I don't know WHAT to think!

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popsicle

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I'll try to keep it brief. About March time I noticed that Poppy tired a bit more easily than before, nothing hugely, but noticably. Also breathing on cantering and just after was a bit noisey, but soon recovered. About this time she also started High Blowing. Thought it might be a bug or allergy and would pass, but it didnt really. So a few weeks later I got the vet out. He scoped and swabbed her and took blood, also noticed she was slightly lame when lunged in a circle on one front leg. Swabs showed SLIGHT infection in trachia and she was given medicine for this. Vet said if that didn't work we needed to look to "pain" as the cause. (I wasn't convinced) You know your own horse don't you? Anyway medicine only had minimal effect, so I started treating her with anti histamine (just in case) this seemed to make a bit of difference, but not a complete cure. So have now just had her on 5 days of bute to eliminate pain and as i suspected she is just the same, so it's not down to pain. So in a nutshell this is where we are now.

She still High Blows.

Still a bit noisy after a long canter or gallop for a few seconds

Her fitness is quite good and if she is with other horses she will gallop flat out and not want to stop. (I wonder if she is sometimes bored with our normal hacking routine so more likely to slow down earlier)

Heart and lungs and blood (don't know what they tested for but took 3 samples) are ok

Vet says no allergy and now ruled out pain.

Insurance will pay on this for another 9 months, but do I just leave it now? What else can they look at?

Is the High Blowing, slight noise and slight loss of performance (sometimes)
just down to her age? She's 15. Any advice would be appreciated
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maybe she is just not as young and fit as she was once? (I'm 40 sumfink and get out of breath more easily that i used to..) Do you think it could be something as simple as that maybe?
 
[ QUOTE ]
maybe she is just not as young and fit as she was once? (I'm 40 sumfink and get out of breath more easily that i used to..) Do you think it could be something as simple as that maybe?

[/ QUOTE ]

I really don't know! It started quite abruptly in the first place, but now several months later and it has become the norm.
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well it does sound as though you have eliminated just about everything else - how often do you ride her ? maybe you could work out a gentle fittening regime for her, slowly increasing work to build stamina and fitness?
 
She is ridden about 4 times a week on 2 hour hacks (usually involving plenty of trotting and cantering,) so she is "fit" in that sense. Perhaps I shall just have to accept that she is getting a bit older now. A vet is visiting the yard on Friday, so I might just mention it to him to see what he thinks.
 
I am sorry if I have this completeley wrong but I always thought high blowing was a noise made by the horses nostrils vibrating and was more prevalent in well bred horses or those such as WB/Arabs/TB's. This is heard normally in canter and is not an abnormality. I always thought that the term 'high blowing' was this.

I went to try a horse years ago that made a noise in trot and canter (this was not high blowing) and was told by the vendor that it was a noise that would dissapear once the horse was fitter but it was not a gamble I was willing to take. I would get new bloods to test for infection present or recent, and I would put her on some sort of herbal supplement like clarity or similiar. I would also ask a feed merchant about the best pick me up, something like Red Cell or similiar (after the vet has taken bloods and you get answers). x
 
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