SO1
Well-Known Member
At the beginning of Feb my pony had what I could only describe as a funny turn. I had hacked him out he was bright and full of energy came back and his breathing went very elevated and then he started pawing the ground and rolling around in his stable at one point he was flat on his side looking very distressed. Presumed it was colic so called vet by the time the vet arrived about 40 minutes later pony completely back to normal, vet could not see any signs of colic however she did detect premature heart beats. Temperature was 37C
As pony has a history of strange breathing issues presumed to be RAO though has not had a problem for several years she suggested putting him back on to 1 scoop of ventipulmin before riding and that as his symptoms were so weird it might be worth him coming to the vet college for tests on his heart as heart problems can cause breathing problems. Pony lives out and does not have hay as we have enough grazing on the yard to not need to feed hay unless we have heavy snow. Previous breathing issues have not been so extreme and have not had a particular pattern but thought at one point he might have had a virus due to temperature at the same time and off food. Have been totally manageable with ventipulmin though he was not on it at the time of the recent attack.
He spent 2 days at vet college with 24 hour ECG and exercise test and neither showed up any heart problems and the premature heartbeat was not present. He also had a scan of his heart which again looked normal. The only thing that that came up in the exercise was that he did puffed out and take longer than expected to return to normal. So they expected that his attack was caused by a flare up of his RAO though his breathing sounded clear, no snot and fine at rest and he is not exposed to dust or pollen as he lives out and no hay.
So vet suggested ventipulmin an hour before riding so I have ridden him about 4 times since he came back from the vet college and he has been ok up till today when he had another attack after I rode him in the school.
I had the day off so rode him in school, he had his ventipulmin an hour before so was expecting everything to be ok. He was not wanting to canter and then he got a bit puffed out so I walked him off for 10 minutes untacked him, {probably rode for about 40 minutes mostly in walk with a bit of trot and tiny bit of canter} and his breathing went even faster and he started lying down and looking unhappy he then got up again and came over and managed to barge out of the stable breathe still very bad so took him to a grassy area to see if he wanted a wee as he had not weed and he normally always wees when he goes in the school though he had pooed twice & he didn't wee. Within 50 minutes he was completely back to normal as if nothing had happened. His temperature was normal and so were his gut sounds.
Called the vet and there was no point in them rushing over as he seemed normal again. He has already had tests on his heart at the vet college since his last episode at beginning of Feb so don't think it is his heart. I had a quite a long chat with the vet at the vet college who examined his heart and she thinks what is happening is very strange and not like standard RAO as he goes from being very uncomfortable to back to normal fairly quickly and this time he had ventipulmin beforehand his breathing should not have been so bad.
Vet said 90% of breathing issues caused by RAO/allergy but she is not convinced his original diagnosis of RAO is correct as his symptoms are so strange. It does not appear to be his heart so not sure where to go from here. Vet coming back out in two weeks time to do endoscopy and other tests. In the meantime I should continue to ride him just giving the ventipulmin beforehand as the vets needs more information on the circumstances on the days he does have an attack eg what we did, the weather, was he alert was there anything different in his routine. I am reluctant to do anything that might bring on an attack as it is so distressing for him so I will probably just try and take it very easy with him until the vets have done the endoscope.
Anyone heard of anything similar?
As pony has a history of strange breathing issues presumed to be RAO though has not had a problem for several years she suggested putting him back on to 1 scoop of ventipulmin before riding and that as his symptoms were so weird it might be worth him coming to the vet college for tests on his heart as heart problems can cause breathing problems. Pony lives out and does not have hay as we have enough grazing on the yard to not need to feed hay unless we have heavy snow. Previous breathing issues have not been so extreme and have not had a particular pattern but thought at one point he might have had a virus due to temperature at the same time and off food. Have been totally manageable with ventipulmin though he was not on it at the time of the recent attack.
He spent 2 days at vet college with 24 hour ECG and exercise test and neither showed up any heart problems and the premature heartbeat was not present. He also had a scan of his heart which again looked normal. The only thing that that came up in the exercise was that he did puffed out and take longer than expected to return to normal. So they expected that his attack was caused by a flare up of his RAO though his breathing sounded clear, no snot and fine at rest and he is not exposed to dust or pollen as he lives out and no hay.
So vet suggested ventipulmin an hour before riding so I have ridden him about 4 times since he came back from the vet college and he has been ok up till today when he had another attack after I rode him in the school.
I had the day off so rode him in school, he had his ventipulmin an hour before so was expecting everything to be ok. He was not wanting to canter and then he got a bit puffed out so I walked him off for 10 minutes untacked him, {probably rode for about 40 minutes mostly in walk with a bit of trot and tiny bit of canter} and his breathing went even faster and he started lying down and looking unhappy he then got up again and came over and managed to barge out of the stable breathe still very bad so took him to a grassy area to see if he wanted a wee as he had not weed and he normally always wees when he goes in the school though he had pooed twice & he didn't wee. Within 50 minutes he was completely back to normal as if nothing had happened. His temperature was normal and so were his gut sounds.
Called the vet and there was no point in them rushing over as he seemed normal again. He has already had tests on his heart at the vet college since his last episode at beginning of Feb so don't think it is his heart. I had a quite a long chat with the vet at the vet college who examined his heart and she thinks what is happening is very strange and not like standard RAO as he goes from being very uncomfortable to back to normal fairly quickly and this time he had ventipulmin beforehand his breathing should not have been so bad.
Vet said 90% of breathing issues caused by RAO/allergy but she is not convinced his original diagnosis of RAO is correct as his symptoms are so strange. It does not appear to be his heart so not sure where to go from here. Vet coming back out in two weeks time to do endoscopy and other tests. In the meantime I should continue to ride him just giving the ventipulmin beforehand as the vets needs more information on the circumstances on the days he does have an attack eg what we did, the weather, was he alert was there anything different in his routine. I am reluctant to do anything that might bring on an attack as it is so distressing for him so I will probably just try and take it very easy with him until the vets have done the endoscope.
Anyone heard of anything similar?