma is bad I go on a course of steroids - this CAN and HAS been prescribed for horses too

.

My daughter suffers with hayfever triggered by oil-seed rape and the best thing she has found is "local honey". You take a teaspoonful everyday and it builds up your resistance, it works the same way as homeopathy, a little bit to counteract the allergy.
Wonder if it would work for horses?

[janette carter]

My pony has a bit of a nasal discharge and the odd cough this week or so. I'm sure there is a connection probably in the immune system with the sweet itch because she has had the odd flare up over the last fortnight.
I did discuss this summer breathing problem with my vet and he recommend if needed I try an inhaler rather than Ventipulmin. Just to use it as and when needed so would be quite economic and he did emphasise it would not be a steriod treatment. Are you positive your inhaler is steriodal? If it is why don't you go back to vet and ask if they can find something more suitable.
I do feel for you. I know what it is like at this time of year. Something out there must work...we just got to keep trying:)

[sozzie]

I've resorted to the vet for more help now as my mare's breathing is worse and I don't want to risk permanent damage especially as she's only 5. The vet is visiting first thing tomorrow morning so if she gives me any useful advise I will pass it on. I think I might have to give my pony inhalers but I'll try to avoid giving her steroids if possible as the last thing she needs is laminitis especially as she's a little overweight at the moment.
I read an article yesterday about someone giving their horse a Becloforte inhaler, a Salbutamol one and another stronger steroidal one which chronic asthmatics use. I don't think Salbutamol is steroid based from having taken it myself in the past but I could be wrong.
It's all so worrying and frustating.:(

[notpoodle]

i was assured that the steroids in the becloforte inhaler would, in their powdery inhalery form, not have a laminitis effect and did not have the same scary side effects as conventional steroids that are injected.

echinacea in a tub!! how much of that would you feed? pony only gets one token feed a day (mainly to get the supplements in her ...), so twice a day is out ...

Julia

ps: now we have white nasal discharge (i literally had to blow her nose today!), am i right in thinking this indicates an allergy and is not too much of a worry since it's neither yellow nor green?

[Jessey]

Yellow or green would indicate an infection - so it good its just white, I would think it would indicate an allergy.
I would give the local honey a try and give her a dose of Echniacia a day for about a week, then give a break from the Ech redosing monthly or something if you need it that often/if it helps.
Honey works very much on the same lines as homeopathy, a little of the aggrivating thing daily gradually builds immunity to the allergy, if not you could also consult a homeopathist and see if there is something more specific which would help. As a kid I had 100's of allergies which conventional medicine never really got under control, though it would relieve the symptoms temporarily - my mum swears the homeopathic treatment I got improved the problem hugely and long term :D

[notpoodle]

so roughly how much echinacea would i give her per day? i havent got a clue where to start :confused:

[Jessey]

It depends a bit on where you get it, how good a quality it is and pureity etc :o
I got mine from the chemist in the end :o I gave Phoenix the same dose as was recommended for a child and that seemed to do the trick for him, I think you can give up to double the adult dose, but I can't remember now (seems so long ago :o) pop into your local health food shop, some of the staff in those are very knowledgeable or may at least be able to recommend you to a good source or herbalist who could help - there are even some vets out there who specialize now days :D If you can't find it I will have a look - I'm sure I have it written down somewhere :p
Or you could just get a tub specially for horses and do what it says on the tin ;)

[sozzie]

I've picked up some NAF echinacea liquid from my local feed store and I just add a small dose everyday in her handful of chaff (she likes the taste). The stuff I've got says to give them some every day for a couple of weeks I think then take a break.
I'm waiting on my mare's scope results now but her mucus was also white rather than yellow or green too so ?allergy.
I have noticed that my mare is breathing more easily since the air temperature has dropped a bit.