Advice desperately needed for friend's horses with breathing problems

[JEP]

My friend, who has a yard and fields next to mine, is having awful problems with her two horses' breathing and is facing the prospect of having to have them both PTS. The problem started during the winter of 2009 when they both contracted COPD (or RAO as called now) which I think was due to her hay being baled before completely dry. After quite a struggle she manged to get them back to full health again and did'nt have too much of a problem last winter.
However the problem came back again about six weeks ago, coughing badly and having trouble breathing, although at the time they were turned out 24/7. The vet thinks it's either pollen related and there is someing in the air around our fields which is causing it, although my three horses are absolutely fine.
They have been given tubs of ventapulmin and steriods, she has been keeping them in during the day and turning out at night but although the younger one has improved enough to stay out full time again the older one is still very poorly.
I think the orginal problem was caused because she will not fully immerse her hay, thinks that running a hose over it when in the net is as good, but I do'nt agree. Her OH has told her it's illegal to tip water from soaked hay into the ground but I can'nt see how this is worse that the run off from the dung heap.Wo'nt feed haylage as both have been mildly lamintic is the past.
I've read that some HHOers have had good results from Global Herbs, would be grateful for any advise I can pass on to my friend. I may think her management could be better but still do'nt want her to lose her boys.

 

[pottamus]

Well you have already mentioned that she is not soaking her hay properly...this is pretty critical to their longer term improvement. Also what bedding are the horses on in the stable...I find the large flaked bedmax to be the most dust free other than using paper bedding. She needs to ensure that her stable is completely cob web free too and all surfaces hoovered with one of those handheld hoovers or normal hoover if you have access to electricity (I don't)! This needs doing on a weekly basis to keep all dust and cobwebs right down.
My lad has a dust allergy also caused by crappy hay but it is manageable on this routine and he is in normal work. She needs to be pretty anal about the dust, cobwebs and soaking hay properly as this is the only way it will improve...even then it will take a long time for the horses lungs to clear sufficiently and all those powders and potions do not work in my opinion, unless the cause of the problem is taken away. Good luck to your friend though...winter is not far away!

 

[cptrayes]

OH is correct in part, runoff from silage is much more polluting to aquatic life, apparently, because it removes more oxygen from the water. However I doubt she'll be prosecuted for tipping out a bathfull of water from hay soaked for 12 hours! And you are right it does have to be SOAKED, drowned, for 12 hours to wet the mould spores enough to do the job.

Is she near rapeseed? I've heard of a lot of horses allergic to rapeseed. It might not help to have to move them to an area where there is none, but at least they'd still be alive I guess.

 

[AmyMay]

Cptrays has allready mentioned rapeseed - was thinking the same.

Ditto Pottumus also.

I would really suspect her management to be honest. One horse with a breathing problem, ok. But two???

 

[serenityjane]

We have had a similar problem with our mare.
Moved her into a different field and her occasional cough turned into motorboat breathing (resp rate higher than heart rate). We moved her back to her normal field (she is only out for 5 hrs per day-remainder is in yard with hay) next door, had vet out, steroid injection, ventapulmin still no change. Then put on inhaler which seemed to alleviate the symptoms. Tried soaking the hay but pulled several muscles carrying it around so.... bought a hay steamer- rediculously expensive but.... she immediately needed no inhaler and lost all the symptoms-her breathing is completely back to normal.
Although the vet thought that pollen was a factor I think the pollen only aggravated an already present problem due to the hay which looks ok but then you cannot really tell.
Soak or steam the hay but.... if soaking- soak really well (immerse for several hours) and the same applies to steaming- it is no good just putting a kettle of water over the haynet in a bin, it does need to completely penetrate the hay to kill the spores at high temperatures.

 

[the watcher]

I am one of those people who swears by Global Herbs where prescription stuff from the vet hasn't helped.
I bed on hemp or dust extracted chopped straw, and mostly feed haylage (and you can get high fibre haylage)
The pony occasionally gets a bit wheezy, but we are right next to a rape field, however most of the time she is symptom free - it did take me years to get her better though

 

[ThePony]

My mare is v sensitive to dust, unsoaked hay etc. I have found that the the only thing that helps is on the maintenence side of things. Trying a load of different supplements didn't seem to bring the magical effect the labels lead you to believe!
Mine is out as much as poss, but in at night in the winter, and if there is a frost overnight or if it is very hot during the day. Her hay is always soaked (I mean utterly drenched and left to soak, a spray with the hose does just about nothing), haylege sends her nuts so soaked hay it is. I never sweep the yard or stable, or muck out her stable when she is in. I also don't groom her in the stable. She is bedded on good quality large shavings (even when she was on shavings and the horse next door was on straw she was bad). Her feed is always wet. If it is dry and dusty like it is at the moment I empty water outside her stable when she is in to keep the dust down. In dry weather we don't use the school as the dust off the sand affects her. With this she is in full work and is very well in herself (some times a little too well!).
Maintenence really is the biggest thing you can do to manage this condition. Drugs/supplements etc don't even come close to being as effective. Ventopulmin is generally just a short term relief, much better to improve the environment the horse is in.