Patterdale
Well-Known Member
Welsh section A. My daughter’s amazing first ridden pony, she is one of those unicorn that everyone wants. We’ve had her 4 years and she’s onto her second child with us, she’s amazing and we all love her very much. Just as an intro!
March 2020 she had a mystery respiratory virus. No vets would visit, although she was very ill, and it finally developed into pneumonia. The vet had visited after the first lockdown and advised ventipulmin, then when the pneumonia hit she had a double course of antibiotics which did seem to get rid of it. After this time, although she was back to her perky happy self, she was very lazy off the leg to ride. We put this down to her long break and being unfit.
Summer 2021 she showed quite bad symptoms in summer. High resps, coughing, red swollen eyes. We tried her on cetirizine and a fly mask and she improved so we assumed she’d developed a seasonal allergy.
Winter 2021/22 her breathing was sometimes fine, sometimes not. However she got to the point where she didn’t want to trot on hacks, and canter was out of the question. Got a different vet in feb 22 who found a grade 5 heart murmur and suggested very sensibly that this may be the cause of her performance and coughing issues. So off she went to horsepital where cardiac investigations found that she had a congenital VSD which was not affecting heart function and was completely safe. She’s having yearly echo’s now to check it doesn’t get any bigger. But they said it wouldn’t affect her performance.
I spoke to them about the resp issues (which were incidentally fine at this point) and they said a tracheal wash(?) might be indicated but that she couldn’t have it then as she’d been stood with her head up for too long. But that my own vet could do it. When I got back though my own vet said they dont do tracheal washes.
In between all of these episodes the pony is fine, she’s happy and runs and plays in the field, and likes her work but is becoming very, very dead to the leg. She can be following the other ponies in canter and she just trots along and stops as soon as she can.
My problem is that she is ok in all her obs. She’s on 10 cetirizine a day which helps and ventipulmin at bad times although she’s not had any since autumn. What will the vet actually do??
Our main problem is that she is a previously forward pony who is now very slow. I do not have access to specialist equine vets unless I get a referral to horsepital. But then where would they even start? If there’s something specific like the heart murmur then I’m happy to throw money at it, but I’m not keen on turning up with a blank cheque and asking why our pony is slow!
It’s just one of those very long running situations, it’s fine over 90% of the time and it’s just hard to see the wood for the trees at times. Any tips, moments of clarity welcome!
Her lifestyle is 24/7 turnout. It’s many months since she entered a building. She eats grass only and haylage in winter. She’s a very poor doer too which obviously isn’t normal for the breed. Work involves hacking and pony club with a 5 year old rider so obviously not strenuous or daily work.
Thanks in advance for any pointers.
March 2020 she had a mystery respiratory virus. No vets would visit, although she was very ill, and it finally developed into pneumonia. The vet had visited after the first lockdown and advised ventipulmin, then when the pneumonia hit she had a double course of antibiotics which did seem to get rid of it. After this time, although she was back to her perky happy self, she was very lazy off the leg to ride. We put this down to her long break and being unfit.
Summer 2021 she showed quite bad symptoms in summer. High resps, coughing, red swollen eyes. We tried her on cetirizine and a fly mask and she improved so we assumed she’d developed a seasonal allergy.
Winter 2021/22 her breathing was sometimes fine, sometimes not. However she got to the point where she didn’t want to trot on hacks, and canter was out of the question. Got a different vet in feb 22 who found a grade 5 heart murmur and suggested very sensibly that this may be the cause of her performance and coughing issues. So off she went to horsepital where cardiac investigations found that she had a congenital VSD which was not affecting heart function and was completely safe. She’s having yearly echo’s now to check it doesn’t get any bigger. But they said it wouldn’t affect her performance.
I spoke to them about the resp issues (which were incidentally fine at this point) and they said a tracheal wash(?) might be indicated but that she couldn’t have it then as she’d been stood with her head up for too long. But that my own vet could do it. When I got back though my own vet said they dont do tracheal washes.
In between all of these episodes the pony is fine, she’s happy and runs and plays in the field, and likes her work but is becoming very, very dead to the leg. She can be following the other ponies in canter and she just trots along and stops as soon as she can.
My problem is that she is ok in all her obs. She’s on 10 cetirizine a day which helps and ventipulmin at bad times although she’s not had any since autumn. What will the vet actually do??
Our main problem is that she is a previously forward pony who is now very slow. I do not have access to specialist equine vets unless I get a referral to horsepital. But then where would they even start? If there’s something specific like the heart murmur then I’m happy to throw money at it, but I’m not keen on turning up with a blank cheque and asking why our pony is slow!
It’s just one of those very long running situations, it’s fine over 90% of the time and it’s just hard to see the wood for the trees at times. Any tips, moments of clarity welcome!
Her lifestyle is 24/7 turnout. It’s many months since she entered a building. She eats grass only and haylage in winter. She’s a very poor doer too which obviously isn’t normal for the breed. Work involves hacking and pony club with a 5 year old rider so obviously not strenuous or daily work.
Thanks in advance for any pointers.
