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  Discussion on COPD testing can I be sure it's correct????
Author Message
Member:
Laura99m

Posted on Saturday, Jan 11, 2003 - 7:58 pm:

Hi Doc,

I have a 9 year old QH gelding that is up for sale. Currently he is away pending a two week trial and vet check. The buyer just called me to inform me that her vet thinks that he has COPD or a virus. He did have a cold about two months ago that started when animal control ran a couple of stray horses onto my property that were both sick. I have 4 horses but only two came down with colds. The symptoms for the colds were fever of 105 degrees, mild cough, and bilateral runny nose, they were also off feed and depressed. I gave them both bute for fever and general aches and pains and ran a course of antibiotics to augment any secondary infection that might occur. After 4 weeks they were feeling much better but still had an occasional cough and runny nose. I continued to keep a close eye on their temps and general well being for another 2 weeks and they seemed just fine. 2 weeks later I gave the all clear to the buyer that she could come and get him for trial. Her vet now wants to scope him to determine whether or not he has COPD. She apparently did a bag over the nose test and listened to his lung sounds during routine vet check. The buyer was also noticing and occasional cough when he would transition from walk to trot. My concern here is from what I have read on this site is that he could have relapsed from the viral infection. I have agreed to pay half of the expense to have him scoped but I worry now that since he had the cold not to long ago, that when the vet scopes him she may see some light fluid and diagnosis him COPD anyway. She will also take cultures to be sent off to determine diagnosis. I am very concerned that a misdiagnosis will occur in this matter. The vet didn't take any cultures during the original exam to determine if the horse did indeed have a recurrance of the cold due to stress of transport. Please help me understand if a misdiagnosis could occur because of the cold or will beginning COPD be drastically different in appearance. Thank you for your help in this matter.

Laura
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Jan 12, 2003 - 8:57 am:

Hello Laura,
I am assuming the horse has no other symptoms than those you describe. There are several problems demonstrated in the post:
1) You cannot diagnose COPD from scoping, just lower respiratory inflammation of unknown cause.
2) It would not take a relapse to appear this way. If the viral infection centered in the lower respiratory tract, as flu will, you may still have a light cough and increased lung vesicular sounds 2 months later. I have a daughter that coughed and had a snotty nose for 4 months following a bad cold. Horses have had report of 6 months of decreased performance following a bout of the flu, though 3 to 6 weeks is considered average.
3) The stress of moving along with exposure to unfamiliar horses does lay a horse open to new respiratory conditions.

I guess you could run all this testing and if you find a likely other cause for the cough you could say it was not COPD ut considering the history, I suspect evience of lower inflammation of unknown cause will be found leaving all the diagnosis open.

The diagnostic techniques for COPD are described in the article » Equine Diseases » Respiratory System » Heaves & Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Your post demonstrates the problem with letting a horse leave for trial. This is not a practice I encourage sellers to use:
  • When first moved the horses are most prone to disease and accident.
  • The overzealous attention of vets and their ability to find problems in the soundest of horses.

Then again with no reliable history to go on many conditions are difficult to diagnose accurately and if they do not give a worse possible story they are not doing their job, it is balance that is hard to find.
DrO
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