When they're not quite right

[Spotherisk]

But you don't know what's wrong!

Firstly I thought Tinner had choke, there was coughing and kind of reaching forward. Not sweating, respiratory 80 per minute, put him in an empty stable and kept an eye on him for half an hour, had a chat with my excellent and long term vet who knows me and the horse and subsequently came out, did temp, internal, teeth and checked mouth, listened to insides sounds which were reassuringly noisy, did general observations, revisited Tinner's past (sort of toxic laminitis some years ago, poss AM), and the conclusion - we just don't know what it is. Left him for an hour with water only and when I got back to him he had dunged and really wanted to get out (mine live out), vet said turn out and watch him and now he's out he has had a wee and is grazing and chasing after a bit of hay, and the breathing is the same.

So much head scratching and wondering if it is something triggering a kind of allergic reaction,we will have to see how he is over the next few days, I have never had this kind of problem which is hard to diagnose - anyone else have a horse with similar symptoms?!

 

[Neversaydie]

I can’t say I’ve ever heard of anything like what you are describing but I hope you get to the bottom of what it was

 

[be positive]

It sounds like a mild choke to me, they don't always end up looking as if they are dying with stuff streaming out of their noses, often a few good coughs will clear it but may leave the throat feeling a sore, if he is clinically fine and appears normal I would suspect he frightened himself and he feels a bit sore so was not breathing normally, a dust allergy may have triggered it so scoping needs to be considered if management does not allow the breathing to settle.
One of mine had similar but it was more obviously a reaction to the hay, a course of ventipulmin and moving onto haylage fixed it within days, cannot remember his resp rate but it was fast and shallow.

 

[Spotherisk]

It sounds like a mild choke to me, they don't always end up looking as if they are dying with stuff streaming out of their noses, often a few good coughs will clear it but may leave the throat feeling a sore, if he is clinically fine and appears normal I would suspect he frightened himself and he feels a bit sore so was not breathing normally, a dust allergy may have triggered it so scoping needs to be considered if management does not allow the breathing to settle.
One of mine had similar but it was more obviously a reaction to the hay, a course of ventipulmin and moving onto haylage fixed it within days, cannot remember his resp rate but it was fast and shallow.

Thank you, that's all very interesting and makes sense. Mine all live out and used to be on haylage but since Tinner had laminitis we've switched to hay - the big bales (which we feed outside in a ring feeder) seem fine, it's the small bale which seems to have triggered it (used the same supplier for years, we watch it cut, turned baled in the same fields so no changes there) Resp 40 this morning and still at 40 this lunchtime, I think I'll just have to monitor

 

[HashRouge]

Sounds like mild choke to me too.

 

[Spotherisk]

Update - Tinner has been scoped and both trachea and lung have shown bacterial infection, so he has a week on antibiotics, no change to breathing. Now five days into a course of steroids and breathing STILL the same. this is going to be a long haul...

 

[Carrottom]

Pulmoease really helped a pony I new who struggled with his breathing. Went from 40 to below 20 in a few days when steroids weren't making much difference. I phoned them for advice initially and they sent a sample.