What has chaned?

[Grey_Showjumper]

My horse is on ventipulmin for a cough etc. and I was talking to my dad about what to do. He said in the 25 years he lived at home, they always had about 10 horses- hunters, racers and P2Pers... they NEVER had coughs or viruses...
so what has changed since then? There must be a reason as to why horses now get viruses and coughs more often than 20-25 years ago?

 

[Gleeful Imp]

Wonder if its the same reason for rise in asthma etc in people? Pollution poss?

 

[Grey_Showjumper]

i was thinking that.. my old pony failed the vet once due to us living at the end of a runway and a plane had flown over and dumped a load of god knows what... thats what the vet reckoned anyway... but even so, you wouln't think that pollution would cause viruses?

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Most horses who cough haven't got a virus. They cough because of either an asthma type condition caused by pollution or because hay is made less carefully these days. Hay used to be turned several times before being baled and was baled much looser (if you look at old pics you can see before baling machines it was put into stooks). This meant that hay was better for horses. A lt of people taking hay from their fields don't know how to store it either so it gets mouldy over the course of the winter when it is kept in concrete bolck buildings which 'sweat' in winter, many people don't realise that the air needs to circulate round the hay and that buildings are better with a wood lining.