Box_Of_Frogs
Well-Known Member
Well, today is finally over and huge thanks to my YO who keot me sane during the day and my pal on the yard who had done Sunny's stable for me by the time we got back.
As I knew, glossy coat or not, Sunny is a very sick lad. He needed endoscopy to rule out a couple of ultra nasty conditions that nosebleeds + severe breathing difficulty might have been. Poor lad, vets could only risk a tiny dose of sedative for fear he'd stop breathing altogether and the subsequent endoscopy was hard for him. I almost stopped it at one point as he was so distressed. A sample was eventually taken and will be sent to the labs to check for tumour cells (not expecting this, but just to be sure)
Here's the findings: Sunny's lungs are massively choked with thick sticky mucus. How he's still breathing nobody knows. Vets have never seen a horse with the hyper-sensitivty of the vocal cords that Sunny has now developed. They've also never seen a horse taking tiny shallow breaths like he does in response to the COPD/summer pasture disease. We're agreed that it's his way of coping with painful inhalations any other way. Sunny is in the worst top 10% of all horses that go to the practice with breathing difficulties. Given his age (25 ish), there is no treatment other than prednisolone that can help him now. Subject carefully researched and many thanks for everyone who posted their experience of a horse on preds and the laminitis risk. My vets are hopeful that steroids will give him relief within a very short time. Obviously, they can't undo the existing damage/fibrosis to his lungs. We all know that this is palliative care only and Sunny will be watched very carefully for signs of improvement. The vets are hopeful that if the preds work he may have another year or two of quiet retirement, though I'm not quite as optimistic as that. In the event that preds don't help or that he gets so bad again next May, then I'll know we've done everything that could be done and he will be given the compassionate and dignified end that such a wonderful, safe, gentleman of a horse as him deserves.
As I knew, glossy coat or not, Sunny is a very sick lad. He needed endoscopy to rule out a couple of ultra nasty conditions that nosebleeds + severe breathing difficulty might have been. Poor lad, vets could only risk a tiny dose of sedative for fear he'd stop breathing altogether and the subsequent endoscopy was hard for him. I almost stopped it at one point as he was so distressed. A sample was eventually taken and will be sent to the labs to check for tumour cells (not expecting this, but just to be sure)
Here's the findings: Sunny's lungs are massively choked with thick sticky mucus. How he's still breathing nobody knows. Vets have never seen a horse with the hyper-sensitivty of the vocal cords that Sunny has now developed. They've also never seen a horse taking tiny shallow breaths like he does in response to the COPD/summer pasture disease. We're agreed that it's his way of coping with painful inhalations any other way. Sunny is in the worst top 10% of all horses that go to the practice with breathing difficulties. Given his age (25 ish), there is no treatment other than prednisolone that can help him now. Subject carefully researched and many thanks for everyone who posted their experience of a horse on preds and the laminitis risk. My vets are hopeful that steroids will give him relief within a very short time. Obviously, they can't undo the existing damage/fibrosis to his lungs. We all know that this is palliative care only and Sunny will be watched very carefully for signs of improvement. The vets are hopeful that if the preds work he may have another year or two of quiet retirement, though I'm not quite as optimistic as that. In the event that preds don't help or that he gets so bad again next May, then I'll know we've done everything that could be done and he will be given the compassionate and dignified end that such a wonderful, safe, gentleman of a horse as him deserves.
