Anyone else have breathing problems when grooming?

[Fii]

What sort of horrors can happen?

The full faced ones can slip round and rub on the eyes, causing eyes to swell, and damage to the eye.
Also if they slip round this can cause horse to panick and injure itself!

 

[FionaM12]

Thanks everyone, lots of good suggestions here (a cycling mask? I'd never have thought of that). I'll compile a shopping list!

 

[superted1989]

Be very carefull using lycra hoods, there have been some horror stories about them on here!

It was me that said lycra hoods!! OP said she wasn't out for long, so, I was assuming that it would be under supervision or regular checking. I've experienced a slipped hood before, luckily not too much damage, the horsey equivalent of a black eye. It could be why secondhand ones are so cheap on Ebay.

 

[FionaM12]

It was me that said lycra hoods!! OP said she wasn't out for long, so, I was assuming that it would be under supervision or regular checking. I've experienced a slipped hood before, luckily not too much damage, the horsey equivalent of a black eye. It could be why secondhand ones are so cheap on Ebay.

My girl's somewhat accident prone and a panicker so I probably won't risk it!

Yes, she is regularly checked, in fact I don't leave the yard while she's out. But I think she could get into trouble pretty quickly!

 

[HappyNeds]

Hi, the normal decorating masks (as you say you've tried them) are rubbish, and just steam up glasses and are so hot and uncomfortable.

However, I bought a 'posh' face/dust mask with two vent/valves each side a while ago, it was only a few pounds, and it's brilliant. It doesn't get hot and uncomfortable, it seals really well around my face, and the valve is one-way, so when you breathe the hot breath goes out of the mask, but nothing comes back in.

If you google "dust mask valve" and look at Images, you will see what I mean.

Hope you find a solution one way or another.

 

[Ibblebibble]

i have bad hayfever and dust allergy so take antihistamines all year round so that i can cope. in the summer though i have resorted to the dust masks that Happyneds mentioned, they are much better than the cheapy decorator ones. Shedding blades are a godsend too

 

[Spotsrock]

I clip mine out all winter due to ther workload but that helps my breathing too. Lottie is no longer clipped just rugged lighter as she doesn't want any additional weight with her stiff joints and big rugs are heavy when wet! I get quite weazy when I groom her but having a neck cover does help.

 

[Spotsrock]

The full faced ones can slip round and rub on the eyes, causing eyes to swell, and damage to the eye.
Also if they slip round this can cause horse to panick and injure itself!

Please see my previous thread if you are in any doubt, Beau still doesn't have full vision and is lucky to have both eyes. ers was on for warmth not cleanliness but the damage was the same.

 

[criptic]

Tried any alternative medicines?

 

[Mare Stare]

Hi, the normal decorating masks (as you say you've tried them) are rubbish, and just steam up glasses and are so hot and uncomfortable.

However, I bought a 'posh' face/dust mask with two vent/valves each side a while ago, it was only a few pounds, and it's brilliant. It doesn't get hot and uncomfortable, it seals really well around my face, and the valve is one-way, so when you breathe the hot breath goes out of the mask, but nothing comes back in.

If you google "dust mask valve" and look at Images, you will see what I mean.

Hope you find a solution one way or another.

Lmao This has just reminded me that I've got a WWII gas mask upstairs in the loft!! Maybe I should try wearing it to groom in.

 

[Kellys Heroes]

Some good suggestions on here.
I take 2 antihistamines before I go to the yard, keep my inhaler in a plastic bag with me, one in the car, ALWAYS drink from bottles, not cans - I'm allergic to horses, hay, straw, cats, birds, you name it! - and luckily my mare is a share so her owner is very understanding and grooms her in winter whilst I stand outside the stable. If I do groom her, I stand her outside her stable and use a good dose of mane and tail or something similar - it seems to dampen down the dust a little.
The 'posh' dust masks are good.
I recently had my eyes lasered and had little goggles to protect me from rubbing them - maybe they'd work!
K x

 

[FionaM12]

Tried any alternative medicines?

As I've said early, a few, but I am a bit cynical. You can spend a fortune on unproven alternatives which may do no good whatsoever.

