Allergies in the horse -- Update on the pony!

[joharavhf]

I have a pony that I suspect *may* be allergic to something in hay (dust anyone????). My husband fed him a flake of dusty (REALLY dusty) hay one night and then I went out to put them to bed and he was sick. Mild colic. Obviously I removed the hay. The next day he was hacking up a lung. Had the vet out a few times. She put him on ventipulmin. He was doing well after 10 days on it so I took him off it, figuring he was okay.

I was wrong. He started coughing 2 days after I took him off. Well, we put him back on the venti - this time cutting his dosage in half. We're doing 4 ml/day.....But now, after I work him he sounds "gurgly" like he has excess phlegm in his lungs.

Anyways, vet has now put him on prednisol (or prednisone?) 2x per day at 18 tabs per feeding (I have to look at the bottle to see how much that breaks down to), plus the 4 mL of Venti once a day.

The pony has NEVER coughed during work - only while eating....But I am concerned that this may become an ongoing issue. We got him in August and at that point he was out 24/7 on a grass field in spring/summer/fall...they did round bales in the winter.

NOW he's still in/out 24/7, but he's on 100% timothy grass hay in the winter, and will have about 8 hours of turnout on grass the other 3 seasons WITH a grazing muzzle on (this guy does NOT need much to eat).

So, I'm just a little concerned that this may become something I may have to work with. I've never had a horse with ALLERGIES (I did have one with advanced airway disease, which is likely similar). What is involved in the diagnosis? How do we know what he's allergic to? What is the treatment of allergies if you can't cut out the allergen?

Thanks so much for any info! The pony is a 6 1/2 year old Welsh cob.

[decorum]

I'm starting to feel like a nut talking about nettle leaf and spirulina over and over but the stuff is good. Spirulina is great for respiratory allergies! My horse can't hardly breath under exertion without it, he coughs and has the snots. With it he is great. Herbalcom.com has it and it is cheap and can't hurt to try it. The Horse Journal swears by it too.

[joharavhf]

How much spirulina do you feed per day (feeding)? How long? Do you also feed the medicines? Will these two herbals test under USEF guidelines?

Thanks!

[joharavhf]

Oh, I wanted to add that I had tried the cough-free for a week and it did not work. At all.

Before we put him on ventipulmin we had tried the benadryl/cough free route....

[kcmel]

I'm starting to feel like a nut talking about nettle leaf and spirulina over and over but the stuff is good. Spirulina is great for respiratory allergies! My horse can't hardly breath under exertion without it, he coughs and has the snots. With it he is great. Herbalcom.com has it and it is cheap and can't hurt to try it. The Horse Journal swears by it too.

Hey Decorum, my nettle leaf still hasn't come yet:(. I had to put Cal back on the dexamethosone; seemed like the hives were going down but then he developed some ventral edema so the vet said back to the steroids. Allergies are very frustrating! Sorry for the thread hijack. OP, could it be heaves?

[pricestory]

My competiton pony, combined driving, has breathing allergies. Her's showed up in the fall. After a fall of lots of vet trips, lots of suppliments, etc. we did allergy testing and started the shots. She has been symptom free since then, Feb 07. Her test showed a lot of stuff but the worse that was totally not controllable was ragweed. Even though I got rid of all mine, everyone else has it so there was no way to get away.
All that being said, there are enviormental things you need to do, on shots or not. It is progressive and if you can reduce the irritation, you can slow the progression.
Soak all hay at least 1/2 hr to cut the dust and kill mold spores. Keep out 24/7. That means my pony has to use a muzzle in the summer and stay in a dry lot with hay part of the time. But she is out 24/7 anyway. A stall would be much easier.:cry: If you HAVE to have him in, use dust free bedding, spray down the bedding with water to reduce the dust, remove the pony when you are cleaning stalls, don't put anyone in a stall to make dust near him. I had used round bales in the past and although she wasn't ever having problems in the winter when I used them, I stopped. Dust is your enemy and the problem is progressive so why cause problems if you can prevent further damage.
I will add, the best "treatment" my pony had was acupunture. It does wonders for broncial problems.

[joharavhf]

Soak all hay at least 1/2 hr to cut the dust and kill mold spores. Keep out 24/7. That means my pony has to use a muzzle in the summer and stay in a dry lot with hay part of the time. But she is out 24/7 anyway.

Right now it won't be feasible to soak hay (it's FREEZING out here!) but I have been watering it gently with a watering can. 24/7 turnout is what we have anyways! Our stalls go in to a SAND paddock. Now it's not really that dusty as it seems to retain water (and I DO water it if it's really dusty like in the dead of summer!). Our plan was to cover the sand with mulch at some point...maybe this will move things along!

I usually don't USE bedding in the summer because the horses lay out in the paddock anyways for naps. Seems the only time they are in the stalls during the summer is when I lock them in because it's FREAKING hot!

[decorum]

How much spirulina do you feed per day (feeding)? How long? Do you also feed the medicines? Will these two herbals test under USEF guidelines?

Thanks!

I feed 1/4 c once a day for maintenance, if I was just starting out I would feed that twice a day. I can't imagine that algae or nettle would test but I am not familiar with the guidelines. Nettle is something that many horses can eat in their field anyway.

kcmel, herbalcom isn't always the fastest when it comes to shipping. Sometimes they are and sometimes it seems to take forever. Of course, I live in the toolies.:) I swear everything I order comes from the midwest or the east coast.

