Summer Pasture Asthma - help / tips?

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Sianio

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Hi all, my horse was diagnosed with summer pasture-associated asthma this year. Last summer she had an intermittent cough for approximately 10 weeks. This year has been much worse, she has been wheezy on many days and was exercise intolerant so I started her on inhalers (ventolin and steroids).

Started on a really high dose (20 puffs of each twice a day for two weeks) and reduced gradually to 5 of each twice daily. However this didn't give me a 'normal' horse. Whether it's 20 puffs or 5 doesn't seem to make any difference, I can only ride late in the evening presumably as the pollen is lower. I had the vet out as I was considering retirement but the vet advised that I wasn't giving a high enough dose of the inhalers.

I raised the dose but this is making my horse cough more - I can't ride her after the inhalers as she coughs too much so I'm still stuck with riding at 8:30pm and then giving inhalers afterwards. The vets are puzzled as they say they have horses with much worse asthma out eventing and I should be able to ride as normal if we are giving a high dose, but this definitely isn't the case. I've had the dose up higher for a week and it's just making the poor horse cough without changing the times I can ride!

Has anybody else had this experience? Perhaps there are some tricks I'm missing. My horse is out for 6 hours a day as her quality of life wouldn't be good enough with less turnout, she has a well ventilated stable with shavings and is fed soaked hay.
 
Should have mentioned - as well as the inhalers I feed the maximum dose of Pollenex daily and I'm using another supplement that's supposed to support respiratory health but doesn't seem to do much! I've tried the Liquid Air from HackUp but that causes constant coughing!
 
Sorry to hear your mare is struggling. I think it's often a case of trial and error to find what works for the specific horse but here are a couple of random thoughts of things you can try:
Is she out during the day or overnight during the moment? Maybe you could try stabling her during the day if she isn't already so her exposure to whatever is irritating her is minimised.
It might be worth trying different inhalers to see if they make a difference. My vet doesn't rate Ventolin and tends to try Atrovent first instead. I think this is the same with some human asthmatics where different brands work for different people. You could also try nebulising the drug if you can afford a nebuliser/ your insurance will pay for it. Some vets think the nebulisers get the drugs into the lungs better than inhalers.
Has she had blood tests and a trach wash or BAL to confirm that there isn't an infection? I'm presuming yes but could be worth doing this otherwise as she might need a course of antibiotics.
Some people swear by using antihistamines and/or nose nets. Vets don't generally think that either of these work but plenty of owners would say otherwise so definitely worth a try. Hopefully somebody else could help you out with what antihistamines and the dose to use as I don't have experience of this myself.
The only other thing I can think of which is quite extreme is moving the horse to a different yard in a slightly different area. It could be that something specific to where she is now is triggering it and a change in environment might be needed. Obviously I don't know how practical that is though but just thought I'd put it there as a suggestion.
 
I feel like I could have written this post.....

I've had the asthma battle all summer and he is currently not being ridden as any exercise at all has him puffing like a racehorse.

He was scoped-inflammation in the trachea from the trach wash. We seem to have tried everything to get the inflammation down... Started with ventolin inhaler, 2x a day for 6 puffs (he is 14.2hh). Then after the scope we moved to the oral steroids. That did help, he came back into work briefly, then as soon as the course was out his system, the puffing returned.

We then tried dilaterol, plus the blue inhaler, 4 puffs twice a day.

He has had a nose net on as soon as I noticed the puffing. All hay soaked, all bedding dust free. He's also been on antihistamines which have made very little difference. Vet says the noise is coming from the windpipe rather than his lungs. So far, nothing seems to have given much relief.

As a last resort, he is going in to the clinic overnight for allergy testing, to try and work out what it is that is causing the inflammation in his windpipe. Vet also suggested a change of yard as a possible remedy-my problems all started with an unrelated yard move. Funnily enough, my boy is moving to a new yard in a few weeks for unrelated reasons again, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the change of air etc will remove the worst of the issue.

