Does anyone have horses with pollen allergies?

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diluteherd

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Just wondering what symptoms they show?

I posted a couple of days ago about my youngster having a nasty dry cough and a tiny bit of mucus.. although his symptoms would co-inside with his flu vacc, he had his very first one 2 weeks ago and the cough began approx. 3 or 4 days after so could be having slight side effects.

Are horses pollen allergies a little like our allergies, as when the temperature drops and its wet or the early hours of the morning and at night humans hayfever can lessen.. Yesterday it was cold and wet all day and when I brought him in, in the evening he still had a few intermittent coughs..

I did have the vet out who wasn't hugely helpful, he listened to his lungs and said they sounded fine, temp was normal too. I was also given some thing to help open his airways and bronchial, havent looked at the name on the packet yet so not sure what its called! lol :rolleyes:
 
I used to look after a mare who was very allergic to rapeseed pollen specifically. She would be a bit snotty but very short of breath, she is kept as far away from the stuff as possible and is fine when not close to rape. At her worst a course of ventipulmin would normally put her right.
 
My gelding is very allergic to tree pollen, mainly Lyme trees. He has a dry cough, thick White sticky mucus and slightly wheepy eyes. His performance drops as breathing gets worse. We now have him on a low to medium dose of steroids during the time the lyme trees are flowering and / or send him on holiday to Norfolk to a farm with no trees if possible.
 
If the vet has given you ventipulmin, it may work but symptoms will recurr quickly once medication stops if it is an allergy...
 
Yes, I think two of mine have sensitivity to pollen. One is just like yours, coughing but otherwise full of beans. The other one has running eyes every summer, likewise fine otherwise.
 
The vet came out to see our mare on Tues and agreed with me that it is probably rapeseed causing her problems! She had no temperature and lungs sounded fine! We put her on the lunge and she was sneezing and snorting like mad with white discharge coming out of nostrils. She is fine out hacking away from yard and rapeseed. She is on a course of ventipulmin and bute for 10 days. I am also keeping her in during day when pollen levels are higher and she is in a paddock which doesn't back on to rapeseed field at night.
 
Thanks guys, so would you say the symptoms lessen or disappear at night or the weather when it rains or gets cold do your horses seem to improve?
 
Our mare was definitely better on Mon when it rained all day! She seems much better now being kept in during the day too and kept away from the rapeseed! I'm not sure how much the ventipulmin is going to help her! I have a feeling that keeping her away from the rapeseed is going to be our best solution!
 
See my guy seems just the same day and night, and yesterday when it rained all day. Which makes me think it might be a slight reaction to the vaccination :/ I guess its just one of those things where only time will tell.. but it makes me feel so worried!! I hate when my ponies aren't 100% :(
 
A pollen allergy is a pig of a thing to deal with in horses as you can't bring them into your house to get away from the pollen. In the field or stable, every breath he takes from April to September will be laden with pollen.

Nose net is a total waste of money. A horse breathes in a huge volume of air at every breath and with a nose net on, most of the breathed air will come whistling happily round, under and over the net. There's a product similar to First Defence available for horses (can't remember the name) and the idea is you rub it round the inside of the horse's nose and the pollen grains stick to it ha ha ha. My vets were given a free sample and threw it in the bin as it's useless for same reasons as the nose net.

Drug relief is Ventipulmin which relaxes the airways and can be given orally or through an inhaler. It may offer some relief but tends to lose its efficacy over time. Also Sputolosin which breaks up the sticky mucus strands in the lungs. Oral only I think. Then comes the heavy stuff: steroids. Via an inhaler are safer than oral. Oral are cripplingly expensive and have to be given 100s at a time. Don't ever buy a horse inhaler as they come in at about £250. Baby inhalers (£13 from Boots) and a bit of practice works fine. None of the above helped my horse 1 jot. The only thing that ever brought him relief was the changing of the seasons from autumn to winter. Be aware that the allergic reaction kick starts the cells lining the airways into making the thick sticky mucus that causes the coughing. Once kick started, these cells have a 3-month life span so your horse can continue coughing right into November and even December. Be aware too that severe pollen allergy will damage the lungs every year and the more years the horse has it, the more damaged the lungs get. Count your horse's breaths per minute at complete rest. 1 in breath and 1 out breath counts as 1. A normal horse should have 8 - 12 breaths per minute. My lad has 35 - 65 and can't have any sedation for fear he would stop breathing altogether. He has been endoscoped twice to check his lungs but it was so awful for him the last time with no sedation that I've promised him it'll never happen again. He only has about 50% of his lung capacity left and cannot be ridden as he can't get enough oxygen into his body. Very scary when it reaches that stage.

Last year, Cavalesse helped my lad a little - his coughing was reduced by about 60%. But I can't offer a ringing endorsement after just 1 year - it may have been a poor pollen year last year for all I know. But he's started on it again this year (end of March) and I've got my fingers crossed. It's sold as a sweet itch product but the reps told my vets it works just as well for pollen allergies. But you have to start 3 weeks before the symptoms first show. Worth contacting Fidavet for guidance. From on-line vet through Amazon I can get it for £65 but it's £90 ish for 3 months supply through your ordinary vet. PM me if I can help further. NB - your insurance won't cover you for anything to do with lungs after the first year!
 
