Patterdale
Well-Known Member
My daughter’s pony. 11 year old section A. Much loved and absolutely golden first ridden unicorn. She has a home for life with us regardless.
In 2020 she had a virus that developed into pneumonia. Due to various lockdowns and our vets not coming out (as many weren’t) treatment was not as timely or efficient as it could have been. The pneumonia, once correctly diagnosed, took some shifting.
Ever since, she has had breathing issues. This can be managed with ventipulmin and cetirizine but she’s not great at the moment.
A list of her issues:
High resps at times.
Lethargy.
Has become very steady when ridden (not ridden when bad obvs).
Chronically runny and red eyes which sometimes develop into infection. She currently has an infection which has unfortunately ulcerated between last night when it started, and today when the vet came (despite drops last night).
Since the pneumonia she’s become a poor doer. A section A who usually looks more like a racehorse.
She has a grade 5 heart murmur which has been fully investigated and found to be a ventricular septal defect present from birth and not having any negative effect on cardiac function.
3 weeks ago she was charging around at Pony Club camp having a whale of a time. Yesterday she was wheezing terribly so I called the vet. By the evening her eye was also closed and clearly infected.
The vet came today and gave a stronger eye drop, painkillers, injectable ventipulmin, and antibiotics as there was a lot of noise on her lungs. At my request they’ve also taken a Cushings test.
I feel we are in limbo. When she’s fine she’s very fine and enjoys her work. But there’s always a limit on what I’d ask of her - wouldn’t do a long fun ride for example - and my daughter is very keen and wanting to do more.
My vets aren’t equine specialists.
I would like some concrete answers on what we can find out, how to do it, which diagnostics are useful and which aren’t. She isn’t insured but I don’t mind spending on things that are worth spending on. It’s just that I don’t know what those are!
Any thoughts/input much appreciated please. It can be hard to see the wood for the trees when there’s not just one condition, and when things are so changeable.
In 2020 she had a virus that developed into pneumonia. Due to various lockdowns and our vets not coming out (as many weren’t) treatment was not as timely or efficient as it could have been. The pneumonia, once correctly diagnosed, took some shifting.
Ever since, she has had breathing issues. This can be managed with ventipulmin and cetirizine but she’s not great at the moment.
A list of her issues:
High resps at times.
Lethargy.
Has become very steady when ridden (not ridden when bad obvs).
Chronically runny and red eyes which sometimes develop into infection. She currently has an infection which has unfortunately ulcerated between last night when it started, and today when the vet came (despite drops last night).
Since the pneumonia she’s become a poor doer. A section A who usually looks more like a racehorse.
She has a grade 5 heart murmur which has been fully investigated and found to be a ventricular septal defect present from birth and not having any negative effect on cardiac function.
3 weeks ago she was charging around at Pony Club camp having a whale of a time. Yesterday she was wheezing terribly so I called the vet. By the evening her eye was also closed and clearly infected.
The vet came today and gave a stronger eye drop, painkillers, injectable ventipulmin, and antibiotics as there was a lot of noise on her lungs. At my request they’ve also taken a Cushings test.
I feel we are in limbo. When she’s fine she’s very fine and enjoys her work. But there’s always a limit on what I’d ask of her - wouldn’t do a long fun ride for example - and my daughter is very keen and wanting to do more.
My vets aren’t equine specialists.
I would like some concrete answers on what we can find out, how to do it, which diagnostics are useful and which aren’t. She isn’t insured but I don’t mind spending on things that are worth spending on. It’s just that I don’t know what those are!
Any thoughts/input much appreciated please. It can be hard to see the wood for the trees when there’s not just one condition, and when things are so changeable.
