Confused...

[Jezzerbell]

...about advice from vet. About three weeks ago my horse started coughing, vet came out said he had slight increased sounds and that cough would clear on its own but that she would prescribe ventapulmin if I wanted in order to aid recovery given that he is regularly competed. Had this and was also advised to do light walk work which we did. Responded well to ventapulmin and no coughing by end of last week even when schooled fully on the flat and over jumps. Aside from cough was fine no loss of appetite energy etc. Had his flu booster on Monday , on Tuesday there was swelling at injection site which remained the next day - on Wednesday went for steady hack fine in walk and trot but when asked to canter coughed, though maybe this was residual following the stopping of ventapulmin and two days off. However started to work him on Thursday and he was coughing in trot. Phoned vet who felt he had either had reaction to the jab or the cough had resurfaced. Advised to rest for a week and then ring them back if cough remained, said he would not need any ventapulmin etc. I am just confused why this time it is complete rest when last time we had to do walk exercise (he was coughing at rest on the first occasion and isn't this time). I am following the vets instructions and have also started him on Global Herbs Airways Plus powder ti give abit of help but just confused about the different advice this time. Any ideas? xx

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Hmmm. Strange. As in any animal, a newly started cough can be a viral/bacterial infection or an allergy or the start of something much more serious. Some viruses that cause a cough can hang around a long time but in a healthy horse I would expect no more than a few weeks at worst. Ventipulmin relaxes tightened airways so might help a little in such cases although the underlying infection will still be causing the cough. If it is a virus, then all you can do is support your horse's immune system while his own body deals with it. I'd expect other clues if it's a virus ie his temperature may be a little raised and maybe other horses on the yard are coughing too. It could also be an allergic reaction to pollen, in which case it's low grade RAO/COPD and is known as Summer Pasture Disease. Ventipulmin is likely to be much more helpful in this case although horses often need quite high doses to make an impact. Ventipulmin is also available in an inhaler which gets directly to the lungs so works immediately. If the horse is coughing/snorting up clear sticky mucus he might benefit from Sputolosin as well - it breaks up the sticky muck so he can cough it up more easily. It's quite late in the summer for a pollen allergy to suddenly emerge so it may be that your horse has developed an allergic response to a different allergen. Has anything in his environment changed? New hay supplier? Different feed? Different stable eg nearer the muck heap? I don't understand why your vets prescribed ventipulmin the first time but now say your horse doesn't need it? You may find that he does well on ventipulmin for the rest of the summer but if it's not a virus and not an allergic response, then you need to discuss what else it might be. One of the things it might be is nothing, but there could be an outside chance that he has a more serious underlying problem developing.

 

[Shay]

Is it the same vet giving the advice? Both management systems are plausible and it looks like it might be 2 different vets at the same practice with different approaches?

If not - I would suggest you ask. I wonder if the Ventipulmin masked the cough by relaxing the airways in which case using it again won't actually help the underlying cause. But I'm just guessing.