Temp of 38, rapid breathing but no sweat! Help

islandspirit

islandspirit

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I'm confuzzled and would greatly appreciate any advice:-)
Firstly apologies for any spelling mistakes as I'm posting from my phone.
I got to the yard yesterday afternoon to bring in my horse for a ride in the sunshine. It was quite warm and he still had a turnout rug on, quite lightweight but most other horses had had their rugs removed but mine still had his on.
Anyway, brought him and took off the rug expecting him to be a bit sweaty but although he was warm there was no sweat so I tacked up and went for a plod.
He was quite lazy for the ride and as we trotted up the last hill he wasn't as forward as usual. I'd only been for a short hack and as we are trying to work on our canter I popped in the school for 5 minutes when I got back to the yard. We cantered large once on the left rein and then the right but all of a sudden his breathing became very laboured and noisy so I pulled up and jumped off.
He was breathing very rapidly with flared nostrils so I took him back to his stable and took his temperature which was at this point 38, his normal temp is 37.3 but he still wasn't sweating.
3 hours later his temp was 37.7 and by this morning back to normal.
I will call my vets for a chat tomorrow but wondered if anyone else has had a similar experience or could shed some light on it for me.
Horse is fit and well, had no other symptoms and is and was eating normally.
Thank you for reading, bit of an epic I know:) toasted tea cakes and hot chocolate on offer as a thank you:-)
 
Sorry I don't have any suggestions, other than that the temperature you took after your hack/arena session will not give any baseline info because of the very recent exercise (which you would expect to cause the temperature to raise a little).

Do you think maybe he'd just got a little hot, and maybe a bit dehydrated? This weather's been such a change from everything we've had over winter.

Sarah
 
I think you're right. My feeling is he overheated but I can't work out why he didn't sweat to cool himself down. Does dehydration reduce the ability to sweat? Our forage is low in salt, my boy goes through a huge salt lick in about 6 weeks. Should I give daily salt in his feed instead?
 
My thoughts would be the horse has or is starting a respiratory infection. Did he take long to recover his normal rate.

I would also be looking at the quality of his hay and considering if he was heading toward copd. It has been a protracted and tough winter for many horses. My other thought would be, has the yard had any new horses in recently, and if so, where from. They can easily be carrying infection without being affected themselves.

Your vet may want to do a blood, poss anti b's. Or you could just leave him alone and see if he improves. For me it would be the vet because once compromised, the lungs can be damaged for good.

Hope he improves quickly with the minimum of expense.
 
My mare did something similar last year, but just standing in the field. It was warm but not boiling, and she was just standing there breathing very fast and very heavily. I panicked, brought her into the shade, called the vet, and they just said to monitor it. I thought she was dying of course, so it was good that they were the voice of reason. It passed in about 20-30 mins and has never happened again, to my knowledge.
It was very weird and I have no idea what caused it.
 
I would say either overheating or an allergic reaction to something (perhaps pollen or something in the air) or maybe a chest infection that only affect his breathing when he is working.

Does your horse have a thick coat, if he does it may be that the sweat just did not reach the surface very quickly getting trapped in the thick coat and then heating him up even more?
 
We have 2 horses on the yard with a cough which was my initial concern but temp and breathing are now back to normal and he isn't showing any other symptoms. The very rapid breathing eased within 5 minutes but it was slightly elevated for another half hour.
our hay is good quality and is steamed and his bed is aquamax so not dusty and the laboured breathing I think was too sudden an onset to be COPD.
I agree that this winter has been awful, my boy has not come through it as well as he normally would.
 
Thank you Soloequestrian, was your horse sweating?
And thank you SO1, my boy does have dreadful grass glands at the moment! Yesterday was particularly bad with swelling on his cheeks too. Last year he had an acute reaction to fly bites and needed steroids so he is a little sensitive. He doesn't have a terribly thick coat and is still sporting the same blanket clip that I did in December!
 
islandspirit said:
We have 2 horses on the yard with a cough which was my initial concern but temp and breathing are now back to normal and he isn't showing any other symptoms. The very rapid breathing eased within 5 minutes but it was slightly elevated for another half hour.


You have just answered your own question. Very likely he has a minor respiratory infection if there are other horses coughing. It doesn't take much to spread, especially in an American barn system, boxes adjoining one another, shared grazing/water troughs and grooms spreading infection.

It probably will clear up by itself, but if he is entered up, elderly or gets distressed in work again it needs looking at. Just a thought, has he just had his annual jab ?, that can sometimes knock them back a little.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks adorablealice, flu jab due in July. Think I will give the vet a call in the morning to be on the safe side. I seem to be adding to my vets bill quicker than I can pay it off at the moment:-)
 
They won't charge you to have a chat.

Keep a little record of the temps, remember you will get a fluctuation morning to evening. Maybe do a little work in the school and see how his breathing is before making a final decision to call the vet out for a visit.

Frustrating, but you know him best and have to do what is in his best interests.
 
True:) not many things in life are free but a chat is one of them.
I gave him the day off today but will ride or lunge tomorrow to see how he feels. Thank you for such sensible advice, I am normally very methodical but have managed to think myself around in circles today and ended up with more questions than answers.
 
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