Horse Tonsillitis

[BlackSheep]

My horse has been diagnosed with tonsillitis.
I have never heard of this before. He started with a cough and general lethargy and after a vets visit, a course of Ventipulmin, a course of Antibiotics and 2 weeks later he still wasn't better.
He has now been scoped, which has shown that he doesn't have any infection and his lungs seem clear, but he does have a very inflamed throat.
He's still coughing, but not as much and he's still not his normal self.
He's now on bute.
Help! Any ideas anyone?

 

[Rueysmum]

That's quite unusual.

My horse had a really obscure throat problem a few years ago. I have replied to the "choking and collapsing" thread in Veterinary which gives more details of the problem he had, but what I forgot to mention in my reply to that thread is that his throat was also horribly inflamed and ulcerated.

A specialist vet came out to see him at one point with my regular vet, and he had never seen anything like it!

He was on antibiotics for months and months as he couldn't eat without coughing, and because the mechanics of his throat had gone haywire, there was a horrible risk that he would give himself pneumonia through the food going down the wrong hole (i.e. into his lungs instead of his stomach).

It was a long old haul, but he recovered after nine months. I still swear to this day that it was the alternative remedies I gave him which aided his recovery. These included Vitamin C tablets and garlic granules to help with the inflammation and echinacaea to help his immune system.

The Vitamin C tablets were the human "Tesco One Per Day" and I just estimated his weight versus a human and gave him a total of 6 per day.

I hope this helps!

 

[Emmak12]

hi
this is so bizare and very interesting!
My horse has been suffering from choke for over 2 years now, and three vets, and another vet from a different practise, havent got a clue what it is! It is very random, sometimes it flares up really bad, every day and sometimes several times a day, and then she has periods where she doesnt have any for months! She has had antibiotics for various other injuries and she hasnt choked during this period untill a few months later!

I would never of thought of this until i saw this post and found this link and this journal!
http://drtomahern.com/Dr_Tom_Ahern.com/EQUINE_TONSILLITIS.html

She has had a nasal endoscope but didnt show up any abnormalities! From the research i have found, it says that because its at the back of the throat you cant identify it from a nasal endoscope! Could this be why the vets have found nothing? I think this is astonishing and will definately ask my vet about it!

could you please give more detail as to how your vet came up with the diagnosis as i am very interested? I think i may have found an asnwer of 2 years worrying, upset, paranoia and scratching heads!
thank you

XxEmmaxX

 

[BlackSheep]

My vet performed an endoscopy on him and obviously i don't know how far the "Scope" went. But he was very clear that his larynx was inflamed and red.
And also that there was no infection as there was no pus/mucus. For that reason he said he couldn't do a scrape as there was nothing there.
And his lungs are clear.
Vet said the larynx was inflamed, probaby due to the cough the horse has had (now almost gone).
Vet also asked if hed had nose bleeds as some blood vessels were burst.
He managed to scope horse with a twitch -so no sedation.
He gave him a shot of anti inflammatory there and then.
And put him on anti inflammatory drug for 5 days and we will see how he is then. Vet said he would be in a lot of pain, so I'm hoping that is the cause of the lethargy, rather than a virus/lurgy/illness.
My fingers are firmly crossed!