Horse Nebulisers, insurance, cost, reviews

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Horsekaren

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sorry another new thread, just wanted nebuliser in the title in the hope there are a few more people that have used them.

Questions -
- what one do you have and are you happy with it?
- did your insurance cover the cost of it?
- how did your horse take to it?
-how long did you use it for?
- is anyone selling one second hand?
- Flexineb models one is dry one is wet what is the difference... besides dry and wet :S

needed to help open my horses airways, came home without one as non in stock, waiting for a call
 
Used one years ago, it had a motor that you connected to the tractor while it was running to get power.

It was a faff and we only used it when the horse was in dire need. To be fair, I think in 4 years it was used twice. The horse was a lot better on good bedding and haylage.

It was long enough ago that I don't remember the ins and outs.
 
Used a flexineb for about 3 years.
My mare took to it well, it wasn't covered by insurance due to a previous claim but it was worth the money as she was well enough to be in ridden work after starting with it.
Also the cost of liquid drugs compared to inhalers saved me a fortune during that time.
 
i would go big time on removing the cause of the allergy, getting rid of the cause then treat the remaining symptoms.

i would try a stable air cleaner filter or leave out fulltime.

it only takes one wiff of hayfor some horses to start coughing.

when soaking hay make sure its submerged in the water or you might be wasting your time.

there are long term effects to using some drugs, and good management could clear the problem within a week., and be a lot cheaper and healthier
 
I use a Flexineb on my mare. Eliminating the cause of her breathing issues isn't possible as she is allergic to grass pollen.

In answer to your questions...

Yes I'm happy with it as it has made my mare's life so much happier.

The insurance did cover it, but I don't think they do any more sadly. Another person with the same insurance company was only able to hire one to see if it worked, which the insurance paid for.

All of my horses are happy to wear it, even the head shy one. Despite being big, it is very quiet.

It's a life long condition for my mare, so she wears it whenever necessary, primarily during the spring/summer when the grass it pollenating. Each session lasts around 20mins, but this varies depending on what drugs are used.

Sorry don't know of any secondhand, but I think I have seen a discount on either the Nortev or Flexineb facebook page. Sorry if I'm wrong though!
 
i have a horrible suspicion it may have been the wood pellet bed that caused the issue to escalate. i thought it would be good as the low dust content but the dampness may have made things worse. He has gone back to chippings.

It a hard one because he doesnt really cough so its hard to tell if he is struggling with his airways unless he is being worked. He will have the odd sneeze but no more than other horses.
He cant live out until spring

His hay is soaked, completely submerged in water and then left squashed in a hay cube to keep it damp.

The stable is outdoor so i dont think a stall guard would work.
 
Horsekaren said:
i have a horrible suspicion it may have been the wood pellet bed that caused the issue to escalate. i thought it would be good as the low dust content but the dampness may have made things worse. He has gone back to chippings.

It a hard one because he doesnt really cough so its hard to tell if he is struggling with his airways unless he is being worked. He will have the odd sneeze but no more than other horses.
He cant live out until spring

His hay is soaked, completely submerged in water and then left squashed in a hay cube to keep it damp.

The stable is outdoor so i dont think a stall guard would work.
Click to expand...

My sensitive horse cannot eat soaked hay, just a few days on well soaked hay sets him off so he has haylage which makes a huge difference, far easier and cheaper than supplements, he doesn't cough but you can see he is making more effort to breathe, he is retired now and has required no veterinary treatment for years since I stopped feeding hay.
 
Horsekaren said:
i have a horrible suspicion it may have been the wood pellet bed that caused the issue to escalate. i thought it would be good as the low dust content but the dampness may have made things worse. He has gone back to chippings.

It a hard one because he doesnt really cough so its hard to tell if he is struggling with his airways unless he is being worked. He will have the odd sneeze but no more than other horses.
He cant live out until spring

His hay is soaked, completely submerged in water and then left squashed in a hay cube to keep it damp.

The stable is outdoor so i dont think a stall guard would work.
Click to expand...

You are quite near me, so if you decide you want to try a stall guard at any time, let me know and I’m happy to lend you one.
 
Thank you for the stall guard offer, that is kind but in the current stable i dont think it would work.

