Summer cough.

[SophieAlice]

Just looking to see if anyone has experienced their horse coughing during this dry month! Mine seems to cough when excersised... granted she may always of has a cough at the start but this some times persists throughout riding. Some days she won't cough at all but other days it's frequent. Doesn't cough in the field or in the stable. Tried her on a week of ventapulmin and made no difference (had it from last summer when she did need it). Currently riding her with gasoline around her nose and a nose net.. also been giving piriton. This seems to make her a bit better. Is in during the day as the stable is cooler with soaked hay... is on straw bedding but doesn't eat it and last winter was in a hell of a lot and didn't have this problem. She doesn't have any discharge(well today she had a little for the first time after being ridden). No breathing effort or harsh sounding breathing. Loosing the will with it. Does anyone have any tips?? Was thinking with the ground being so dry that wouldn't help with inhaling dust?!

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I would avoid straw bedding, see if that helps.

 

[scats]

If there is some inflammation in her airway, it might be worth a few days of bute to see if it makes any difference.
Just had one who had a cough, vet couldn’t hear anything to make them think it was a virus and it appeared to be right high up in her upper airway so assumed inflammation due to possibly pollen, allergies etc, Few days of bute and coughing stopped.

 

[Goldenstar]

Tatts is allergic To various plants over the summer he has the odd cough at the start of a ride .
We don’t medicate him and the mote you do with him the less he coughs .
If your horse is coughing throughout the ride you need to deal with it you risk doing permanent chronic damage to the lungs .
I would also swop the straw bed .

 

[Bellalily]

Bothof mine started coughing last Autumn and as one of them is 23, I got the vet out. The whole yard was coughing, it was awful. Vet prescribed ventipulmin and the pony's cough cleared up fine. Sadly my chap has been left very sensitive to any dust or dry atmosphere. I took him out for a ride when the weather and ground were really dry and he coughed and sneezed quite a bit. Took him out after we had had torrential rain and he sneezed twice and nothing else. Sounds as tho yours is similar and I'd put him on a really low dust bedding, aubiose or similar. Some bute may help too, but I'd just try to keep his environment as dust free as possible. Really frustrating as mine is a really dirty horse stabled and straw was a godsend for him.