Cough that just won't go!

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Trickywooo

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My mare developed quite a nasty cough recently. Had the vet out who said her lungs sounded quite "raspy" most likely caused by dusty hay. Prescribed steroids and ventipulmimln powder for 10 days. I've also been soaking her nets.

Her cough has improved, however she is still coughing on and off. She was given the last of her medication yesterday evening but still giving the odd cough. I'm going to give the vets a call this morning as I'm concerned that she is still coughing after 10 days but any advice is appreciated 👏
 
Agree, if your vet has diagnosed dust allergies, it's all about management. Get her outside as much as possible, outdoor stable with top door pinned back, steamed/soaked hay or switch to haylage, dust free bedding. Ventipulmin is aimed at preventing attacks - I have never found it any use with my COPD boy when he is actually coughing. Don't be in a hurry to start exercising her much more than walking in hand. Allow her lungs to clear and start functioning properly.
 
Spoke to vets this morning who have said to keep her on the steroids as we have seen a big improvement but at a lower dose.

Sorry I should have explained more detail. She is out from 8am until 7pm daily. Her stable is well ventilated to be fair. She is currently on shavings but unsure if there is perhaps a better option? I dislike chopstraw as my lot see it as an all you can eat buffet but I am open to other suggestions?

I'm soaking her nets but the other issue is that we have hay out in the fields until the end of March. When I explained this to my vet she said not to be too worried as it will naturally dampen down being outside. There is no option to move her to a different field unfortunately 😕.
 
My retired lad suffers from COPD and I do the below to help manage his symptoms and help soothe any flare ups that he might have :

- He is on haylage (it's quite dry but still free of dust and spores and I do sprinkle a light dash of water over it but that's cause I'm more of a worry wart than anything!)

- His stable is situated right by the entrance to the stable block which gives him maximum airflow

- Regarding bedding I go for Burleybed lite which is the red bag - it's dust free and quite absorbent, but I'm sure that there are plenty of other brands out there that are also dust free - as long as it's dust extracted/free that is all that matters

- The hay in the fields will naturally dampen down like your vet said so I wouldn't be too worried about it - but if it's worrying you - perhaps ask if you can take out a portion for your girly so you know that there is deffo soaked hay out there

- I also feed some herbs such as liquorice, aniseed, marshmallow powder and mint along with MSM as apparently they all help the respiratory tract and other parts too (I'm too much of a scaredy pants to take my lad off them to see if they have any effect but I do know that most breathing supplements have MSM in them)

- When/if he has a flare up, I often find that two courses of ventipulmin help get it under control and ease the symptoms so fingers crossed your girly improves soon :)

- Exercise wise when my lad was in full work, I found that avoiding days where the pollen count was high and riding with a nose net helped to keep his COPD under control too
 
AppyLover1996 said:
My retired lad suffers from COPD and I do the below to help manage his symptoms and help soothe any flare ups that he might have :

- He is on haylage (it's quite dry but still free of dust and spores and I do sprinkle a light dash of water over it but that's cause I'm more of a worry wart than anything!)

- His stable is situated right by the entrance to the stable block which gives him maximum airflow

- Regarding bedding I go for Burleybed lite which is the red bag - it's dust free and quite absorbent, but I'm sure that there are plenty of other brands out there that are also dust free - as long as it's dust extracted/free that is all that matters

- The hay in the fields will naturally dampen down like your vet said so I wouldn't be too worried about it - but if it's worrying you - perhaps ask if you can take out a portion for your girly so you know that there is deffo soaked hay out there

- I also feed some herbs such as liquorice, aniseed, marshmallow powder and mint along with MSM as apparently they all help the respiratory tract and other parts too (I'm too much of a scaredy pants to take my lad off them to see if they have any effect but I do know that most breathing supplements have MSM in them)

- When/if he has a flare up, I often find that two courses of ventipulmin help get it under control and ease the symptoms so fingers crossed your girly improves soon :)

- Exercise wise when my lad was in full work, I found that avoiding days where the pollen count was high and riding with a nose net helped to keep his COPD under control too
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Thank you Appy. Much appreciated. We have a similar set up in that her stable is next to the entrance of the barn. The shavings I use are dust extracted but I will have a look at the bedding you recommended.
Can you recommended any supplements brands that contain the ones you mentioned? There are so many on the market it's a bit of a headwobble 🙈
Thank you again x
 
This will sound absolutely ridiculous, but when COPD was diagnosed around 12 years ago, he was said to be 'probable EMS, and to cut sugar to an absolute minimum. This year, I switched from Speedibeet to molassed beet pellets. He hasn't coughed all winter. Has the sugar helped his digestion and wellbeing? No idea.
 
Trickywooo said:
Spoke to vets this morning who have said to keep her on the steroids as we have seen a big improvement but at a lower dose.

Sorry I should have explained more detail. She is out from 8am until 7pm daily. Her stable is well ventilated to be fair. She is currently on shavings but unsure if there is perhaps a better option? I dislike chopstraw as my lot see it as an all you can eat buffet but I am open to other suggestions?

I'm soaking her nets but the other issue is that we have hay out in the fields until the end of March. When I explained this to my vet she said not to be too worried as it will naturally dampen down being outside. There is no option to move her to a different field unfortunately 😕.
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Vet told me that my coughing horse needed to be out 24/7, he said out 12 hours was no good. But then we eventually found that her cough was an allergic reaction to feed. Once we changed that she never coughed again in the next 12 years, until she was pts for something completely unrelated.


