Help with on going cough

[kbsaff]

I'm looking for some advice. My Sec D has had a cough for the last couple of weeks which he can't seem to shake off.
It's pretty sporadic but worse in the evenings and early mornings. The cough doesn't sound like a choke, it's literally like a regular tickly cough but it breaks my heart.
He comes in at night for a feed (small handful of alfa-A), If he's going back out, he won't have hay but if he's staying in he has a two wedges of hay which I spray with the hose and leave to drain. I only spray it as he flat out refuses to eat hay which has been into soak, he'd rather stand hungry than eat it for some reason.

I've been giving him 20ml of Benylin once a day but we've finished the bottle now and he's still coughing. He isn't losing any condition and is perfectly happy in himself, we just don't seem to be able to get rid of this cough.

One of our liveries keeps pointing out that she hears him coughing making me feel that I'm not doing enough and am completely inept as a horse owner so, before I give the vet a call, I thought it was worth checking, does anyone know anything which may be more effective than what I've already tried?

 

[RutlandH2O]

Have you had a diagnosis of COPD/RAO? If so, his hay will have to be soaked and he'll have to be taken off straw bedding. Hosing off the hay isn't sufficient to swell the spores. I have a donkey
with RAO and his hay must be soaked at least 45 mins. before he's allowed to eat it. On the rare occasions, in the past, when I've hosed his hay, he had bad episodes. When that happened, he was dosed with Ventipulmin and Sputilosan. This past Spring he had a bad spell caused by pollen. Again, the Ventipulmin and Sputilosan did the trick. Both drugs have to be purchased from a veterinarian. Hope this helps.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

As RutlandH2O says, it does sound like COPD/RAO from an allergy to something in his environment. Could be hay and/or dust or pollen. If it's a hay allergy and he won't eat soaked hay (has to be soaked, not just sprayed with water) then I'd switch him to haylage. Haylage won't need soaking at all. Has he shown any signs of exercise intolerance, ie coughing more when ridden, especially at faster paces? What are his breaths per minute? At rest should be about 8 - 12 but a badly affected COPD/RAO horse (like mine!) can clock up between 35 and 65! Cough mixture won't help because if it is COPD, the problem is in his lungs, not his throat. Whatever the allergen is, his body mistakes it for an attack and produces histamine. The histamine then makes the cells lining his lungs produce thick sticky mucus and it's this mucus that clogs the lungs and stops oxygen getting into the horse's tissues. Your vets might want to endoscope him to see what's happening in the lungs and they may then prescribe Ventipulmin to relax the airways and/or Sputolosin to break up the sticky mucus. These drugs don't work effectively in every horse. I started my horse on Cavalesse in March, as a last-hope really. You have to start it BEFORE the signs are seen so you couldn't use it until next year, but my severely affected veteran cob (tree pollen allergy) is about 50% - 60% improved on last year's dire position.

 

[kbsaff]

Thanks for this, looks like a vet visit is on the cards. He is a particularly "allergic" pony, he reacts to anything and everything so it does sound likely that this is the cause. I hadn't even linked the cough to the allergies as usually he reacts with a colic or Urticaria. Seems so obvious now!
Thanks again!