Doubling up on supplements?

[Ameli&Finlay]

Hi my horse has had a cough and nasal discharge as long as we’ve had him but apart from this he is very healthy and the coughing doesn’t affect him at all. I’ve tried a few supplements but he is currently on equine America ventilator which I’m not sure is doing everything it could do my question is could I also feed a cough syrup at the same time or would that do more harm then good

 

[paddi22]

it sounds like you are treating the symptoms without looking at what the problem is, so the danger is you can spend a fortune on supplements without targeting what is causing the issue. what colour nasal discharge is it? is there much smell?

 

[Ameli&Finlay]

it sounds like you are treating the symptoms without looking at what the problem is, so the danger is you can spend a fortune on supplements without targeting what is causing the issue. what colour nasal discharge is it? is there much smell?

Sorry I should of said originally but when we first got him we had the vet out for this but she said there wasn’t any concern and it is probably a mix of allergies and therefore some inflammation. She put him on a form of antibiotic supplement (can’t remember exactly now as it was a while ago) but we decided not to keep giving antibiotics due to a potential build of resistance to them

 

[Ameli&Finlay]

Sorry I should of said originally but when we first got him we had the vet out for this but she said there wasn’t any concern and it is probably a mix of allergies and therefore some inflammation. She put him on a form of antibiotic supplement (can’t remember exactly now as it was a while ago) but we decided not to keep giving antibiotics due to a potential build of resistance to them

We including vets

 

[paddi22]

yeah thats a mistake bad vets make, you were totally correct in your judgement to take the horse off them. nasal discharge is either viral or bacterial, a sinus issue or caused by environmental factors. if the vet thought it was bacterial they shouldn't have just given antibiotics without swabbing to see if the antibiotic chosen was effective against the bacteria.

a decent vet would have looked to see if your stables had adequate ventilation, what your bedding was like and if your forage might be dusty. or tried to pin down what the allergy might be. I had one with a similar issue and it was a case of just switching bedding that stopped it.

 

[Ameli&Finlay]

yeah thats a mistake bad vets make, you were totally correct in your judgement to take the horse off them. nasal discharge is either viral or bacterial, a sinus issue or caused by environmental factors. if the vet thought it was bacterial they shouldn't have just given antibiotics without swabbing to see if the antibiotic chosen was effective against the bacteria.

a decent vet would have looked to see if your stables had adequate ventilation, what your bedding was like and if your forage might be dusty. or tried to pin down what the allergy might be. I had one with a similar issue and it was a case of just switching bedding that stopped it.

Out of curiosity what bedding did you switch to and did you find soaking your hay helped. Because we where soaking it for a while to get some of dust out but found it didn’t make much of a difference

 

[Sail_away]

Can I suggest getting a different vet out? I am very surprised the vet was happy to leave it there and didn't want to scope the airways. My gelding has equine asthma and only had coughing/discharge when it was at its absolute worst. If it is allergies then a dust free bed (I used bedmax), haylage or soaked hay and thoroughly cleaning the stable will help him.

 

[Ameli&Finlay]

Thank you it was definitely on my mind to get the vet out again since we have changed vets recently. If possible would you mind telling a bit about your experience with equine asthma

 

[paddi22]

for my horse with it, I ended up letting him live out on grass 24/7 and he was much better. when I do bring him up to the yard and he needs to be stabled, I give him the small bags of wrapped Haylage as I found they work better than me soaking etc. I also switched from shavings to rapeseed.

 

[Ameli&Finlay]

for my horse with it, I ended up letting him live out on grass 24/7 and he was much better. when I do bring him up to the yard and he needs to be stabled, I give him the small bags of wrapped Haylage as I found they work better than me soaking etc. I also switched from shavings to rapeseed.

Thank you ?