Collective minds needed please

[BallyJ]

Good Morning,

I have been a little MIA on here recently, but I need some input!

So I moved my mare in January to a new yard, about 25/30mins from my old one, and she has been so much happier, content relaxed! Just fantastic.

However once spring started she has started coughing when exercised, not something she's done before (other than Hay related but wetting it down sorted this fine). So the vet came out and prescribed Ventipulmin for 2 weeks to try and ease up the coughing to give her throat chance to heal and see if this could break the cycle. She didn't cough at all while on this, but now it has finished the coughing has returned (possible worse than ever).

I'm thinking the next steps are Piriton. The vet said maybe worth the asthma route, or my out of the bag thought is to move her to a different yard to see if its an allergy to the now very close woodland?

Just looking for a sounding board really and Ideas/experience as i'm on my own at the new place so don't have the horsey mind collective!

 

[ycbm]

I'll try and find it but there was a similar thread last year and moving the horse away and back again proved that it had a pollen allergy which was believed to be because of the trees.
.

 

[Jambarissa]

Have you tried a nose net? It does sound allergy related. Have you the opportunity to box out somewhere and see how she is there?

There are plenty of supplements that work well for some which I'd want to try before long term anti histamine.

If its only when exercising and a nose net or supplement fixes it you should be fine, especially if it's only for a limited period with a certain pollen. But knowing she'd be more comfortable living somewhere else would make me keep an eye out for a more suitable yard.

 

[Mrs. Jingle]

Pollen allergy I would suggest. I had a mare with this a few years ago, and it usually subsided by the middle of July'ish. My vet did prescribe some sort of anti allergy meds but I cant for the life of me remember what they were as I didn't find they made a huge difference anyway. If, like my mare, it is only when exercised I found wiping vaseline around the nostrils (traps the pollen allergens before it goes down to upset the lungs and airways. I also got her a Cashel ride on fly mask and those two things together made her quite rideable and much happier and tolerant to exercise.

It does seem a shame to move yards where you both sound very settled and happy Hopefully more suggestions will come along for you to try before having to do that. Good luck.

 

[Love]

I'm convinced there is something environmental around our yard that causes similar in quite a few of the horses. Whether its pollen, fungal spores, dust etc I'm not sure (and probably wont ever find out) but many never had it before moving here (including my own) and ones that have moved away have since stopped. We are in a sort of "bowl" so possibly the allergens collect and are more concentrated? Mine always has wet hay when in which helps but each flare up never last more than a day or 2 and then clears up. Sudden damp weather seems to be one of the triggers

 

[ihatework]

I’d lay money it’s a pollen allergy. Hopefully whenever whatever is flowering stops flowering she will improve.
If it’s affecting her I’d probably use an inhaler short term.

Anti histamine, nose net and some nostril-vet all worth trying too.

 

[Marigold4]

My horse's coughing seems to be dust related. It can occur any time of year. If I keep his stable scrupulously clean and use aubiose bedding, and spray the bedding with "balsamic air" before he comes in, his coughing is much better. Yesterday, we had builders in and dust was stirred up - he started coughing again.

 

[Highmileagecob]

Definitely agree with the pollen theory. Willow catkin pollen, hawthorn to a lesser extent, and balsam are the main triggers for my old cob. He goes out in a fly mask with nose net every day, and is cough free on wet days. He was diagnosed COPD around twelve years ago.
I hesitate to mention, because it is a bit off the wall, but after the summer of 2022, when he had a really bad episode, my friend gave him reiki healing. The entire herd came down to the gate and stood around yawning, and afterwards they all strolled back looking like they had done a full days work. 2023 was damp, to say the least, but he didn't cough.....

 

[BallyJ]

Thank you all!

I'm glad we're all thinking similar things, moving yards seems extreme maybe but if it keeps her more comfortable then I don't mind.

I've been wanting to send her away for some schooling so may be worth doing this to see if it eases the cough! Will try Vaseline later - is it alot?

 

[eggs]

I had the same when the rape fields near me came into flower.

 

[SEL]

My littlest pony has an allergy to one of the early flowering trees. She gets piriton and this year I tried opening up a different field with less of a hedgerow and it has made a big improvement.

Keeping them fit over winter also helps. It doesn't stop the allergy but the lungs are better prepared it seems.

I descend into a sniffling wreck with grass pollen in June but she's fine by then.

 

[poiuytrewq]

Thank you all!

I'm glad we're all thinking similar things, moving yards seems extreme maybe but if it keeps her more comfortable then I don't mind.

I've been wanting to send her away for some schooling so may be worth doing this to see if it eases the cough! Will try Vaseline later - is it alot?

I'd try her some where away first, just thinking that presumably your paying to send her for schooling? It would be annoying if she gets there and they can't do a lot with her because of the cough. It would be a waste of your money and an expensive way to trial being away from home.

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

This is a huge shame OP if you are otherwise happy with your new yard.

I've got one with equine asthma and this time of the year is total pants for them. I'd betcha there is something in the vicinity which yours is reacting to.

I had the vet to mine yesterday. Her breathing hasn't been good this Spring and she's been coughing intermittently; there doesn't seem to be any consistency to it, and tbh she's coughing more at rest than when she's exercised (which the vet says is better to continue doing).

My mare is carrying a fair bit of weight, so for the next few weeks she will be on a 1.5% strict diet. Vet has prescribed inhaled med's this time (Ventilpulmin didn't touch it before) and one of those is a cortico-steroid, and naturally I'm concerned about the risk - however slight - of lami.

I've also been riding her in her fly-mask which has a nose-covering; got a Cashel riding one on order.

Hope you can sort this OP. Feeling your pain.

 

[Barton Bounty]

I also agree a pollen allergy, bb had one, antihistamines, simple linctus for the cough. And hayfever allergy wipes, wiped round his nose and eyes. You also get the hayfever allergy balm and id stick that round his nostrils

 

[Time for Tea]

My 3 New Forest ponies are all fine normally. On Sunday though, we went on a charity ride up on the North Wessex Downs. It was absolutely stunning. Very different type of grassland though, much richer and lusher altogether, and one became quite agitated, plunging up and down a bit and shaking his head. Some of the fields we rode through were much worse for him than others. I’m going to get him a nose net for his tourist trips. Just a very different environment for him.

 

[BallyJ]

rode her in the indoor last night for 10 mins before she coughed - much better than when i'd lunged her in the outdoor on Monday! The vet is coming to see us tomorrow to start the process of management!

 

[Surbie]

It seems particularly bad this year with so much late blossom and it all coming at once. I am only mildly reactive but I can feel my eyes and nose itching at the moment. More of the RDA lot are on cetirizine than normal and we've had one with vet visits for asthma attacks & inhaler treatment.

Hope your vet can find workable treatment plan as it sounds like the yard suits so well in all other ways.

 

[Ratface]

Old Horse and his neighbour have brief intermittent coughs at the moment. YO reckons that it's pollen. Not causing them any problems as far as I can see, and YO is pretty well up on such matters.

 

[splashgirl45]

My mare started headshaking at a yard I moved to and I discovered it was due to the rape, she was fine in the winter and when I moved her to a different yard it stopped completely …

 

[BallyJ]

So she was scoped tonight and there was a lot of mucus down there! So a sample is being sent away for testing to figure out what we’re dealing with.
She’s come around from her sedation fine, I’m just on poop watch but she seems more interested in filling her face