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  Discussion on Allergy or possibly very slight lungdamage?
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Posted on Monday, Aug 21, 2000 - 6:32 pm:

Hi, we have a horse boarded on our property that came from Chicago last may to us in Louisiana. He was diagnosed with SAOPD in August last year (heat and humidity were severe). He gets better as soon as the temp DrOps down to 90degrees. Here is my question. The horse never has any problems with coughing or breathing in winter ( I only feed hay of excellent quality). But I did purposely give him hay from an older bale and he did seem to cough a little bit ( The hay was not moldy, just a year old. My horses did not have a problem with it I just gave it to him a couple times to compare his reaction.The horse also used to cough at times when he was ridden in a sandarena in Chicago. Could it be that the horse has an ever so slight lungproblem that only comes out when the combined heat/humidity gets high. He does get really bad this time off year and the vet wants him stalled and preferably on cubes or complete feed (like I said, the horse has no problem with hay during the rest of the year. Our bahia grass does not even have shoots up this year because it has been so dry. The vet still thinks he has some kind of allergy and has diagnosed him this time with acute bronchitis (he does look and sound bad).The owner does not want the horse locked up since the horse hates it and would be the only stalled horse.I just can't help but think that it really would not help him.What do you think? Stall (shavings are always a little dusty too for a horse that is already sick) or pasture? When the bahia grass was actively growing he did not show any problems, but it wasn't that hot this year either in June and early July.What is your thinking on using herbs (we are thinking about putting him on cough free starting in may next year before it get's really hot, to see if that will make a difference. We don't want to start it now since he was just put on antihistamines and dexamethasone.

Posted on Monday, Aug 21, 2000 - 9:06 pm:

I had a gelding that developed heaves when he was 12-13 years old during a really hot, dry summer. We used a guaifenesin/iodine medicine for several years that worked great, but was taken off the market. What worked best for him after that was pasture with shade and dampened hay, and no meds. He lived to be 32 and as long as we maintained him that way he didn't have any problems with the heaves.

Posted on Tuesday, Aug 22, 2000 - 10:23 am:

Hello Sibylle,
I agree with your vet: this is an allergy problem. I do disagree with his recommendations however.
The answers to your questions were in the scientific summaries in the article associated with this discussion. The half a dozen summaries review the findings in over 40 cases of SAOPD. However the information is hard to pick through so I have pulled out the pertinent facts and added them to the article. Also discussed is the issue of permanant lung damage with COPD. If you have any questions after looking over the new information, post it here.
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Aug 29, 2000 - 8:52 pm:

Well, I had posted another reply but I can't find it. Oh well.The above horse has now been treated for a week and is not improving enough.The vet will talk to the owner about putting the horse on a bronchodialator (clenbuterol I assume).He still feels that getting him off the grass and possibly on a complete feed would be the best way to go. I am really at a loss of what to do. I have read your report and the other reports that state keeping a horse stalled does not help very often. However in my search for an answer I came across this recommendation from the veterinary department at LSU saying affected horses should indeed be stalled and preferably fed a complete feed.I will try to paste the link on the bottom. It leads to a veterinary newsletter dated Fall 1999.I would hate to have to change this horse to total stall confinement and sweet feed since he hates to be locked up and has had almost yearound access to grass or hay all day.This would be a huge change for him not just physically but also mentally (he'll probably go nuts and eat his way through the barn). Anyway, I know that SAOPD is quite frequent in out area and most people will not totally change their horses lifestyle,it get's to be very expensive among other things - I asked my vet if he knows of anyone that had success with stalling and he admitted that almost nobody will actually completely change their horses environment as suggested so he does not have any first hand experience with the results.If anyone has any experience with this I would be happy to hear about it. To have two documents from the same University contradicting each other is not exactly helpful. By the way, Dr.O, I love your website and consult it any time I need advise or reassurance (I also have a mare with moonblindness).

Posted on Tuesday, Aug 29, 2000 - 8:53 pm:

Oh, no I forgot to add the link.
https://www.evrp.lsu.edu/07spaopd.htm

Posted on Wednesday, Aug 30, 2000 - 7:01 am:

Hello Sibylle,
I think the stalling idea is because there have been a report or two that horses improved following moving to stalls but unfortuntely this is less than 10% of the cases and in about 50% of the cases may actually exacerbate the problem. If your hors is to remain there ADT is the only hope, I believe. A week is too short a time to evaluate any treatment: following a 30 minute exposure to the environment that induces the heaving the lungs remain hyperreactive for 14 days.
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Dec 26, 2000 - 10:20 am:

Dr. O,
we had been treating the SAOPD diagnosed horse with dexamethasone IM every other day, until the weather turned cool enough for him to be more comfortable. My vet thought that was the better way to go since the dexamethasone is a lot cheaper than the prednisone. What is your thinking on using dexamethasone versus prednisone or prednisolone?. If the horse cannot be moved up north this summer I'm sure he'll have to be on meds for a good six months with our hot weather and his response every time the weather warms up (I'm sure at this point that he has COPD as well, since he never totally lost his dry cough this year.)

Posted on Wednesday, Dec 27, 2000 - 4:50 am:

First we need to make clear that prednisone is no longer recommended in the horse: you should use prednisolone. The chief advantage of using pred over dex is its shorter half life in the body. On the day off, this allows the adrenal glands to recover and helps prevent adrenal suppresion. For more information see Equine Medications and Nutriceuticals: Anti-inflammatories, Steroids, and Arthritis Treatment: Alternate Day Therapy.

The long half life in the horses body of dex makes this more likely. We do not know how much more though as this is a rarely reported complication in the horse. Then again it makes the dex a stronger antiinflammatory.
DrO
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