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  Discussion on Allergies?
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Posted on Tuesday, Mar 28, 2000 - 6:44 pm:

I own a 10 year old quarter horse gelding who is exercised 2-3 a week, which includes a lesson and trail rides. None of the work he does, includng the lesson is strenuous (my 10 year daughter has her lesson on him.)

About 2 months ago we noticed that his breathing was very short and labored. The vet came out to check and put him on Dexamethasone suggesting it was allegeries. After a week there was no change. The vet returned and did the "bag over the nose test" and took blood for analysis. He stated that the horse was having difficulty getting enough oxygen to his lungs on inhaling. The results of the blood tests pointed to allergies. We then put him on 5cc of Ventropulin/Dex mix 2 X daily. On the second day he had muscle spasms and sweating. The vet told me to reduce the dosage to 2.5cc 2 X a day and call him after 5 days and exercising him. Before the lesson today, I took him to the arena and trotted him around twice. He has made no improvement. I called the vet and he said to take him off the medication immediately. I am at a loss of what to do next. Do you have any suggestions?

Karen

Posted on Wednesday, Mar 29, 2000 - 6:32 am:

Hello Karen,
Obviously I am not a vet, but I just had this same experience with my gelding. I will share it with you...maybe it will help.
The beginning of March my horse went to training, and had the same shortness of breath and labored breathing you described. I hauled him to the vet last Friday and she did all the tests. Found out that he had some irritation/allergies also and there was slight mucus in one lung. She said at this point it is not heaves, but could lead to it if it was left untreated and he was exposed to moldy hay. We feed round bales and he loves to dig to the bottom of the pile to get the tiny particles.
She did not put him on anything, medicine-wise except to have me continue giving him something called "re-coup" which is a herbal type medication you can buy thru State Line Catalog. (we had been giving him that for the previous week before his workouts and it seemed to improve the situation)
Also, she said one week of rest! And to completely soak his hay for one week. I am hoping he will be able to go back to work next week...I miss riding him.
I think with both our horses and the allergy thing, we will need to be very careful of moldy or dusty hay in the future.
I sure hope some of this helps.
Denise

Posted on Wednesday, Mar 29, 2000 - 6:45 am:

Hello Karen,
If another exam continues to support allergies as the cause you have a condition called Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease or the horsemen's term is Heaves. We have an article on Equine Diseases: Respiratory System Menu on this condition that will explain how this happened and how to treat it.
DrO
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