Occasional Cough

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Gorgeous George

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George seems to get an occasional cough and it appears to be when the weather/temperature changes, it happened in the winter when it got very cold and again this week with the nice warm temps we've been enjoying. He only coughs when he is ridden, and never in the stable or field, of course as soon as I realise he has a cough, I either stop riding or we just have a pootle in walk. He always seems fine in himself and no runny nose or running a temperature. The cough when ridden will last 2 or 3 days at most and then disappear.

He is fed soaked hay and is bedded on straw, he also goes out every day and his stable is v well ventilated.

Do you think it is something more serious? Also do you think a general respiratory supplement might help (suggestions?) or is it something I should just work around?

Thanks :)
 
Hmmmmmmm. I'd think seriously about changing from straw to eg shavings. An intermittent cough such as your ned's, with no other apparent triggers, could be a very low level RAO/COPD. My horse Sunny has summer pasture allergy, which is RAO/COPD caused by summer pollens. He had a bad pull last summer because a chest virus went round the yard and of course for Sunny it was on top of his annual RAO. When he had his end-of-winter health check a couple of weeks ago (my vets have a fabulous Veteran Programme that he's on) the vet identified slightly abnormal lung sounds which indicate minor, though permanent, lung damage due to the RAO. This means that he breathes extra deeply all the time so won't necessarily have any more to give on occasions eg during the height of the summer. He's totally fine most of the time and is a happy hacker, hacked out for 40 mins or so 3 or 4 times a week. Maybe next time your vet is out, ask him/her to listen carefully to your ned's lung sounds. I've been following breathing supplement advice on the Forum for some time now and as far as I can see NAF Respirator gets a good vote so I've ordered a tub. Sadly, my little rescue shetland Molly ALSO has an intermittent cough! I'm desperate to change her hay to haylage but it's a difficult situation at the moment as she shares her stable with the other rescued pony and his owner wants him on hay still. Hoping this will be resolved soon as the longer a horse has unresolved RAO, the more likely there is that permanent damage will occur x
 
It has been proven that 9/10 horses with a cough have some form of respiratory disease/dysfunction. It takes alot more to make a horse cough than a human because they have such a huge surface area in their lungs. Coughing can come on at exercise because the respiratory system has to work harder and secretions can be mobilised, even if they dont make the nostrils.
Definately change from straw asap. personally i think the smell of ammonia is quite bad with shavings and ammonia is just as detrimental as dust. Cardboard or paper is much better. Over time the damage will get worse, if you change to a non dusty, minimal ammonia beddng now you will keep your horse healthy for longer.

also feed hay from the floor.
 
The horses natural body position is head down. So haynets/racks are bad for many reasons- the back is hollowed, it is an unnatural position for the teeth to work as intended and any dust/small particles can go up the nostrils easier. Feeding from the floor lets the respiratory system drain, minimises inhalation of dust from pulling from a net and lets the rest of the body work in a more natural position, so reducing the chance of problems with teeth/back.
 
TeddyT - I'm fanatical about managing my horse's RAO. He's been on a deep litter shavings bed for 3 years now and the stable never ever smells of anything. A properly done deep litter bed is a delight to clean out every day, with about 3 or 4 poo piles to be taken out and that's pretty much it. Believe me, there's other stables on the yard using different bedding/methods and they can make your eyes water. Mine is perfect though - proof is that from October to April he hasn't coughed once.
 
I watched a program about racing lately and they had one horse with a plastic yoke covering his muzzle and he was inhaling steam and menthol/minty stuff. Anyone know the name of the doo-daa that I am yapping about?

teddyt is there a study that you can reference for the 9/10 horses?

I'm curious as SH coughs at first when work is begun. I do plenty of warmup in walk as she has wear/tear on her legs. She is kept on shavings and has everyday TO. She is in a stable and not a barn.
 
Pilfer coughs during his first trot every time he is worked. it is only during the first trot and it doesn't matter if you hack for an hour before trotting or trot after 5 mins.

he has done it for the entire time i have owned him (6 years) and the during the vetting the vet said he had the best wind he had heard in years.

i was concerned to start with but now think it is just a habit of his and he likes to clear his throat before 'proper' work.
 
Tharg said:
teddyt is there a study that you can reference for the 9/10 horses?

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I cant find it now! ive got the research paper somewhere and its disappeared. Here is the abstract from a similar study though-

Equine Veterinary Journal. 1995 Nov;27(6):422-7.

Equine pulmonary disease: a case control study of 300 referred cases. Part 2: Details of animals and of historical and clinical findings.
Dixon PM, Railton DI, McGorum BC.



