Aspirating after tie-back

[XxcktxX]

I recently bought a horse 3 weeks ago and didn’t know at the time that he’d had a tie-back (I did have him 5 staged vetted but this wasn’t mentioned to me). Came with a lot of nasal discharge and coughing when eating. Had the vet second day after he came and prescribed 5 day course of antibiotics as put it down to all the travelling he had done. The discharge did clear up but the cough didn’t. I had him scoped on Friday and he’s aspirating quite badly. He’s been prescribed another course of antibiotics.
The only real option is to potentially operate again however the vet couldn’t give me an expected outcome without consulting a surgeon. He said it’d be in the region of £3-4K which won’t be covered by my insurance.
Has anyone dealt with this before and what was the outcome of re-operating?
The horse is only 4 and coughing when eating all types of food and when drinking. He’s fed off the floor and on soaked haylage. I’m not sure what more I can do in terms of management?

 

[paddi22]

I had a similar older horse that did this, he had a tie back when younger. he went into vets hospital due to constant coughing and discharge and the internal cameras showed food going into his lungs. The antibiotics didn't help clear it up at all and in fact just destroyed his gut bacteria after time. As he was an older horse I didn't want to be spending a fortune operating. they suggested the simplest option was to get botox injected into his vocal chords as that would help the seal stop stuff. luckily it worked for us. it only cost me 150 euro I think to get done.

mine has to live out 24/7, if he's in it's in a spotless dust-free stable and I'm very conscious about dust in horse boxes and Haynets when travelling.

 

[ester]

A friend had a teens TB who had a tie back as a younger horse- she wasn't aware on purchase either, until he neighed. He had 2 weeks in horspital with pneumonia and the general consensus was that he'd been aspirating small amounts for a very long time and that it came to a head (specifically eating haylage on the lorry on the way to an event- he was competing BE100 regularly)

He did come through it, I don't think re-operating was suggested in his case, though was PTS for other things (KS) a couple of years later.

 

[ihatework]

A wind op should have been declared, you would surely have grounds for a refund.

That aside, it’s fairly rare for them to aspirate but certainly happens. When I had one of mine done the vet warned a small percentage of horses don’t cope and need it reversed.

That said, you should be able to get it reversed or re-done for under 3k

 

[XxcktxX]

Thanks everyone.
I’ve been speaking with the people I got him off and they’ve been very helpful so far.

He’s aspirating quite badly and has the nasal discharge everyday. When he use his lick it’s just coming straight out of his nose.
I’m trying to keep him out as much as possible as grass seems to be the thing that makes him cough the least, but he gets stressed when the others come in so I’m stabling him at night. I’ve got him in a well ventilated stable and is on shavings so trying to eliminate any dust too.

 

[paddi22]

I found miscanthous bedding was better than shavings for mine

 

[SEL]

My pony was operated on just before Xmas and I've been warned she is to eat food off the floor for ever more - no haynets and if fed treats then make sure she lowers her head for them. She doesn't get a salt lick any longer after she had a wheezy, coughing episode when it was still in her stable.

That doesn't really help with where you are now, but perhaps with ongoing management