Would you buy a horse with an allergy?

[stormox]

My friend is thinking of buying a horse that I know has a hay allergy.
Shes a lovely 7yr old Irish mare, a bit buzzy but hacks, jumps 1m and has won dressage. Just exactly what my friend wants.
The owner has been quite open in that she soaks hay and that the mare coughs a bit when you first start but once shes had a cough and splutter shes fine, even going xc.
My concern is that allergies get worse, not better - I was taken along as 'advisor' but Im not sure what to advise as I dont know much about allergies!

 

[RhossT]

No. Sweet itch sufferer had to be put down eventually as nothing we could do made her life tolerable

 

[be positive]

I have had a few with that type of reaction and every one has stopped coughing with more turn out and haylage rather than soaked hay so if it was the right horse in every other way and it passed the vet I would buy it and also recommend a client bought it as long as they could manage it going forward, if turn out is limited especially in winter I might think again.
Some get worse but if not exposed to the allergen some will get better, my old boy was quite bad as a younger horse but can now have the odd bit of dry hay in the field with no reaction at all, although he doesn't get it often it would have brought on a bad attack of coughing/ wheezing 15 years ago, he did have a scope to check and it was a simple hay allergy.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Why buy trouble, knowingly? I wouldn't.

 

[ester]

The trouble with allergies is they can change worse or better depending on location too. Little cob pony purchased from about an hour away, manageable respiratory allergy kept in/out etc, in new location can't even stand in the field shelter without there being a problem.

I would try and avoid it, it would depend if I were keeping on livery or if I had completely free rein on management. I would also want access to all veterinary records.

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

Difficult one. I bought my old boy knowing he had sweet itch, simply because good horses were (and still are) difficult to come by and because I have my own yard I was OK about taking him on knowing that he'd need careful management. Would I buy another with sweet itch? Nope, I wouldn't. It is way too heartbreaking having to watch them struggling and suffering with it, particularly in the summer months, and I couldn't ever do it again.

You could buy a horse with an "allergy" (whether hay or anything else) and move it half a mile, and the problem would be sorted. OR that could work vice-versa, you could buy a horse with no outward symptoms going on, and then at your yard it develops a problem because there is an allergen there. OR you could buy something which is already displaying allergy symptoms, and when you bring it home things could get an awful lot worse!

On the other hand.... the horse might just have been given some iffy hay and might be better on something like haylage; and it could be an easily resolvable problem which if moved to another yard out of the area, might just improve to the point of being hardly noticeable! (or might get worse!). That is the risk one would have to take.

Re. the horse OP mentions: IF your friend likes the horse - which does indeed sound talented and just what she wants - and is prepared to give considerable thought to the horse's daily regime, AND if the price is right (I'd be expecting seller to negotiate quite considerably if taking on a horse with this sort of issue TBH), then she may be prepared to go the extra distance as far as consideration and inconvenience re. daily routine/management is concerned.

Before the horse is vetted (and I would insist on a 5-Star for this horse) I would personally have a chat with my own vet and tentatively sound him/her out about it.

Also friend might need to consider the insurance implications of knowingly buying a horse with a known and stated issue already in existence.

My own feelings are that there will be horses out there which don't have this problem and which don't need this kind of tlc!! And which are also talented and would be everything the friend wants. Especially at this time of the year! No point in buying what just might be trouble for the future, is there? So my inclination would be to keep an open mind and look around to see what else is around as between now and the winter weather settling in there should be plenty of choice, without needing to panic-buy.

 

[GoldenWillow]

I have found dust allergies/COPD just about impossible to manage on livery yards, although there was one yard which understood about them and my mare was managed successfully there. At home it's a lot easier and it depends on the severity of the allergy but as has been said above they can worsen both with age and changes in surroundings. J is pretty much as perfect as any horse can be but his allergies make things complicated and no, I wouldn't buy one with them.

 

[paddy555]

Difficult one. I bought my old boy knowing he had sweet itch, simply because good horses were (and still are) difficult to come by and because I have my own yard I was OK about taking him on knowing that he'd need careful management. Would I buy another with sweet itch? Nope, I wouldn't. It is way too heartbreaking having to watch them struggling and suffering with it, particularly in the summer months, and I couldn't ever do it again.

.

this. I have one pony with bad SI, the cost of rugs is enormous as is the time continually mending them. I have 3 rugs continually on the go.
No way would I buy one with a hay allergy and that coughed even once. If one became that way (although on my soaked hay it appears unlikely) I would keep it and manage it as I do the SI one. Buy trouble however, no way.

 

[tashcat]

I had one with terrible COPD/ RAO - there's plenty of posts about it on here a few years ago!

