Dry cough

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Nickyhorse89

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Hi All

My horse has very recently started coughing. Noticed it a couple of days when I brought him in from the field. Coughed when in the stable maybe twice then 4 times when ridden. The next day he coughed more or less continously when ridden. Nothing before or after. There is a bit of nasal discharge, clear/white. He is fine in himself, just worried it has come on so sudden. He is out all day in at night, on hay and straw. I've started soaking his feed and hay. In winter he was in 24/7 and never coughed. We haven't had any rain in a while, could it be the dry weather?

Any ideas what it could be would and how I can help him will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks xx
 
Could well be summer pasture recurrent airway obstruction, a reaction to summer grass pollen/dust. If he's in at night, does he wet the bedding much? It probably hasn't caused the coughing, but it won't help if he's breathing in ammonia. Maybe switch to aubiose or similar, to see if it helps (or chopped treated straw). Definitely soak hay. Absolute minimum of 10 minutes does mine and I feed from the ground in a slow feeder. Vet can offer glucocorticoids if necessary, but your boy doesn't sound anywhere near bad enough for that. I do feed turmeric as an anti-inflammatory to mine, which wouldn't hurt (but mine are both out 24/7 and so no escape from the pollen). Probably worth a call to the vet just to ask if it's worth a visit or for advice.
 
Fransurrey said:
Could well be summer pasture recurrent airway obstruction, a reaction to summer grass pollen/dust. If he's in at night, does he wet the bedding much? It probably hasn't caused the coughing, but it won't help if he's breathing in ammonia. Maybe switch to aubiose or similar, to see if it helps (or chopped treated straw). Definitely soak hay. Absolute minimum of 10 minutes does mine and I feed from the ground in a slow feeder. Vet can offer glucocorticoids if necessary, but your boy doesn't sound anywhere near bad enough for that. I do feed turmeric as an anti-inflammatory to mine, which wouldn't hurt (but mine are both out 24/7 and so no escape from the pollen). Probably worth a call to the vet just to ask if it's worth a visit or for advice.
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Thank you. He can be pretty wet some days, but I don't tend to smell the ammonia till I shift the top layer. I'll try him on turmeric look into feeding him from the floor.
 
Could it also be a bit of a virus? A few at our yard had this the other week with a dry cough and a bit of snot but no other particular symptoms. It seemed to pass through within a week or two. Have you been anywhere recently where he might have picked something up or any of the other horses coughing?

Definitely worth a phone call to your vet if you're worried though. They may be aware of what's going no the area more widely, e.g. more horses than usual with SPRAO or a virus that's been doing the rounds.
 
Do you have any rape fields in the vicinity? They can cause it, as can pollens, including tree pollens. My lad is worst as the tree pollens are released, and again at harvest time with the dust. Switching to haylage helped hugely.
 
Fingers crossed it goes within 2 weeks. If it gets worse I'll contact my vet. Will swap to haylage and maybe try turnout at night instead of during the day. There's not rape fields nearby but they've started baling up in the adjacent field, that's the only change to his environment.
Haven't been out anywhere in the last few weeks either.
 
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Nickyhorse89 said:
Thank you. He can be pretty wet some days, but I don't tend to smell the ammonia till I shift the top layer. I'll try him on turmeric look into feeding him from the floor.
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You don't have to smell it. Straw is the worst offender for inducing allergic responses in the airways at the best of times (unsoiled), so adding ammonia to that (and it will still be in the air as aerosols long after you've cluttered off home) will make it worse. That's why vets often suggest changing bedding (I research respiratory disease and am putting together an equine project at the mo - this crops up in every review!). Fingers crossed it passes as the current flowers of whatever die off!
 
Fransurrey said:
You don't have to smell it. Straw is the worst offender for inducing allergic responses in the airways at the best of times (unsoiled), so adding ammonia to that (and it will still be in the air as aerosols long after you've cluttered off home) will make it worse. That's why vets often suggest changing bedding (I research respiratory disease and am putting together an equine project at the mo - this crops up in every review!). Fingers crossed it passes as the current flowers of whatever die off!
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Wouldn't he have a cough during winter though as was in 24/7 on straw.
 
Sorry only just come back to see your reply. I didn't mean to say the straw caused it in your case, just that if his airways are hyper-reactive to pollen and so on, anything else (which would normally be tolerated) might exacerbate it.
 
Nickyhorse89 said:
Hi All

My horse has very recently started coughing. Noticed it a couple of days when I brought him in from the field. Coughed when in the stable maybe twice then 4 times when ridden. The next day he coughed more or less continously when ridden. Nothing before or after. There is a bit of nasal discharge, clear/white. He is fine in himself, just worried it has come on so sudden. He is out all day in at night, on hay and straw. I've started soaking his feed and hay. In winter he was in 24/7 and never coughed. We haven't had any rain in a while, could it be the dry weather?

Any ideas what it could be would and how I can help him will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks xx
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This was me 2 months ago, got really bad, others started coughing, which was the hay but Pony specially when she got up from rolling or sleeping my ponies developed into low grade asthma so now wet haylage - bedmax and enebuliser no real discharge from the nose at all. It tooks tub of ventapulmin and steroid administered into feed weeks and weeks and gastroscope - to find the cause and treat, and then 5 weeks after that before her final cough went.

If your horses cough last a week, then get the vet out to prescribe medication.

I would not ride till you find out the cause. Soak hay to get dust out, remove cobwebs and if poss spray stable down to get rid of dust, change bedding if does not get better, but I would not go any more than a week coughing without getting the vet involved as the airways can swell as you see the split in my pony's airways is inflamed here.
20180420_1136481_zpsrizd38xt.jpg
 
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Thank you everyone. I have changed his turn out routine, now on haylage and added tumeric to his feed. Will change his bedding tomorrow. Already noticing an improvement. 😁
 
Nickyhorse89 said:
Hi All

My horse has very recently started coughing. Noticed it a couple of days when I brought him in from the field. Coughed when in the stable maybe twice then 4 times when ridden. The next day he coughed more or less continously when ridden. Nothing before or after. There is a bit of nasal discharge, clear/white. He is fine in himself, just worried it has come on so sudden. He is out all day in at night, on hay and straw. I've started soaking his feed and hay. In winter he was in 24/7 and never coughed. We haven't had any rain in a while, could it be the dry weather?

Any ideas what it could be would and how I can help him will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks xx
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How old is he?

One of ours started with similar symptoms as a response to pollen. When tested, she (eventually) was shown to have Cushings. Unfortunately she didn't have raised ACTH levels but did have 8x the normal upper limit for TRH, which is why it took a while to get the diagnosis.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
How old is he?

One of ours started with similar symptoms as a response to pollen. When tested, she (eventually) was shown to have Cushings. Unfortunately she didn't have raised ACTH levels but did have 8x the normal upper limit for TRH, which is why it took a while to get the diagnosis.
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Cushings??? Oh no. He's only 5. He's improving already so hoping with some rain and I keep this new routine, feed and bedding it'll go xx
 
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