just found out that my mare has COPD or now whats known as RAO :(

[horselover90]

hi there
i bought a 15.2 irish d x tb mare just before xmas last year. shes always had a bit of a cough but the other night when i went down to feed her and my other neddies id never seen anything like it...she was coughing but struggling to catch her breath so i rung the vet and she came out that night! she did a full examination and my mare was really weazy and her glands were up the vet diagnosed her with COPD or the new term for this is RAO (respiratory airway obstruction) i was gutted because the vet said judging by how bad her cough and weazyness was, she said chances are she has had this copd for some time now but her previous owners failed to inform me of this!! ive done a lot of research of ways to help her through this and ways to manage it! just wondered if anyone can give me some guidance and advice on this as this is the first time ive had anything like this she is currently on haylage and feed (chaff, condtioning cubes, garlic, oil, breath easy, anti biotics, ventopulmin and water to soak it down a bit) the ventopulmin was prescribed by the vet, it opens up the airways but is basically just like the breath easy that i already had her on but this ventopulmin is 80 quid a tub and will only last a week or more do i keep her on the ventopulmin which is more affective and works quicker but will skint me every month or put her on dust x which does work but just takes longer!! please help!!

 

[Waffles]

Do the course of ventipulmin, then have rubber matting and dust free bedding such as flax (if any) and haylage. You might find that that will keep it under control. Give her gentle, regular exercise, and let her stop if she needs to going up steep hills. If you get a recurrence, you may need another course of ventipulmin, but you might be lucky and be able to manage it. Good luck.

 

[Waffles]

Oh, and have her turned out as much as possible.

 

[Conniemara1]

My horse has COPD, when it's bad he would be breathing like he'd been for a very long hard gallop when he was doing nothing! I shouldn't think ventapulmin would be an ongoing thing you need to buy. It is something that when the COPD gets bad they are given to open the airways... there is also sputolosin which I have used at the same time as ventapulmin which I think sort of breaks up the mucous. If they don't work then I have used steroid tablets which really do the job and bring him right. Once they have had the medication and are over the "episode" then daily routine as in soaked hay fed wet/ haylage/ rubber matting/ very dust free bedding/ clean environment/ being turned out means mine is OK i can notice if he has been kept in, or if his environment isn't as it should be (dusty), or if he hasn't been worked for a few days- I think being exercised keeps everything moving and allows them to have a snort and a clear of the throat to keep everything clear whereas if they aren't working it just sits there! When my horse has been bad it's normally because a respiratory virus is going around and he can't cope with it as well as others might. I had to have him scoped and a sample taken to diagnose the COPD, I thought that's how you found out it had COPD otherwise it could just be a nasty virus... unless you had clear bloods?

 

[Finn]

Hi

My mare was diagnosed with COPD last year due to a long period of box rest due to Tendon Surgery. I moved her to an outdoor stable instead of being in the american barn so she gets alot more fresh air round her, I made sure al lthe neighbouring horses arent on straw bedding either as the spores or dust from it used to set her off coughing, i changed her bedding from straw to wood pellets, give her haylage mixed with hay,or if no haylage then I steam her hay, she gets exercised as much as possible (as in every single day) and with as much turnout as possible. She had a couple of really bad attacks and the vet put her on Ventipulmin but other than that I manage it with by giving her a daily dose of Spirinula in her feed which was specifically designed for horses with COPD and allergies. The vet also told me she would cope much better with it if she lost some weight as she was obese weighing over 700kgs. Its taken me over 6 months of very hard work but she now weights 526kgs and the vet last week was really pleased with her. If her breathing is laboured when being ridden, as it sometimes is, then I stop riding and give her a few days off then start working her gently again. I can honestly say though since I have been doing all of this with her she hasnt been no where near as bad this winter as she was last year so Im hoping we are now on top of it and have it under control.

Please dont despair or panic, its not the end of the world and is controlable, you just have to figure out what works best for your horse and work at it from there

xxxx