I feel your pain, it's a nightmare. I've decided not to ride until he is breathing better, I don't want to damage his breathing further. My only advice is keep pushing the vets to try other solutions, and consider a move as a drastic measure.
 
I had a nightmare with my horse’s asthma a couple of years ago so I really feel your pain. I tried antihistamines (with no effect whatsoever), numerous courses of Ventipulmin / Dilaterol, then steroid and Ventolin inhalers for quite a while (which did seem to improve things slightly but definitely not enough to ride a anything other than a slow pace for a short time). We had trach and lung washes which just showed lots of inflammation but no infection.

The vet suggested a nebuliser and I can’t tell you the difference it made! Because the steroids are nebulised, they can get straight to the lungs. Even done really carefully with a spacer, the amount of drugs lost with inhaler use is considerable. The nebuliser wasn’t cheap. The insurance paid for it but, even if they hadn’t agreed to it, I would’ve paid myself as it’s been such a game changer. This year, he hasn’t needed it at all!

The other thing I found worked for my horse was 24 hour turnout. If he’s in for any longer than a couple of hours, he starts to cough and sneeze.

I’d definitely say it would be worth having the conversation with your vet about the possibility of a nebuliser. Some vets offer them for hire. Good luck. I hope you find a solution.
 
I had some success with Pulmoease which can be given alongside Ventapulmin. It is a strong flavour so needs to be introduced gradually. They sent me a taste test sample when I phoned for advice.
 
Thanks everyone! My vet actually advised against a nebuliser but I can buy one that fits into my current inhaler system so no reason I can’t give it a try. We are certain with my horse that it’s pollen-triggered due to the pattern of her bad spells and the fact that I can school as long as it has rained all day without a cough or wheeze in sight! 🙄 So currently trying antihistamines on a two week trial, with dilator inhaler before I ride and then steroid after.

A yard move to somewhere she could be out at night would be perfect but she is currently 10 minutes from both my home and work so it would really be a last resort. The closest similar yards are much further away and I would need full livery and for them to administer morning inhalers as my current yard do.
 
I'm 90% sure mine reacts to tree pollen and he was really bad this year after being fine last year and not so bad the year before. I do find some years have been worse than others. I used antihistamines this year (piriton) although sadly I didn't start them as soon as I should have done. It did take quite a while for them to kick in and help. I've also found naf respirator boost helps and did a course of the loading dose. After that a dose about 30 min before riding seemed to help. Counter intuitive as it might seem exercise also helped mine - just walk when that was all he could handle - as I think it gets the mucus moving. After riding I often scatter treats on the floor to get him to put his nose down for a while as that sometimes encourages big blobs of snot out. I did have the vet out and worked through a bottle of dilaterol but to be honest it didn't seem to make much of a difference.

Hope you manage to get an improvement.
 
Following as one of mine is bad too but the vet did advise exercise as per pp comments. Seems to get stuff moving. She’s a lot worse with any time off. Some days we can’t manage much tho!
 
Sianio said:
Thanks everyone! My vet actually advised against a nebuliser but I can buy one that fits into my current inhaler system so no reason I can’t give it a try. We are certain with my horse that it’s pollen-triggered due to the pattern of her bad spells and the fact that I can school as long as it has rained all day without a cough or wheeze in sight! 🙄 So currently trying antihistamines on a two week trial, with dilator inhaler before I ride and then steroid after.

A yard move to somewhere she could be out at night would be perfect but she is currently 10 minutes from both my home and work so it would really be a last resort. The closest similar yards are much further away and I would need full livery and for them to administer morning inhalers as my current yard do.
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As a YO I would want to keep a good full livery and would be looking to help in any way possible , the obvious thing is to try turning out overnight and this should be fairly simple to arrange on most yards.

If you have not spoken about it asking can do no harm, if keeping the horse healthy and it's owner happy is a priority, which it should be, they should at least give it a try and see if it makes a difference, being flexible is an important part of being a good YO.
 