Eta having read highmileagecob's post. We had to cut all sugar out of her diet. It is over 30 yrs ago but I have often wondered since if she was EMS/PSSM.
 
I had mine on shavings but found it dustier than straw. She rolls in her stable sometimes before she goes out and straw is the only thing I couldn’t see visible dust.
I steam my hay and just try and manage it best I can in winter. she’s out 24/7 in summer.
 
Trickywooo said:
Thank you Appy. Much appreciated. We have a similar set up in that her stable is next to the entrance of the barn. The shavings I use are dust extracted but I will have a look at the bedding you recommended.
Can you recommended any supplements brands that contain the ones you mentioned? There are so many on the market it's a bit of a headwobble 🙈
Thank you again x
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You are more than welcome my lovely - horses can be such a minefield as it is!

To be honest regarding off the shelf supplements, I haven't had the best of luck as they seem more aimed towards temporary respiratory problems rather than managing long term, which is why I went down the rabbit hole of herbs etc and made my own concoction. When it comes to supplements I am slightly dubious as I remember reading somewhere that not all supplements intended for horse use are tested on horses (someone please correct me if I'm wrong!), so I went down the herbal route as I figured it would be more beneficial as herbs have been around for centuries!. I tie what herbs I use in for other ailments/issues too as my lad who has COPD is also prone to Ulcers and has arthritis (which is the main reason why we retired from ridden work) so they tend to target more than one area of the body :

A few herbs I swear by are Boswellia, Turmeric (controversial I know!), Liquorice, Aniseed and Rosehips (either granule or whole form) - these target the main areas of joints, stomach, lungs and hooves which seems to help and my lad (who is rather fussy for a part native!) licks his bowl clean every time without fail :) There's also the added bonus in winter that when I use warm water for his feeds it smells absolutely heavenly 🤣. The other handy thing is that my rising 2 year old has the same concoction and demolishes his bucket feed by the following morning.

I know a friend of mine swears by NAF Respirator Boost (in both liquid and herb form although the herb form is rather expensive compared to the liquid form if I remember correctly), and she also switches in Science Supplements RespirAid if doing a long period of work or if doing intense training (she events and is out nearly every other day doing something with her horse who has COPD but you'd have no idea unless she told you!). I have personally trialled NAF Respirator Boost - it did smell rather lovely and said fussy pony had no trouble eating it in his feed but I found that it didn't really help sadly (which was a shame as I could stand and smell that stuff from the bottle all day!). I now tend to keep a tub of Ventipulmin on standby and at the first sign of a flare up I hit it head on with a scoop or two for a few days and it seems to do the trick :)
 
We put our little companion pony who had quite a bad cough when she came to us on NAF Respirator. She soon stopped coughing within a couple of days. She has 15 mil morning and night in her small feed when she comes in at night. Vet was out on Monday and listened to her lungs and said how much clearer they were.
 
My horse coughs if I don't manage him well. He was scoped and vet said it was an inflammatory response to something. Never found out exactly what, but probably dust. He is on aubiose bedding and has haylage. If the cough gets bad, I steam the haylage in a Haygain. I tried Ventupulmin but it did nothing for him. He has an inhaler which I only use if he starts coughing. This works well.

Do you think your horse may have had a virus that set the coughing off? Mine had a virus a year or so ago and this set him off coughing for months.

Maybe ask the vet for advice about how much exercise your horse should be doing if it's coughing. It might be an idea to give the horse some time off until the cough goes.
 
My friend's pony had a great supplement that helped his cough after having veterinary treatment. I have searched here for ages trying to pull up the name of the company and only by typing this post has it come to me!! Trinity, give them a call and maybe they can suggest something. (They were recommended by a vet to another friend of mine)
 
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Marigold4 said:
My horse coughs if I don't manage him well. He was scoped and vet said it was an inflammatory response to something. Never found out exactly what, but probably dust. He is on aubiose bedding and has haylage. If the cough gets bad, I steam the haylage in a Haygain. I tried Ventupulmin but it did nothing for him. He has an inhaler which I only use if he starts coughing. This works well.

Do you think your horse may have had a virus that set the coughing off? Mine had a virus a year or so ago and this set him off coughing for months.

Maybe ask the vet for advice about how much exercise your horse should be doing if it's coughing. It might be an idea to give the horse some time off until the cough goes.
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Hi marigold

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I did initially think it could be viral when she first started coughing. I took her temperature immediately and it was bang on normal. I've kept an eye on this and it hasn't fluctuated so my vet felt it was likely to be a response to allergens instead of viral.

I also should have clarified for everyone, she isn't currently in work at the moment and hasn't been ridden since before Christmas. She always has a few months off from January - early March due to the dark evenings and crappy weather. In any case even if she was, i wouldn't be happy exercising her more than a gentle in hand walk currently with her cough.

She only really seems to be giving the one odd cough now after finishing the small bit of hard feed she has to take her medication (tip of a scoop of spillers speedy mash). I've looked at some supplements online and found one that looks half decent from the reviews so going to give that a try. Also looking at swapping her on to haylage at least when she's in the stable.

Thank you all again xx
 
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