If it were the perfect horse, I would do it again. But then I have a mind set that I have the facilities, funds and knowledge to deal with a horse with allergies, and thus would much rather give a horse a chance than it go somewhere else where it might not be managed properly and end up badly. This why I'll only own ex-racehorses!! But that is a quirky mindset and doesn't suit everyone, especially when you're spending your hard earned cash!! It was heart breaking at times to see my boy struggling, and finding ways to alleviate his suffering was constant and consuming in the summer months!

We had a nebuliser for ours (£800 just to purchase it plus hundreds per month for medication) and I would have a bought a hay steamer (a similar price I believe!) if he didn't suit haylage, which thankfully he did! We knew rape seed made it worse so we avoided hacking round routes that were particularly bad.

If you can knock some money off the horse and have the funds/ ability to manage it then I would see no problem with it. But I would want more detail on the specific allergies and treatments explored so far.

Feel free to message me, or send my friend your way if you need any advance if she does decide to go through with it!

 

[Gloi]

Having had ponies with bad sweet itch for 25 years it's such a relief now to just have one that currently has no issues.

 

[hihosilver]

Yes I would I find it easy to manage- 24/7 turnout and soaked hay or haylage my dust allergy horse never coughs on this routine and is out regularly competing at BE 100. So many horses have this and its easy to control and not a vet fail.

 

[Bs_mum]

If I felt I could manage the allergy then yes.
I have one that has a very mild dust allergy. out 24/7 with good quality hay- he’s absolutely fine. If it’s very dry you will hear him cough a few times, but not excessively, extra wet feeds and some soaked hay usually sorts it pretty quick.

 

[NinjaPony]

Tricky. I’m inclined to say no, because I’ve just spent a whole summer trying to sort out my allergic pony, including inhalers, pills, supplements, allergy testing... you get the drift. He’s always had a bit of a cough from time to time but this year it has been really bad, to the point where he has needed a lot of time off. His COPD has had me at my wits end, and I’ve spent a huge amount of time and insurance money trying to relieve his suffering . Now I’m having to move him onto haylage, and be totally anal about his stable environment, alongside lots of expensive drugs in the summer months. And even despite this, vet has warned that he may get worse not better each summer....

But....

He’s the best pony I’ve ever had! So even knowing this, I would still have bought him... because he’s done so so much for me.

So be cautious. A ‘bit of a cough’ on soaked hay would ring alarm bells for me. Mainly because persistent coughing can cause a lot of damage to the lungs. At least with mine he wasn’t coughing when I bought him, so I know that he hadn’t had any lung damage, which was confirmed by a scope.

Certainly wouldn’t want to buy anything with a cough without having a good look at it’s lungs first, to make sure there is no damage to them. And wouldn’t buy it unless the horse was pretty much perfect in every other way. I don’t mind spending lots of time and money on my boy as he’s given me so much, but it would be a nightmare with something less generous.

 

[Surbie]

It depends so much on the severity and your own set up to manage it, if you really want that horse. My loan horse has mild sweetitch and I manage it . This summer is the best of 3 I've known him through - no sores and a full mane, tail and belly. But that's with being strict with rug wear, diet and the fields he's out in, and having a very understanding YM. I would get another, depending on the severity. What I want to avoid next time is a pink nose.

 

[WandaMare]

I bought one with that exact description of an allergy at 10 years old and her condition never got worse than that in the 20 years I owned her. I always had to soak her hay but apart from that nothing different in management to any other horse. I eventually lost her to an unrelated condition so no as long as the vet found nothing other than allergy in the vetting then it wouldn't put me off.

 

[suebou]

My beautifully bred dwb mare is allergic to grass, and just about everything that a normal horse comes into contact with.... no, her previous owner didn’t say but they live on a very windy treeless island and her problems didn’t really show till she came to us. She has very expensive vaccine injections every month (thank goodness daughter is vet nurse! ) steroid spray, special shampoo, vast quantities of hay fever pills. She is an amazingly hot blooded horse and clipped all year round. She has scabby bare skin over her withers and a third of the way up her neck but it is manageable. Would I take it on again? Nope, it’s hard work for us and horrible for her. I’m sure I could deal with a hay allergy though!

 

[SO1]

I presume if soaked hay is ok that is it dust rather than hay?

If it is dust then I would be cautious as even dust from other sources could cause a flair up. Bedding down on straw might also cause a problem.

How is this horse managed at the moment? Is it out competing on a regular basis. Is your friend able to provide an environment where the horse is not going to be regularly exposed to hay spores or dust.

 

[tristar]

at one point i had two with a known dust allergy, i dont like haylage so always buy the best hay and soak it, the one passed away at 22 years never had a problem working, the other i still have is 18 and has very good wind and is very fit, i find allergies can in most cases be controlled, and even got rid of, you need to remove the allergen

yes they are always there but the symptoms dont need to be

attenion to detail is the key, identify the cause, remove it, more turn out often helps, i had one years ago that went through a phase of wheezing and coughing, but i got rid of the allergy, he got better not worse, all the wheezing coughing stopped