A few days ago my gelding with sever COPD got in trouble with his breathing due to me not paying attention. Which then caused him to choke. We called the vet and got the choke cleared. After the choke cleared he was still having trouble breathing and I had given him max doses of all the stuff I had to give him. My husband has bad asthma. So I asked the vet if I could give him one of his breathing treatments. He said I could. OMG at the difference that made. He hasn't breathed that good, that long, without medicine in years. It made his breathing 100% better and stayed that way for a good 48 hours before he started wheezing again. I was able to give him his regular medicines to fix that. Now I was just reading on the package that the tube of liquid comes in. I thought it was jsut straight albuterol. It's called Ipratropium Bromide and Albuterol Sulfate. Now my question is, Is this something that I can continue to give him on the days he's really really bad? Wouldn't be everyday and not even every week because I can usually control it with his regular medicines but sometimes that just isn't enough. 

Personally if your horse is struggling that much he NEEDS to be taken off of hay if he's not already.  Management is the only "cure" without there actually being one. I have two with COPD. My 11 year old is getting the same medication your horse gets during the intital treatment a few years ago to stop inflammation. He got ipratropium bromide and budesonide then we took him off of hay. We tried watering, steaming ect and nothing helped. Finally treating the inflammation at first then changing my management to NO hay, it gave him a barrel racing career. My other horse is an older horse that was struggling. He had several episodes of respiratory distress. I swear we we're going to put him down.  It was so scary watching him suffer. But just like my other horse we  ended up pulling him too off of hay and it saved his life. He went in to remission.. both horses got treated at the same time because I finally found a vet that laid it out to me.. no hay!!  No more wheezing, no more coughing... Nothing. Neither horse has gotten any type of steroid or bronchialdialtor in over 3 years.  I feed soaked hay cubes and chaffehay. If that's unavailable it's recommend to feed a complete feed like a Senior feed.  Hay is the devil in COPD. Horses react to the dust or mold spores even in good hay. Some manage it ok with soaking but most just need to be taken off of hay. I get really frustrated when I have friends that have COPD horses and the vet keeps prescribing meds because the horse is struggling... yet the owner has the horse on hay still. I don't understand why the vet just doesn't say.. they absolutely need to come off of hay. I had a friend put her horse down due to heaves. It made me so upset because if she just changed her management to no hay she'd been able to enjoy many more years with him.  Medication only helps the symptoms of it.. but once they are off of them they go right back to having a hard time breathing again. If you are allergic to bees you obviously stay away from bees.. If you are allergic to nuts you obviously dont eat them. Lastly I want to say horse COPD now termed equine asthma is nothing like human asthma. People can have inflammation and coughing and wheezing but there be no permanent damage to their lungs after it's treated and stops.  In horses every episode of inflammation that continues is progressively damaging the lungs through out their life until it gets so bad that their lung function is so poor they can't hardly walk with out breathing heavily. The lung tissue has become fiberous from destruction of the inflammation even when its a minor episode. So that's why the only real treatment is removing the allergen...Hay.  good luck to your horse. I've felt your pain. Prayers.

My vet said that feeding round bales to horses is a big NO & can cause copd. I have 1 mare who just last year was diagnosed with it. First thing my vet asked was did shasta eat from a round bale. I said yes. he said take her off that. He said that horses weren't meant to eat round bales as they stick their heads into the bale & breath in the dust. Makes sense to me. I have thought of a nebulizer for shasta but want to talk to my vet first before getting one. I have copd & will use a nebulizer when needed but my 2 morning inhalers so far are working for me. My heart breaks for shasta cause I can so relate to how she feels, especially when the okla humidity hits  :(  

Your vet is right, round bales are really bad for horses with COPD. It does not cause it tho.  It's the horses hypersensitive immune system, just like people with allergies, they have allergies to mold and fungus in hay. Thw round bales exacerbate that because yes they stick their head inside of it. My horses never had round bales, they had square bales. So it doesn't really matter what the source of hay is, its hay in general. It's just that when round bales are fed they are more apt to have worse problems if they are allergic to things in hay due to sticking their heads in. Also horses that have COPD, it's also known to actually be genetic. The hypersensitive immune system.. allergies.. is passed on. 

Shasta never showed any signs of copd until last year. That's what is strange. She is 20 this year. Funny how I can relate so well to how she feels. But it's my fault I have copd. I smoked once upon a time   :(  

Yes it is strange. My older gelding didn't either. He was 20 before he started showing debilitating symptoms. During his life the only symptom was white frothy mucus during exercise. The younger horse was 4. He never coughed and never wheezed. The only thing he showed was severe exercise intolerance and the White frothy mucus while riding. So when I had him checked out they scoped and did a bal and found it. After the initial diagnosis we couldn't keep him from having exercise intolerance and subclinical lung inflammation until he was off of hay. If I would've continued to feed him hay, there was no doubt he'd be like my older gelding having respiratory distress by his teens.  He had over 10 bals from the time he was 4 to 8 years old. I feel your pain.  I think a lot of people don't catch it until the symptoms have compiled and are visible.