Does your horse pant when they are too hot?

TheLadyInBay

TheLadyInBay

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This morning when I went to see my horses my veteran mare was having a sleep with my other Berkshire. When I got closer I saw she was panting very hard and deep. I rushed her to the yard and we took her temp which was fine. She is fine in herself in every other way and has a good appetite and is all sparky. The consensus was that she was too hot ( she's a dark coloured large veteran who doesn't like hot weather) has anyone had this before?
 
That's interesting! I have never heard of this before, or seen it, even in horses that were struggling to cope with heat. I thought panting involved mouth breathing which horses are not meant to do. Could it simply have been deep breathing associated with sleep? Was she standing up or lying down at the time?
 
Mine does. He appears to have anhidrosis (he pants when hot and doesn't sweat normally). He usually only gets an attack of the puffs in the field if it's very hot and he's gorged himself on high calorie grass though - otherwise he's fine up to about 24/25 degrees.

ETA - it's not so much panting (although he does open his mouth), more he's breathing audibly with distended nostrils as though he's just run a race.
 
Lol at pant like a dog:D she was sort of puffing and nodding her head really quick, I've seen it trio a lesser extent withher before. She did it both stood up and lying down. But it slowed when she was distracted with other things
 
It is extremely hot in my country during the summer months and I've never seen a horse pant. If I did, I'd be cold sponging it and would call the vet out pdq. I hose our horses down a couple of times a day when it's super-hot and some fields have auto-sprinkler set-ups so the horses can go and cool themselves off whenever they like.
 
She still has some of her winter coat and any weather above 17 degrees she gets irritable. She loves the snow so hates the summer. She usually gets grazed in the shade and gently sponges when she starts to puff. She isn't overweight at the no and she usually stops when cooled

Feather- yes, that's it
 
TheLadyInBay said:
She still has her winter coat and any weather above 17 degrees she gets irritable. She loves the snow so hates the summer. She usually gets grazed in the shade and gently sponges when she starts to puff. She isn't overweight at the no and she usually stops when cooled
Click to expand...

Does she sweat?

Worst attack mine's had was a very hot late autumn day after they'd been turned out on winter grazing. His winter coat had come through, he'd eaten lots of long grass and then the sun came out. He was just standing there panting :eek: Sponging helps as does getting them into the shade (for some reason, the standing under a shady tree approach doesn't seem to occur to them :rolleyes:).

It doesn't happen so much in summer (well, we're in Scotland, you could hardly call it summer...), because he has a summer coat and is on restricted grazing. He just gets puffs if hacking on a hot day.

If she still has her winter coat, have you had her checked for thyroid function and PPID? Overheating/nonsweating can be linked to these in older horses :)
 
Hi Brightbay,

She's been on some juicy grass for the past couple of days and had been sunbathing when I noticed. When I panicked, dragged her up and got some help she just stared at me as if to say "What? I was just resting :D". She's a tough old mare and the only trouble we've had with age related stuff was that she didn't hold much weight this winter and needed conditioning but will look out for other signs with her thyroid

Forgot to add, she WAS sweating
 
This is really interesting. I had always believed that only animals who can't sweat to lose heat do the panting thing but I stand corrected.
 
Horses can't breathe through their mouths. So would it be more applicable to say she was blowing, rapidly, through her nose?
 
A horse I knew several years ago has a physical condition where he was unable to sweat, so he panted when over a certain temperature. The owner used to cold hose him to avoid further overheating. This was in the States though, and it was really very hot.

But it does show that horses can/will pant if all else fails.
 
The only I've seen doing this was a very old gelding laying down in the field and he was very hot! Maybe the oldies rnt able to regulate like a younger horse? Humans are much the same.

Tbh if she gets like hat in the sun, I'd b inclined to bring her in during the day for 40 winks;)
 
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