Sweating at Rest

[CanadianGirl]

My 10 y.o. QH Mare has had a cough for the past five weeks. At first I tried to treat it myself with a cough remedy that I picked up at the tack store (Zev), it helped a bit, but it never made the cough go away completely. She was (and is) still eating and behaving like she always does. At the beginning of week 3 she coughed up a big blob of phlegm (milky coloured) and that's when I called the vet. He put her on Sputolysin and Ventipulmin, I also began to soak her hay. The medication lasted 10 days and she seemed much better, she didn't cough at all. On the second day of no medication (this past Monday) her cough came back. I called the vet and he gave me more Ventipulmin and antibiotic (horse equivalent of Bactrim). On Monday morning when I got to the barn she was a little sweaty, I assumed it was from the strain of coughing and mentioned it to the vet. He didn't seem overly concerned. Tuesday morning she was sweating again and Tuesday night even more so. We took her temperature and it was right on 100 F, so not really high.
This morning she was sweaty again, but not as much as last night. She also seemed kind of sleepy and lethargic. I don't blanket her during the winter as it makes her sweat, she has a good winter coat and I don't clip her. I haven't ridden her or made her do any work at all for about four weeks now. Has this happened to anyone else?

 

[Hels_Bells]

Sounds pretty serious to me, I would get another pure equine vet out asap for a second opinion, I think your current vet is really missing something!

 

[Luci07]

Ditto - "normally" when they have viruses they seem to get cold not sweat. I would get back to your vet..

 

[shazza283]

Ventepulmin can cause sweating as a side effect - I would be saying take her off it for now and looking for an alternative - nebuliser??

from ventepulmin data sheet "Clenbuterol may cause side effects such as sweating (mainly neck region), muscle tremor, tachycardia, slight hypotension or restlessness"

 

[Nari]

Ventipulmin made one of mine sweat really badly the last time he had it. Despite cold weather that he'd normally be well rugged in he was literally dripping sweat when naked or just wearing a light cooler. Reducing the dose helped a little - on a small pony dose he was just wet to touch but not dripping - but we had to take him off it because he was going to end up ill. The vet said it's an unusual side-effect that he had't seen before.

 

[Bennions Field]

definately a s/effect of ventipulmin, i had vet out to my 27 year old mare last week, she eneded up with an injection of ventipulmin together with antibiotics, she reacted so quickly and so badly to ventipulmin injection that the vet has said not to let her have it again, she literally poored with sweat within 2-3 minutes of the injection. poor little mare she took all day and night to dry out fully, she's only lightly clipped to help with her cushings. but vet said the reaction was definately due to the ventipulmin, it was not a common s/effect but was known.

best of luck with your mare, hope she gets better soon, and definately would get a second opionion.

 

[CanadianGirl]

I had read that it could be a side effect of the Ventipulmin. She is not pouring sweat or even foaming up. It's more like her neck and girth area are either wet or showing dried sweat. She doesn't seem really bothered, but no other horse in the barn is sweating and some of them are blanketed.

Unfortunately I can't really afford to have another vet out for a second opinion. Large animal vets are few and far between where I live and we can't buy health insurance for horses here (I wish we could, although the people that I know that had it for their cats or dogs almost always have trouble collecting)

Anyway, fwiw...

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Did the vet tell you what his/her diagnosis was? Has your horse been diagnosed as suffering from RAO/COPD? If so, it will be due to dust so you need to either soak her hay or switch to haylage which doesn't need soaking. You need to eliminate as much dust as possible from her environment so you may need to change her bedding - shavings or paper but not straw or anything dusty. Unfortunately, the lungs of a RAO/COPD horse are more prone to picking up a secondary infection of some kind and if so, a course of antibiotics can help. Sadly, it often doesn't. The goo your horse is coughing up is the mucus her lungs are making in response to the allergen (dust) that her body thinks is dangerous. Try to keep her turned out as much as possible - 24/7 if possible. That should stop the allergic response but the cells in the lungs that make the mucus keep on making mucus for about 3 months so coughing up the goo will continue for a while yet. The sweating may be a side effect of ventipulmin but could also be due to stress from not being able to get enough oxygen into her body. Count her breaths per minute (I count 30 seconds then double it!) as she is standing quiet and chilled in her stable. In a normal horse they should be about 10 - 15 bpm but my severely COPD horse's run at anything from 45 (chilled out) to 65 or even higher for even the tiniest amount of stress. If your horse's bpm are consistently much higher than normal, then she needs help and certainly shouldn't be worked. Your vet can prescribe inhaled drugs if the oral ones aren't helping but for god's sake don't buy an "equi" inhaler (£200 ish). Get a baby one from Boots at £13.50.