I have thought about possibly trying to move to hayledge but i'm worried it will send him loopy. Be positive - did you ever try steaming hay or was it just hay in general?
 
I have a nearly new Flexineb (bought new last year and used for about 3 months). It was excellent, easy to use, fiercely expensive, not covered by my insurance...and since switching totally to haylage my horse hasn't flippin' coughed at all. I'm now possibly thinking of selling it to put towards my trailer fund.
 
Horsekaren said:
Thank you for the stall guard offer, that is kind but in the current stable i dont think it would work.

I have thought about possibly trying to move to hayledge but i'm worried it will send him loopy. Be positive - did you ever try steaming hay or was it just hay in general?
Click to expand...

I believe I read somewhere that haylage has moved on a lot, in the early years it could send horses loopy, but now, due to the 'pickling' process and changes in methods it can be lower sugar than regular hay. So look into it.

You say he can't live out until spring, can you move yard to somewhere where he can live out year round? This is likely to make one of the biggest differences to his breathing. (I know it's easier said than done, but it may be something you have to seriously consider)
 
No reason for haylage to send horses loopy these days. Even my nutty ginger ninga is the same whether he is on hay or haylage.
 
little_critter said:
I believe I read somewhere that haylage has moved on a lot, in the early years it could send horses loopy, but now, due to the 'pickling' process and changes in methods it can be lower sugar than regular hay. So look into it.

You say he can't live out until spring, can you move yard to somewhere where he can live out year round? This is likely to make one of the biggest differences to his breathing. (I know it's easier said than done, but it may be something you have to seriously consider)
Click to expand...

i will research more into hayledge :)

I really dont want to move yards as i have great support around me where i am. I dont think any yard near me that arn't just fields permit 24/7 turn out in winter. In fact most don't offer 24/7 in the summer either. That will be a last resort, i have lots of management changes to try first :)
 
What chippings is he on HK? I really would consider cardboard for him, it makes a really nice bed too.

We used a nebuliser years ago, it had a foot pump, it was knackering and we soon attached the YO daughter's electric nebuliser to it instead!

I would definitely consider haylage or steaming for him too.
 
ester said:
What chippings is he on HK? I really would consider cardboard for him, it makes a really nice bed too.

We used a nebuliser years ago, it had a foot pump, it was knackering and we soon attached the YO daughter's electric nebuliser to it instead!

I would definitely consider haylage or steaming for him too.
Click to expand...

O Ester, you seem to know something about everything :D I'm glad you are on here!

I have put him on a mix of Hunters and Royalspan but i have been researching this afternoon and have seen Bedmax are actually dust free entirely so i am thinking of running this bed down and moving to Bed Max.
I am worried about cardboard as he does wee an awful lot i just vision it turning to slop, plus im not sure if its allowed on the heap.

Because he is on adlib i do really want to try and stick to hay as adlib hayledge or horsehage would be so expensive.
At the moment i have a hay cube, i stuff it and soak about 6 sections of hay for about 30 mins at 7am, i then drain it at 7.30 and it is left squashed in the hay cube ready for when he comes in about 3. In the morning when i arrive most of the hay is eaten and what is left is still very damp. I can see the wet spore on the floor so he is eating them and not breathing him. I am wondering whether to try steaming again but am conscious i am changing an awful lot at once and wont know what is the biggest help at this rate.

To top it all off i am thinking of trialing Global herbs airway plus supplement to see if this improves anything.
 
Haha, nah I'm just a geek avoiding the day job which is too geekish sometimes!

So IME paper is pretty awful, it clumps something terrible and moves about very easily, I hate it ;).

Cardboard a couple of times I have seen the square type pieces cardboard used like this one, rather than shredded strips http://www.thegreenbeddingcompany.co.uk/_about_.html
it doesn't seem to disintegrate when in the bed but will degrade on the heap quickly- much better than wood pellets, we weren't allowed those as sole bed as then not suitable for muck spreading.

