Cricket09 - 2024-04-29 1:15 PM
Does anyone have a horse with asthma and if so, what are the symptoms? Recommended treatments? Thanks for your input.
Loaded question. Have you taken the horse to the vet yet? If not, make that your first step. It would likely be a good idea to do a BAL (which will analyze the cells) as well as a scope (to look at the airways) and I would also suggest allergy testing. Based on those results, then your vet can come up with an intial game plan for your horse. Like with anything, it is going to be trial and error to figure out what is going to work for your horse. I have one with asthma. We started having issues last year when we had dense wildfiresmoke coming down from Canada. I haven't been fully able to figure out her triggers but so far, one does seem to be when it gets warmer in the spring and she still has her winter coat. Could also be the mold out in the pastures that sat all winter, since the grass hadn't gotten green yet. Waiting to see how she does with summer if we have a hot/humid day. I have a myriad of medications from my vet to use with certain symptoms: dexamethasone (both for nebulizer and IM shots), albuterol, ipratropium. And I also have done 2 rounds of Alpha2 in her nebulizer. I've got her on allergy shots, and we're also doing kenalog IM shots every 4 - 6 weeks to help control the inflamatory reponse. Knock on wood, she seems to be doing okay right now and we made a run over the weekend, and she felt the best she has. Also figured out last year that my mare is a bleeder and so now I run her on LASIX as well. It's a battle and it's not fun, but you are going to need to work closely with your vet. |