argh vets-what do i believe?

I_A_P

I_A_P

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just had the vets out today.
millie has had what seems like a bit of a infection for a while now. after hard exercise she would have a bit of a snotty nose , and during she may have the odd cough..but not a heavy deep throated cough if you know wot i mean. and now and again you could hear her weezing slightly..like a ruffled kind of breath.

anyway they came out last week and gave her a course of antibiotics to be injected and an immine stimulant.
today came out..shes not better and worse apparently..all they did was listen to her chest which she was a bit stressed anyway as shes so afraid someones going to inject her.
they said to us well we want to scope her and take bloods....im not saying they dont know what they are talkin about but IMO shes not that bad compared to my horse last year who had a snotty nose and coughed loads...they scoped him , took various samples gave him god knows what medicine and he didnt improve at all.
so am slightly p*ssed off.
mum went and asked them about ventipulmin which they have now given her and we are putting her on some shavings. but i mean for gods's sake why cant they try that anyway? im sorry but im so p*ssed off that they seem to want to like drag it out...i mean i just want them to give her sumthin to try and clear it.
she was then getting fit, and i want to be getting on...not waiting a few weeks trying things that arent giving us any answers.
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there are any number of causes of respiratory tract things and not all respond to anti-biotics

I went thru 6 months of hassle and trying ventip. antibiotics, scoping and washing, etc etc (mine was already on dust free bed)

nothing worked and he was the same as yours

luckily my vet is a speialist in respiratory allergies and my boy had a full analysis of what he was allergi to (soya, peas, beans, mint, vegetable oil).

He then had to have months of tiny injetions of allergen mix to stimulate his reaction to the stuff and I had to change his feeds to straights to avoid soya and mint particularly.

My vet said that one horse he did was so allergi to different foods that it ended up being able to eat sugarbeet and hay

It is also interesting that these symptoms can start to show for no apparent reason at around 10 to 12 yrs old - and I'd had my boy since 3.5

Your vet isn't dragging his feet. With this sort of thing I'm afraid there IS not necessarily an easy answer and it IS a case of trying something for a while to see if there is an improvement and then trying something else different if there isn't.

Don't try and 'muddy the waters' though by fiddling around with herbal stuff whilst your horse is 'under the vet'. This could end up masking something and meaning you spend dosh all over again

Not easy

One thing to try though to ease symptoms when riding is to put some drops of Olbas oil up the nostrils befrore riding and then at the end of the ride do 'carrot stretches' to clear any mucous out of the sinuses.

I went thru the gamut of vick, etc and Olbas oil is the best to use.
 
I think that your vet is right. I've run a pre race training yard for a vet for several years so appreciate wind problems. By scoping and taking bloods you vet will know in a day if its an allergy or an infection. If it is the latter, they can give you more medicine to clear it up and save you money which you could have wasted on Ventipulmin and expensive shavings.

The vet tests will be pretty conclusive and in my opinion give you a better answer. Sorry!
 
i appreciate what your saying but im very dubious as last time on my other horse...everything they tried didnt work and we still had no idea what was up with him then. even after various tests and medications
We are now putting her on sahvings anyway as our straw isnt very good quality.
Problem is she looks fine atm, shes not coughing or having anything our of her nose. its only exercise that brings it about and as im not allowed to ride her its harder to tell.
it annoyed me today that seemed to literally listen to her chest...which wasnt easy as she was runngin backwards and spinning roubnd..and they automatically said scope her which makes it seem like they had already made up their mind.
i know i may sound like im being unreasonable and im sorry!
 
scoping is a good thing as it gives a clear picture of the insides which cannot be done just using stethoscope

also scoping is done under sedation which, if your horse reacts as you say, means that the vet will stand a good chance of listening to the lungs properly as well.

Scoping they usually 'wash' out a sample from the lungs and send that away for lab. analysis. This will show whether there is a bacterial infection, a viral (non-bacterial) infection (in which case anit-biotics aren't any good), no infection (which was the case twice with my horse), or something else in there causing irritation.
 
Your vet is not trying to drag anything out as far as I can see - rather just trying to find out why your horse is coughing.

You'll know yourself when you have had a cough which is viral rather than allergy related, they can take such a long to time to clear up.

Vet's don't work miracles - that's not their job. They evaluate a problem, decide on the best course of action and go from there.

Quite often with things like this it's not the drugs that do the trick, but time (if it's viral related). Or obviously changing the environment your horse lives in if it's allergy related.

I am so suprised to read a post like this from you I have to be honest.
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sorry, i was just really upset and confused when i wrote this post.

im just feeling down-like im sure everyone does from time to time, about the fact that i cant ever seem to have noproblems at all-i know this is the case with horses but sometimes you just need to let out the frustration.

yesterday afternoon i spent my time completely washing out, disinfecting and bedding down the stables with shavings as our straw isnt of very good quality.

i just felt like the vet didnt explain enough and didnt seem to take any time to say what was going to happen next.

if i hadnt had the same experience wtih my horse last year then i wouldnt be so frustrated, i want to know what the problemn is as well and i know it takes time. but weeks go by just waiting to make an appointment which i know that they are busy..but its all time.
sorry if my first post came across as aggresive
 
You're post didn't come accross as aggressive at all - just a little I suppose misplaced.

I have always found that I've needed to bombard my vets with questions. I think a lot of the time what they do is so routine that they possibly don't make it really clear to their customers what's going on and how they need to proceed - especially if there is a question mark over what is actually wrong with the horse.

But, I would be concerned if I was having to wait ages for an appointment. If I ring for an appointment I expect it within a day or two - or obviously immeidately if it's an emergency. However, my vets do have a large equine practices, so maybe yours doesn't???? If that's the case, it may be worth looking for another practice that does specialise and can offer you a better service.

Can you horse be turned out 24/7???? Whatever's going on that is bound to do it the world of good......
 
thanks amymay....i will have to wait till next wednesday to get an appointment..i mean i know they are busy but if we hadnt suggested them giving her something in the mean time (they have now given her ventipulmin) then it would be a week without trying anything.

they are the best equine vets in our area, they just dont seem to have the time.

what we are going to do, is in the meantime while waiting for an appintment next week we have put her on shavings etc and on ventipulmin and we shall see if there is any improvement.they said that if the ventipulkmin helps its more likely to be a dust/.allergy than a virus so we shall see.

24/7 turnout will be possible soon if it stays nice weather like it is and we dont get too much rain, it was nearly fereezing here last night and i would be afriad she would be more likely to catch a chill.
however its such a beautiful day today and it it stays klike this then im hoping we will be able to very soon
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I would strongly advise you to remove all dust and cob webs from your stable and any adjoining stables early one morning so as to allow a few hours for any dust to settle before you bring in your horse. This can be done with an industrial grade vacuum cleaner such as a Nilfisk or a Henry.

Soak all hay for a good one hour immersing it completely in fresh water.

This will reduce the amount of micro-dust suspended in the air which your horses breathes in.

At the same time let the vets do blood tests etc to determine what is wrong with your horse.
 
thanks, i have completely removed them from cobwebs, washed down everything and disnfected as well as putting them on shavinsg (our straw wasnt very good) hay is already soaked very well.
vets are now coming on wednesday unless i hear otherwise and wil take bloods etc, probably scope....if she is no better by then.
they would have taken bloods yesterday but she is now so needle shy after having antibiotics injected into her daily that they werent going to attempt it.
 
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