NinjaPony said:
I feel like I could have written this post.....

I've had the asthma battle all summer and he is currently not being ridden as any exercise at all has him puffing like a racehorse.

He was scoped-inflammation in the trachea from the trach wash. We seem to have tried everything to get the inflammation down... Started with ventolin inhaler, 2x a day for 6 puffs (he is 14.2hh). Then after the scope we moved to the oral steroids. That did help, he came back into work briefly, then as soon as the course was out his system, the puffing returned.

We then tried dilaterol, plus the blue inhaler, 4 puffs twice a day.

He has had a nose net on as soon as I noticed the puffing. All hay soaked, all bedding dust free. He's also been on antihistamines which have made very little difference. Vet says the noise is coming from the windpipe rather than his lungs. So far, nothing seems to have given much relief.

As a last resort, he is going in to the clinic overnight for allergy testing, to try and work out what it is that is causing the inflammation in his windpipe. Vet also suggested a change of yard as a possible remedy-my problems all started with an unrelated yard move. Funnily enough, my boy is moving to a new yard in a few weeks for unrelated reasons again, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the change of air etc will remove the worst of the issue.

I feel your pain, it's a nightmare. I've decided not to ride until he is breathing better, I don't want to damage his breathing further. My only advice is keep pushing the vets to try other solutions, and consider a move as a drastic measure.
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Can you increase the inhaler dose? My horse is only 15.3 and my vet (Royal Veterinary College) started her on 20 puffs of both blue and brown inhalers twice a day, they say this is a normal amount for other asthmatic horses in the area. We also have her on 20 antihistamines twice daily. They did say to me that I couldn't damage her lungs in any way by exercising her and that she would refuse to do it long before that was a possibility, if that helps - but all vets have their own ideas!
 
Sianio said:
Can you increase the inhaler dose? My horse is only 15.3 and my vet (Royal Veterinary College) started her on 20 puffs of both blue and brown inhalers twice a day, they say this is a normal amount for other asthmatic horses in the area. We also have her on 20 antihistamines twice daily. They did say to me that I couldn't damage her lungs in any way by exercising her and that she would refuse to do it long before that was a possibility, if that helps - but all vets have their own ideas!
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Did you know you can get higher dose Beclemetazone inhalers? The brown ones are usually only 100mg per puff but you can get maroon ones that are 250mg. Might, at least, mean you needed less “puffs” for the same dose and therefore avoid some of the loss of medication into the atmosphere.
Apologies if you already knew this.
 
This is a great idea - she gets really grumpy/impatient with the steroid bit and it makes her cough so at the moment we're trialling a higher dose of the dilator and less steroid - but always good to have options! Two week antihistamine trial is going well in that my very fussy feeder hasn't noticed the 20 pills that are now in each feed, hard to say if it's working as we've had rain the last couple of days so she would have been better anyway. At this rate it will be winter again before I get the right combination!
 
Honestly I don't know what to do for the best anymore.... I'm more than happy to massively up his dose of inhalers, but my vet had given 6 puffs twice a day as a 'big dose' and when that had very little effect told me to try something else instead!

I actually put him on antihistamines myself but only at a low dose, which also did very little, but again am happy to give him 15 plus if it helps!

Problem is, its all on an insurance claim, so I need the vets to agree/recommend treatment or they won't pay out for it. I'm moving area in September, so it will be new vets which might not be a bad thing. Just hoping to have a better handle on it for next year so I can stop it getting so bad.

I know in theory I probably wouldn't damage him by gentle riding, but I just feel awful making him work when I can feel him struggling. He's 18 and owes me nothing, so I'd rather just give him a bit of a holiday until he improves, whether because of the weather, or because we get to the bottom of the issue.
 
NinjaPony said:
Honestly I don't know what to do for the best anymore.... I'm more than happy to massively up his dose of inhalers, but my vet had given 6 puffs twice a day as a 'big dose' and when that had very little effect told me to try something else instead!

