Thick yellow snot

quiteniceforacob

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Hi all,

Waiting for call from vet but wanted to seek advice too.

Horse has been coughing a bit during warm up of exercise but it’s a dry cough and my instructor said it may be dry hay. Asked for hay to be soaked last week. Sunday we went for a 2 hour hack which he loved, then yesterday did some schooling and jumping. He coughed a bit more than usual - not just in the warm up, but not constantly. Have noticed he’s been a bit snotty but nothing excessive.

This morning, livery yard texted to say he has thick yellow snot and some outside his stable on the ground (coughed/sneezed it out).

They are going to soak the hay longer and I’ve asked for him to be turned out so he’s not stuck in dusty stable.

He wasn’t really worked at his old home, I’ve had him since October and we’ve been working harder in the last 6 weeks since coming to our new yard. He seems to be enjoying his work more than ever.

War and peace over - all advice helpful!
 
Thick yellow snot indicates infection. Vet will want to strangles test and check for sinus/tooth infections. I would quarantine your horse until the vet has been out and results are in, and use effective infection control throughout the yard just to be safe.
 
I called the vet on Tuesday who said it’s likely to be a normal winter respiratory problem. Didn’t seem concerned but asked me to keep him in and not in field with others. Told me to keep exercising to let him cough and get mucus off his lungs.

Vet visiting at 9am to check him over. Since seeing him his snot is actually a milky white, not yellow, so I feel less stressed now, but fingers crossed vet visit goes ok.
 
Update: vet has been. No temp, doesn’t think it’s an infection but has taken a swab to run in case. Currently treating it like asthma so has left some bute and ventapulmin.
 
Thick yellow snot indicates infection. Vet will want to strangles test and check for sinus/tooth infections. I would quarantine your horse until the vet has been out and results are in, and use effective infection control throughout the yard just to be safe.


Yellow snot doesn't necessarily mean infection - 'pus' is composed a lot of things including dead white bloods cells, which yes are present in infections but also in allergic airway disease (ie. asthma/ RAO/ COPD)
 
He’s been on ventipulmin and Bute since Thursday. I’ve been freeschooling and did some lunging yesterday and apart from one single cough he’s seemed fine.

He’s been blowing thick mucus out of his nose (which I assume is ventipulmin working) - how long do we think this is going to be? He’s on it for a week in total, finishing on weds I think.

Going to try to get on tomorrow and do some light work - this vet says we should avoid having him cough, so will stop if he coughs!
 
my Gelding has been like this , this year too, we also tried ventipulin and soaking to no avail. The hay this year is a particularly crap lot. Its been a big expense but I moved him onto horsehage and got rid of hay altogether, cough went. I then reintroduced hay and cough came straight back so sticking to horsehage.
 
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