fancygirl - 2016-04-09 10:46 PM

I would bet you have a lower airway infection going on. any steroid use will decrease immunity and COPDers need a course of ABX along with the steroids to ward off any infection. Lower airway infections can be hard to see in a scope also. I typically use tucoprim or SMZs x 10-14 days to clear it up, my vet has told me you may need 30 days depending on the horse. I think use of inhalers are ok along with equiresp but I always remember that stuff is non sterile entering that kind of environment, you always run a risk with that. I have chose to not use inhalers on mine but rather low dose oral dex starting with 3ml x 1 week and tapering it down to 1ml the last week, she also told me low does of 1ml oral may be a long term thing also. I do my best to manage off all of it with feed hay shavings etc as you are. I have not had a problem yet this spring but I also added DePaulos Collodial Silver supplement to her feed along with Lysine.
Hope this helps for you.