I actually put him on antihistamines myself but only at a low dose, which also did very little, but again am happy to give him 15 plus if it helps!

Problem is, its all on an insurance claim, so I need the vets to agree/recommend treatment or they won't pay out for it. I'm moving area in September, so it will be new vets which might not be a bad thing. Just hoping to have a better handle on it for next year so I can stop it getting so bad.

I know in theory I probably wouldn't damage him by gentle riding, but I just feel awful making him work when I can feel him struggling. He's 18 and owes me nothing, so I'd rather just give him a bit of a holiday until he improves, whether because of the weather, or because we get to the bottom of the issue.
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Have you spoken to the vet about nebulised steroids? If it’s inflamation, rather than airway restriction, the first thing that needs doing is to reduce that and steroids, unfortunately, seem to usually be the way forward for that. My horse only showed slight improvement with inhaled steroids but, with nebulised steroids, there was a huge difference as the steroid can get right or the lungs. Some insurance companies will pay out for a nebuliser.

I also don’t think 6 actuations twice a day is a big dose (assuming you’re using 100mg inhalers). A human can take 2 puffs of Ventolin numerous times a day! Are you only using bronchial dilators (blue) or steroid inhalers (brown) too? As the oral steroids helped, I would guess that a daily steroid dose (either by inhaler or nebulised) might be helpful as a preventative as all Ventolin and Dilaterol do is open the airways (useful before steroid inhaler use as it can help to deliver the drug). I’m not sure why the vet has you using Ventolin and Dilaterol together as they, basically, do the same job.

If I were you, I’d have a chat with the vet about where to go next before your insurance year runs out.
 
My boy is usually really wheezy at this time of year & I use antihistamines & an inhaler with a spacer. This year he has been so much better - the difference this year is he is on very short grass as he is sharing with a fatty . Usually he is on fairly lush grass as although Welsh he stays slim. He had dropped a bit of weight over the last couple of weeks so I put him on longish lush grazing and interestingly within 48 hours the wheezing started. He has been back on the fatty paddock for a day & wheezing has reduced.
If yours are on fairly plentiful grass may be worth trying a starvation paddock as it seems lush grass is the trigger for my boy .
 
Sianio said:
Hi all, my horse was diagnosed with summer pasture-associated asthma this year. Last summer she had an intermittent cough for approximately 10 weeks. This year has been much worse, she has been wheezy on many days and was exercise intolerant so I started her on inhalers (ventolin and steroids).

Started on a really high dose (20 puffs of each twice a day for two weeks) and reduced gradually to 5 of each twice daily. However this didn't give me a 'normal' horse. Whether it's 20 puffs or 5 doesn't seem to make any difference, I can only ride late in the evening presumably as the pollen is lower. I had the vet out as I was considering retirement but the vet advised that I wasn't giving a high enough dose of the inhalers.

I raised the dose but this is making my horse cough more - I can't ride her after the inhalers as she coughs too much so I'm still stuck with riding at 8:30pm and then giving inhalers afterwards. The vets are puzzled as they say they have horses with much worse asthma out eventing and I should be able to ride as normal if we are giving a high dose, but this definitely isn't the case. I've had the dose up higher for a week and it's just making the poor horse cough without changing the times I can ride!

Has anybody else had this experience? Perhaps there are some tricks I'm missing. My horse is out for 6 hours a day as her quality of life wouldn't be good enough with less turnout, she has a well ventilated stable with shavings and is fed soaked hay.
Click to expand...

It is a pain I know


My pony diagnosed with asthma last year and my ID diagnosed with IAD this year. Pony has an inhaler and bedmax bedding along with wet hay , we seem to control it this year, though saying that she was coughing tonight so used inhaler.

I have Gold label Vapor if I need it, for the stable




I also like Equine America aiways + syrup before I ride and global herbs airways in feed.
 
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