The prescribed drugs do work, it's just that my asthma and allergies are potentially so bad that even the excellent treatment I receive can't quite make grooming muddy Mollie okay!

If I asked my doctor, I'm sure he'll say the obvious: don't groom, don't have a horse and question my sanity given my history.

But I did without horses for over 30 years. It was heartbreaking. Now I find I can do it all again (well, more or less ) it feels like the whole of my life since I was 21, I've been killing time until I could do what I really wanted with my life again.

 

[Shantara]

Gosh, you know what...I had forgotten how horrible it is not being able to breathe. I went to see my friends lovely kittens today and although I tolerate my cat, I was very allergic to hers.

Currently frantically looking for my inhaler, but the more I look, the more I panic about not being able to find it D: This is why I tidy MY stuff!! Everyone always moves it and I can't find anything I can't breathe Taking a little break to type this, to try and breathe.

I really hope you find something to help you! Now...back to looking for something to help me *gasps*

 

[FionaM12]

Gosh, you know what...I had forgotten how horrible it is not being able to breathe. I went to see my friends lovely kittens today and although I tolerate my cat, I was very allergic to hers.

Currently frantically looking for my inhaler, but the more I look, the more I panic about not being able to find it D: This is why I tidy MY stuff!! Everyone always moves it and I can't find anything I can't breathe Taking a little break to type this, to try and breathe.

I really hope you find something to help you! Now...back to looking for something to help me *gasps*

Have you found it? This is why I have Salbutamol inhalers all over my house . Every bag, every drawer, pockets, in the car, there's even one in the tack room in case I forget to take one when I go to do Mollie.

It's hard to describe to a non-asthmatic just how terrifying not being able to breath is. When I was a child (1950s/60s ) there was a terrible attitude to asthma: it was believed that it was "all in your mind", that you could pull yourself together if you wanted. Even medical people believed this. Treatment was in the dark ages. Steroids were new and drastically over-used but life-savers all the same.

I used to be left for days (often alone in the house ) hardly able to breath, my attacks would last for days but it wasn't until my teens that I started to be taken to hospital as an in-patient. After that I was in hospital about one week out of every four for years.

Treatment and attitudes are marvellous now.

I'm worried about you now. Tell me you've found your inhaler!

 

[Shantara]

I've been met with the same attitude to mine Usually at school! Yours sounds much worse than mine (Couldn't imagine not being around horses for so long! Tugs on my heart strings every time I read it), but it still sucks not being able to breathe sometimes D: I'm lucky that it's not as bad as it used to be.

I looked and looked and looked, but couldn't find it, so I just lay peacefully on the sofa untill my mum came home. She lifted a coat and said "Here, it's in this bag!" Good ol' Mum XD knows where everything is!! Thanks for your concern means a lot to me!

 

[Mare Stare]

Side railing a little, there was a story in the paper about a boy who had an asthma attack in a school last year. It was after school and he told a teacher. Instead of dealing with it, she left him sitting on a bench outside the staffroom, probably thinking that he would get over it. He didn't. He died.

It woke me up to how quickly these things can happen. I'm notoriously bad at leaving my sambutamol/ventolin inhalers all over the place and not being able to find them.

 

[FionaM12]

I looked and looked and looked, but couldn't find it, so I just lay peacefully on the sofa untill my mum came home. She lifted a coat and said "Here, it's in this bag!" Good ol' Mum XD knows where everything is!! Thanks for your concern means a lot to me!

Very glad you're okay.

Side railing a little, there was a story in the paper about a boy who had an asthma attack in a school last year. It was after school and he told a teacher. Instead of dealing with it, she left him sitting on a bench outside the staffroom, probably thinking that he would get over it. He didn't. He died.

It woke me up to how quickly these things can happen. I'm notoriously bad at leaving my sambutamol/ventolin inhalers all over the place and not being able to find them.

I read about that boy, and it's heartbreaking. His sibling even went to get a teacher but they wouldn't listen. Yes it can happen that quickly (which is why ambulances weren't allowed to take me through casualty for some years, it had to be straight to ICU as several times they'd nearly lost me).

I used to run out of Ventolin all the time. Now I just have loads of them, everywhere!