Breathing/immune supplements.

[TarrSteps]

Me again, and the continuing tale of trying to feed a horse from a whole 'nother world.

Said horse has had, in the past, problems with allergies and, linked to this, with his breathing. He does not have COPD (or whatever we're calling it these days), has been scoped and otherwise investigated, and has been treated by various vets during significant episodes with Prednisone and Dexamethasone along with antihistimines with initial success but eventual reoccurrence.

BY FAR the most successful approach has been the use of a herbal supplement protocol made by this company http://www.omegaalphaequine.com/site/products but, of course, because nothing is ever simple in life, they do not have a distributor in the UK. He has been on a maintenance supplement with occasional "boosts" during stressful times and has been absolutely, positively fine then whole time, competing, living in different barns etc. So I would obviously like to find a similar product here. During the experimenting years we tried many other similar products to little or no positive effect so I'm not a huge fan of such supplements in general, but maybe that's just me being a non-believer!

Thoughts?

I've looked at the obvious formulations for NAF, Global Herbs etc and have not found anything with a similar formulation. Any thoughts on less well known companies? Anyone have any pertinent personal experienced to share?

Neale thanks you for your input.

 

[Clio]

Hi, my horse has problems with his immune system and is also on Prednisolone and I feed Allen & Paige Ride and Relax and also Echincea as a supplement (not too sure either whether I am a believer that these supplements work or not!) Allen and Paige do a whole range of feeding that has no GM ingredients and I am sure they will do one that would suit your needs. I sent them an e-mail telling them about my horses problems and they were very helpful so I am sure if you E-mailed them they would recommend a feed to help your horse. Hope this helps

 

[TarrSteps]

Thank-you very much, that's very helpful. I've had a look at their line and there seems some possibilities there.

 

[Oscarsmum]

They thought my horse had copd and he had an inhaler for quite a while !
now he has airways (equineamerica) and it has helped alot.

 

[eventer28]

As an allergy and asthma sufferer i dont believe in all those herbs and spices. I think you have to look at the cause and not the cure. If your horse initially responded to pred and dex then the effects didnt last he prob became tolerant to the dose of the meds. What do you think he is allergic to? Can he be turned out 24/7 and fed haylage?

 

[TarrSteps]

I don't believe in them either and definitely go in a "management" direction for my own personal similar afflictions. BUT this stuff worked, what can I say?

The horse has been owned by his breeders until, well, now. And spent his early life in a 25 acre field on 24/7 turn out in Canada, fed only the very best hay (first cut, second cut, grass, alfalfa mix - haylage not really an option there, nor is it necessary for the same reasons as here) from their own commercially grown stock. He has lived in a couple of indoor facilities for training with varying levels of turnout. Interestingly, there has been no consistent reaction, not even in his out 24/7 situation - sometimes he coughs, sometimes he doesn't. Even more oddly, on the rare occasions he's been exposed to less than ideal hay it hasn't necessarily made a difference. He is also prone to skin reactions (as, I have discovered, many tobianos are) and is highly allergic to at least one component of tetanus vaccinations - last time, after a scary previous experience, he was treated with prophylactic steroids and with an epi injection standing by.

To be honest, I'd love to "manage" him but in five years of concerted effort before settling on the current regime, his owners have not found a fail safe method of doing so. And he is a competition horse. He is best - physically and mentally - when in work. Admirable or not, his "point" is to be a show horse so there are limited options for completely controlling his environment. We found judicious use of the OA products - whether they *should* work or not - allowed him to exist in reliable comfort and still live a relatively "normal" life. If he can't be "managed" acceptably in the UK, then that's as it must be. But having gone through the trouble of sorting him out in Canada I can't quite believe it will be impossible here.

 

[Clio]

Hi very interesting to read that tobianos are very prone to skin disorders. I didnt know that and my horse although probably not classed as a tobiano (he is black with 4 white socks, white blaze and has one white patch on his neck only and white through his mane and tail!?) has a pretty severe skin condition which is why he is on Prednisolone. He cannot get his flu jags cos he takes a severe reaction to that as well although he does get his tetanus and sometimes reacts but never know if it is anything to do with that or not as usually there is something else going on round about the same time as he gets it that I may have think has caused the outbreak. Lots of things trigger it like stress. Not much help to you but was interested in the fact that your horse has also taken bad reactions to vaccinations

 

[TarrSteps]

I originally became interested in the coat colour link after talking to some Paint/Pinto people, one of whom made the offhand comment that they never have trouble with the Overos but if there's going to be an immune problem, it will likely be with a Tobiano. Now of course that's a gross generalisation - the vast majority of tobianos are, I'm sure, just fine. it was just such an interesting "of course" comment from people who only deal with pintos. It's also been my experience that chestnuts are far more likely to have skin reactions, particularly, although again, this is not the same thing as saying all chestnuts are more sensitive. (Interestingly, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence and a few studies the red haired people have more problems with sensitivities, clotting disorders and pain threshold issues, perhaps because of something to do with their lack of melanin, which is, after all, a hormone. So a colour/immune link is not as far fetched as one might think.)