COPD -again

[the watcher]

My Highland mare has this, she came with it and it is the result of an infection and illness she suffered some 7 years ago so is not going to go away. she has got much worse this spring, possibly to co-incide with rape coming out, and we are surrounded by the stuff. We have just done a month on Ventipulmin which did clear it up, but is horrendously expensive, and 2 days off she is heaving horribly again. She is living out at the moment, and I can control stable conditions to minmise her discomfort so any ideas about suppliments or other control measures would be welcome. Do nose nets help?
Apart from the cost, I have been told she cannot be on Ventipulmin if we wish to put her in foal again, so I do need to find an alternative

 

[TGM]

A friend of mine had a horse with a similar problem - COPD that was much worse in summer than in winter. She had some costly treatments with Ventipulmin, but eventually her vet recommended that they got her allergy tested (similar to the tests for asthma in humans). She had to go to a special clinic for the tests and they identified her allergens and then she had some injections formulated for her to be administered by the owner on a regular basis to desensitise her to the allergens. It worked very well for the mare in question - the owner kept a detailed diary of her resting respiratory rate and there was a significant improvement once the treatment was started.

I would say it is definitely worth asking your vet if it is a possible for your mare.

 

[puddicat]

You can get nose filters for humans, I have no idea whether anyone has made one for a horse but I'd google it and see what there is. Not just any old net will work because the mesh has to be small enough to stop dust and pollen particles. In theory it could be a very effective solution.

COPD doesn't get better on it's own so witchraft remedies such as supplements won't work (because they rely on something getting better on it's own while the witchcraft is being used so that people wrongly associate the potion with the recovery and think the potion is doing something useful).

Ventipulmin is a bit of a miracle drug here and if it wasn't for the cost and the foal issue it certainly treats the symptoms.

Another idea - but it depends how much effort you want to go to, is to stable the horse, seal the stable apart from the top door, keep as much dust out as you can and pump filtered air in. technicaly possible but I don't know anyone who has done it so I don't know how easy it would be in practice.