While hunting for a square cardboard example I came across Chloe's old blog (she is an ex hhoer) and thought you might find it helpful
http://www.gifthorseeventing.co.uk/2014/12/diagnosing-treating-managing-horse-spore-allergy-rao.html
 
Just as an aside, if I am using shavings I can't use anything other than Bedmax if I try some other make of shavings my lips and hands become very irritated <like a burning sore sensation> my eyes stream and I sneeze all the time

I tried paper bedding once, every time I opened the stable door or mucked out the paper flew all over the place, trying to get to the dung heap with a wheelbarrow was interesting

Aubiose I liked but I hate putting water on any bedding, same as soaking hay, on mucking out a friends horse recently where she puts her soaked hay net it left a damp area of bedding and it smelled bad/really musty, the wall was also damp
 
My cob was diagnosed with COPD/asthma last May. The main trigger for him seems to be pollen. I use bedmax shavings and haylage and on this he's been fine without medication since November. May to November he was on nebulised steroids through a flexineb, when looking at nebulisers this was the only one I could find.

I find it easy to use and he tolerates it well, I cross tie him in his stable doorway and set it off, it takes about 18 mins for 4 ml of steroid. The drugs are a lot cheaper than steroid inhalers, steroids, saline solution and distilled water for cleaning cost about £70 a month, this is using 4ml daily of steroids. I charge the controller once a week. My insurance company, NFU, paid for it no problem but I checked before hand.

Not sure what you mean about wet ot dry? The flexineb has a cup which liquid solution is placed in but you can buy an adapter that means you can use steroid inhalers. I find it much easier and after the initial cost of the flexineb cheaper than inhalers.

Re haylage I know a few horses with Asthma that cannot tolerated any hay, however clean and well soaked but are fine on haylage. Our vets recommend haylage for COPD/Asthma horses.
 
I used a flexineb and loved it. We didn't have insurance so purchased it outright at about £800. I had the spookiest pony ever - he even introducing a new rug would set him off :D I introduced it over a few days, building up to gradually putting it on his face - he was always rewarded with a handful of nuts afterwards so he started looking forward to his nebuliser session! I also actually really appreciated having 10 minutes each day where I had an excuse to spend time with him without rushing about having to do jobs.

We used saline water followed by dexamethasone - I can't remember exactly how much of each, but it ended up taking about 10 mins per go. We used in indefinitely, up until he passed away (from colic).

I don't know the difference, but I would recommend Flexineb 100% - I'm so glad to see its usage increasing, and I would pay for it all over again if I had to. It made Ru's life so much more comfortable and was worth every penny.
 
i think haylage might be a good thing.

i believe you can get haylage made from different grasses from high powered to suitable for ponies etc try marksway for example to see what they have and there are many businesses that specialize in hay making for racehorses which is barn dried etc and tested for fungal spores, they also make lower energy hay
 
I have a Flexineb. It was the one thing that sorted my Horse’s asthma. I think that trying to remove allergens / triggers is great but once the inflammation is there, you really need steroids to get rid of it. You can then focus on trying to avoid issues in future.

The wet version allows you to nebuliser liquid medication (saline solution, steroid, injectable Ventipulmin etc) whereas the dry one isn’t just used to attach an inhaler to. (Basically a posh spacer). The wet version can double up as a spacer too if you do need to use an inhaler (Eg using a salbutamol inhaler if airways need opening to maximise steroid absorption works out much cheaper than Ventipulmin solution). I found that nebuliser he steroid worked so much better than using steroid inhalers had.

The insurance company paid for the nebuliser (this was just this time last year) and all of the medication until the claim ran out. According to the vet, it depends on which insurance company you’re with. Some will pay for hire only, some (like mine) wont pay for hire but will pay for purchase. I decided to get one anyway as I was willing to pay even if the insurance decided they wouldn’t.

The horse needed it for about six months and then we gradually reduced the dosage down. He hasn’t needed it at all over the winter but I realise this may change when the pollen returns.

I know it’s an expensive investment but, even if the insurance hadn’t paid out, I still would’ve been glad with the purchase as it really helped my horse get back to normal.

In terms of hay v hayledge, this horse is also prone to ulcers so hayledge is a no, no. I soak all hay for 10 mins and this seems to do the trick.
 
Horsekarens, I'm not being funny but can you not move him to a yard where he can have year round turnout? It's the single thing that will make most difference. You're going to spend a lot of time and effort (and money) battling with this. Surely it's worth a move??
 
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