My 3 year old section D has what appears to be hay fever. We haven't fully got to the bottom of it yet as winter arrived and symptoms went.
She had real problems with her eyes, a constant discharge, clearly irritated etc.
Piriton controlled it fine and then i stopped it in the winter.
I will have to see how things go this year and decide on whether to have tests done or just stick with piriton.
 
Box of Frogs ... That sounds really awful! I am so sorry to hear your horse is suffering this badly!

OP - Tetley's symptoms seem to be worst on warm spring evenings, and just before thunderstorms. We actually give extra steroids then. Otherwise he is on 20mg per day at the moment. We had to give 100mg in years before when we had allowed the mucus to get hold and tried other remedies first (I am very reluctant with the steroids normally as I am scared of lami). Horse is a 17.2h WB, good doer. I used to give him steroid inhaler almost all year round (8 puffs out of the 250mg ones twice a day) but that just got too expensive and ineffective in the end. The prednisone pills seem to work better...
 
yes my welsh sec d has one. it is definately worse in sunny warm weather.
i have given him a global herb supplement which seems to help. it tends to make him shake his head about but not really any discharge.
 
My Pony has hay fever, head shaking plus he stops and scratch's his nose on his knee a lot, makes riding difficult, the little white flowers on the hedgerows are one of one's that affect him, if I ride him along a bridleway with lots of these and other flowering things and then go onto a road away from them, the difference if very noticeable, hence why I fit tights over his nose during the pollen times.

See clip on how to fit, got this tip off a lady on a Bridleways forum -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRcTl3HGdSY
 
Around this time of year my boy starts to fling his head around when we go out hacking, the farmer has put rapeseed in the fields we canter in this year which really seems to bother him. The head tossing is the only symptom he shows.last year we used herbal hayfever tablets for people which worked a treat for him and a couple of other horses on the yard.
 
My mare has suffered with this for years, started at the age of 10, she now 20. Snorting and head shakes mainly, never any mucas though, starts early and she seems to cope after May, so assume it's a tree pollen. I've tried all the equine products, nose nets and nothing worked. Used local honey last year and seemed to ease it, however, started loading her in Feb and not seeming to have any affect this year. It's aweful, she doesn't want to be in the field and riding is difficult ! She seems better on cooler wet days. I'm trying echinacea now, she had her first dose today after research. The Canadian equine research team have studied this. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12108738. Beware of feeding human herbal treatments as a lot of them are actually toxic to horses, so please check these things out first ! Failing echinacea I'm going to try spirulina. http://www.equinawellness.com/equine-respiratory.htm
http://www.holistichorse.com/Alternative-Action-/-Acupuncture/allergies-in-horses.htmlg
Hope this helps, any other tips I'm all ears !
Ali.
 
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My mini shetland has a pollen allergy which gets much worse when there are a few hot days in a row. I have usef Global Herbs Pollen-x which does ease it a bit.
 
Yes, my cob is allergic to pollen. Ventipulmin relieved it for a short while, but did not work properly. I ended up having him scoped and allergy tested. Its was grass pollen and the vet prescribed him human inhalers. We have to use a ' baby inhaler' and its a couple of squits whenever its needed. To be fair he was very good last year and I didnt need the inhalers at all.

Oddly enough I find leaving him out and using the inhaler as and when seems to work for him. Its horrible though and see him wheezing was not nice.
 
My tb has a pollen allergy, especially when the rapeseeds out. Tried many supps which don't seem to help much. The best thing for him I'v found is the equilibrium full fly mask with the ears and nose attachment. Doesn't totally stop the problem but certainly helps him.
 
I have an elderly gelding with a pollen allergy, think its tree pollen. Apart from feeding him Piriton off my vet the last 2 years he has had a full face eye mask on and he doesnot suffer with hayfever anymore!! I dont know why it works but it does
 
We are surrounded by Rape fields at the moment and my horse has just started to headshake. Last night had my lesson and after I had fed him he was throwing head about. Sopke to vet who was coming to check him over within 20 mins he was fine! Fine this morning but he seems to be suffering even when its raining and not warm!!
 
My mare is allergic to something through mid to late summer. She sneezes almost constantly. She also suffers from runny eyes although, because she can't wear a fly mask, I've always assumed that's been caused by fly-worry. Maybe I've been wrong all this time and it's to do with whatever she's allergic to :confused:
 
My horse has an allergy to buttercups, he starts to lose hair around his face. Only noticed it 4 years ago when we didn't spray the buttercups. I could only ride him in a halter for a couple of months as the skin came away from his lips, he lost a lot of hair around his face. As I am now in livery and have no say in the field management, I start treating it homeopathically from March onwards,
 
My mare is allergic to pollen, not sure what it is but it occured last summer. She got really weepy and half shut eyes, a course of eyedrops and a fly mask did the trick :)
 
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