Charlie31
Well-Known Member
Long story short, I had the vet out a few weeks ago as my horse had had a few episodes of bleeding after intense exercise. He had a trach wash which showed a bacterial infection and had a course of antibiotics along with some steroids and Ventipulmin.
Follow up tests have showed that the infection has cleared but there was still a bit of blood in the lungs when the vet did the BAL. All the way through the neutrophils have come back as low, although I have always suspected the horse does have mild RAO. We're finishing up the steroids and then thinking of going onto a nebuliser for a few weeks to try and clear up this last bit of inflammation and blood.
The thing is that prior to treatment commencing the only other symptoms the horse had were white snot after exercise. It was only because of the bleeds that I had the vet out. Ever since he's been on the drugs though he's been much more breathy while out riding. We're on light exercise only of the sort that wouldn't normally get him out of breath at all. The vet advised this to open his airways but even during a short steady canter he's really quite noisy. The other thing is that the post ride snot that's coming up now is really mucky looking and not very pleasant at all. There's more of it too.
I don't really understand why his test results are coming back clear but to me he seems worse. At first I thought he was bringing up the muck from his lungs and it was good but I'm not sure now given that it's still going on. As he's only on the steroids now I can't help but wonder if somehow the steroids are actually making things worse. I plan to speak to the vet about this tomorrow but I was just wondering if anybody had had any similar experiences to this? I expect the vet will want to push ahead with the nebuliser but I'm very tempted to just turn him away with no drugs at all for a couple of months and then see what he's like when he comes back from a good rest.
Sorry this is such a long post but I feel really despondent tonight as I wanted to make my boy better but just seem to have made him worse. If anybody has any experience they can share with me I'd be grateful to hear it.
Thanks.
Follow up tests have showed that the infection has cleared but there was still a bit of blood in the lungs when the vet did the BAL. All the way through the neutrophils have come back as low, although I have always suspected the horse does have mild RAO. We're finishing up the steroids and then thinking of going onto a nebuliser for a few weeks to try and clear up this last bit of inflammation and blood.
The thing is that prior to treatment commencing the only other symptoms the horse had were white snot after exercise. It was only because of the bleeds that I had the vet out. Ever since he's been on the drugs though he's been much more breathy while out riding. We're on light exercise only of the sort that wouldn't normally get him out of breath at all. The vet advised this to open his airways but even during a short steady canter he's really quite noisy. The other thing is that the post ride snot that's coming up now is really mucky looking and not very pleasant at all. There's more of it too.
I don't really understand why his test results are coming back clear but to me he seems worse. At first I thought he was bringing up the muck from his lungs and it was good but I'm not sure now given that it's still going on. As he's only on the steroids now I can't help but wonder if somehow the steroids are actually making things worse. I plan to speak to the vet about this tomorrow but I was just wondering if anybody had had any similar experiences to this? I expect the vet will want to push ahead with the nebuliser but I'm very tempted to just turn him away with no drugs at all for a couple of months and then see what he's like when he comes back from a good rest.
Sorry this is such a long post but I feel really despondent tonight as I wanted to make my boy better but just seem to have made him worse. If anybody has any experience they can share with me I'd be grateful to hear it.
Thanks.