Examination of historical and clinical details of 270 adult horses suffering from a variety of mainly chronic pulmonary diseases showed that the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) group (median age 9 years) were the oldest, and that the COPD, chronic idiopathic hypoxaemia and exercise induced pulmonary haemorrhage (EIPH) groups had the longest duration of disease (median durations 7, 12 and 9 months, respectively) with a median disease duration of 2 months for the remaining horses. A history of antecedent respiratory infection was present in 24.3% of all horses. Six out of 12 horses that grazed with donkeys suffered lungworm infection. Silage was fed to 11.3% of all horses, nonstraw beddings were utilised by 28.7% of horses and 8.7% of horses were maintained permanently outdoors. Environmental control had been unsuccessfully attempted in 47% of COPD cases prior to referral. Histories of poor athletic performance or of excessive post exercise dyspnoea were found to be less definitive indicators of pulmonary disease. Coughing was the most sensitive clinical indicator of pulmonary disease, being present in 71.1% of horses with pulmonary disorders. Nasal discharge was present in 50.4% of these horses and coughing or nasal discharge was present in 86.7% of horses with respiratory disorders. Unilateral nasal discharge was inexplicably present in 3.3% of horses with pulmonary disease. Other clinical findings, including the presence of increased breathing effort, abnormal thoracic or tracheal auscultatory findings were less sensitive diagnostic parameters with pulmonary diseases, and were frequently absent unless severe pulmonary disease was present.
 
QUOTE=Box_Of_Frogs;8408342]TeddyT - I'm fanatical about managing my horse's RAO. He's been on a deep litter shavings bed for 3 years now and the stable never ever smells of anything. A properly done deep litter bed is a delight to clean out every day, with about 3 or 4 poo piles to be taken out and that's pretty much it. Believe me, there's other stables on the yard using different bedding/methods and they can make your eyes water. Mine is perfect though - proof is that from October to April he hasn't coughed once.
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Mucking out every day has been shown to release more ammonia from straw and shavings beds than deep litter. However other research has shown-

1) Straw bedding can have less ammonia than shavings but straw will have a much higher mould and dust content (even if top quality/clean)
2) Deep litter is a major mould and fungi producer but this may be invisible to the naked eye. Deep litter increases the moulds and fungi in a bed because they thrive in moist environments
3) The more absorbant the bedding the least ammonia there is. Paper bedding is 3.5 times more absorbant than shavings. Straw is even less absorbant than shavings.

So although a deep litter shavings bed may be better than straw in terms of ammonia and mould, paper is far superior because it is more absorbant and has much less mould, fungi and dust. As with any bedding, you should muck out with the horse out of the stable to minimise irritation.

The aim to preserving respiratory health is the best combination of the least possible ammonia, dust AND mould. Paper (removed every day) has been shown to be the best for all these.

Im not doubting that your bed is good, just that there is an even better option!:)

There has been loads of research done on this subject. The equine research centre in canada has done lots specific to bedding (Raymond/Curtis/Clarke) but there is more elsewhere (Kentucky university, michigan university, etc).
 
All the horses I've ever had seem to cough at this time of year. They only ever do it when I'm riding and do the first trot - once they've had a few coughs they're fine and never do it at any other time. Very odd. I think its just the change in season - we have a lot of ploughed fields round us just now and its pretty windy so the dust blows everywhere. I don't tend to worry about it since ever horse I've had in the past has always done it for around 3 weeks at this time of year! Although I am feeding mine a respiratory supplement just now to try and help.
 
Stinky does this on occasion and this year he is on Clarity from Feedmark and has rarely coughed.

I do keep him on mats with LWP and his hay is in a haybar, he is out every other day in winter, but hay is given dry as our YO really does not like us soaking hay. He is also one of the few horses I have met that is not keen on hayledge.

If he really got a cough and snotty nose, then I would soak or steam his hay and be dammed, but the Clarity seems to have done the trick - not a sign of snotty noses and it is really a very rare cough and only when he has been in for a couple of days.

Might be worth trying and also changing the bedding. I also love the haybars but do have to be careful not to fill more than half or my two like to play with it.
 
Hi

My boy's been coughing more than usual this winter, chestily and sometimes while not being ridden (tho this seems to be in mornings only while eating), and sometimes there is a bit of phlegm on the floor outside his stable in the morning. His hay is soaked and he's on a minimal-dust shavings bed. He coughs a couple of times while ridden but hasn't lost condition and is his usual, go-faster-stripes cheeky self *roll eyes* Normally at this time of year he'd be living out now for summer but with the weather the way it has been, that isn't happening yet and he's still on day TO only :(

We've been thinking about moving him and the YO at the current favourite says they've got a few with RAO there. They're on haylage, so that's one plus, but YO says only bedding available is straw (tho hers has a light shavings bed), which could be a point of concern; they're also brought in on summer daytimes and turned out overnight rather than 24/7 in summer. We'd be bringing his rubber matting so in summer at least I'd only want a very light bed on top. Would be interested and v grateful for people's thoughts, particularly also supplement recommendations...

x
 
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