Christmas Crumpet
Well-Known Member
We've been having all sorts of weird breathing issues with my horse over the summer which has resulted in a swollen trachea and adenoids. His breathing has been very loud on exhalation and not right.
Vets thought it was an allergy originally and are now putting it down to a virus but nothing showed up on either tracheal wash or blood test. So... here's the thing. He wears a muzzle to go out and has been wearing the Shires Deluxe one with rubber at the bottom. His breathing is far worse when he comes in from the field than when he goes out after being in all night.
So we then changed the muzzle to an easy breathe one wondering if he couldn't breathe properly with the muzzle on or had an allergic reaction to the rubber at the bottom but the breathing got a bit worse. Then a dinky muzzle was next and his breathing was awful (the dinky muzzle lets them eat more grass and is more open with big nostril holes). His grass glands were really big as well and sore. This morning his breathing is far improved and grass glands right down.
Could this be a grass allergy which only affects him by causing inflammation in his breathing bits? No coughing, mucus - literally nothing but very strange exhalations.
I'm keeping him off the grass as an experiment for a while and see how that goes. But just wondered whether anyone had anything similar or helpful to share!! He is on a month's rest so it seems strange he is getting worse in the field.
Vets thought it was an allergy originally and are now putting it down to a virus but nothing showed up on either tracheal wash or blood test. So... here's the thing. He wears a muzzle to go out and has been wearing the Shires Deluxe one with rubber at the bottom. His breathing is far worse when he comes in from the field than when he goes out after being in all night.
So we then changed the muzzle to an easy breathe one wondering if he couldn't breathe properly with the muzzle on or had an allergic reaction to the rubber at the bottom but the breathing got a bit worse. Then a dinky muzzle was next and his breathing was awful (the dinky muzzle lets them eat more grass and is more open with big nostril holes). His grass glands were really big as well and sore. This morning his breathing is far improved and grass glands right down.
Could this be a grass allergy which only affects him by causing inflammation in his breathing bits? No coughing, mucus - literally nothing but very strange exhalations.
I'm keeping him off the grass as an experiment for a while and see how that goes. But just wondered whether anyone had anything similar or helpful to share!! He is on a month's rest so it seems strange he is getting worse in the field.
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