[Kolsch]

Right now it won't be feasible to soak hay (it's FREEZING out here!) but I have been watering it gently with a watering can. 24/7 turnout is what we have anyways!

During freezing weather I steam the hay. Not perfect, but it helps.

Method:
Place hay in plastic tote, not packed tight.
Pour HOT (but not boiling water) slowly over hay (I use 1/3 the volume of the tote- 10 gal for a 30 gal tote)
Place lid on tote
Let sit for one hour

Tip tote on end to drain excess water, feed hay to horses. It will still be very warm and steaming. My horses LOVE eating hay this way. This only works in freezing weather, and I've done it to -25F with no problems.

[joharavhf]

Kolsch - where do you get that much warm water???? We don't have hot water in my barn - nor do I have a place to really drain the water without creating a major ice issue.


Also, has anyone added MSM for respiratory health? I see it's listed as a respiratory supplement on the smartpak website.

[mbm]

i would get allergy testing done. worth its weight in gold.

i have a mare that is extremely allergic to various things..... with the allergy test in my hands i can control the allergies very well.

altho i must say - it sounds to me like the pony injured its lunges from the dust - not that it is a allergy issue. :(

i think that is why it is mandatory that horses dont get dusty hay - it can really hurt thier lungs.

good luck and i hope the pony is fine.

[Kolsch]

Kolsch - where do you get that much warm water???? We don't have hot water in my barn - nor do I have a place to really drain the water without creating a major ice issue.


From the house. It's actually not as much of a PITA as it sounds. I soak the hay near the house, then push the tote down what I call the "hay luge". The tote scoots like a sled on the snow so I don't have to carry it.

[grayarabpony]

Have you been feeding this hay for a while?

I once knew a pony that had a rather extreme allergic reaction to something that was in one batch of timothy hay, and it wasn't the timothy. When his owners got timothy from another source he was fine.

Just posting this in case he's not sensitive to dust or allergic to mold.

[joharavhf]

i think that is why it is mandatory that horses dont get dusty hay - it can really hurt thier lungs.


I completely agree and was mortified when I went in and found the hay. My husband had fed and we were in the middle of that terrible ice storm where we had no power for 7 days! He fed in the dark and couldn't see the dust when he fed. I went out an hour later and saw the horse not eating and immediately knew there was an issue....

So we removed the bale PROMPTLY and actually took it back to the feed store and got my money back.

What do they do during allergy testing?

[joharavhf]

This one bale of hay came from Blue Seal because (in the middle of the ice storm!) I ran out of hay and couldn't get in touch with my hay guy! We had fed one flake of the hay and the pony had eaten a little bit of it....I promptly removed the hay as soon as I saw it and never fed it again. Took that bale back along with the other one I had bought and got my money back.

Anyways, the hay I have been feeding is from the same farmer - except that one bale where the coughing started.

FWIW, my mare also had a few bites of this hay and did NOT have a reaction like the pony did......

[juniormom]

We had an allergy panel done on our horse and it is bloodwork, like in people. Our horse is older and coughs when it gets warm. It is definitely a seasonal thing. We just don't do as much with her when her allergies flair up. Ventapulmin does help, but is expensive. She also has melanomas around her mouth. We were told to keep her out as much as usual. They do test for certain hay allergies, etc. in the panel and can do shots. It just depends on what they find out. I am interested in trying the spirulina too. Do you use the nettleleaf with that?

Another one of ours that had some allergies did very well. We ended up feeding him alphlfa cubes and NO hay at all. He hated that part. Sometimes, we would give him a little treat. Other times, he could be seen - pulling it strand by strand from underneath a stall next to his. Poor thing. He is 20 and still doing well. He does have normal acupuncture too, but wasn't ever allergy tested.

The other thing we have done is to be sure that our horses drink well and have enough electrolytes.

Good luck!

[pricestory]

My pony stays on MSM for allergies and all the other stuff it is good for. She isn't on any other suppliments for allergies or breathing.
For allergy testing, they draw blood, send it in and get back the results. If you order the shots, they will come with instructions. You start with small amounts, close together and work up to a shot or 2 a month. I think the test and shots for 9 months were about $500 so it was certainly cheaper than anything else we had done. It was simple and for my pony, has been a life saver.

[Woodsperson]

The allergy testing is a simple blood test-very reasonably priced-in the long term it much cheaper in the ventipulim. I think my cost for testing and 1 year of shots was $650

[joharavhf]

I have some good news. My pony has now been on the prednisol for 2 1/2 days and the "phlem" sound has gone away after work. Thank goodness for that. Hoping that he continues to get better and that I can wean him off the meds slowly as planned. He never coughed during work, so the vet said to continue working him as usual.

I did just order some MSM and I think I'll put him on it for a while to support the respiratory and help with joints - it's cheap enough! I may check in the spirulina at our health food store on Thursday!

THANKS EVERYONE!

[andylover]

has anyone found a horse allergic to filbert bushes? i have been turning out my 4 year old warmblood and he gets into the filbert bush for scratching. he goes to a stall later that night with what appears to be hives. I had taken him off rice bran to see if i could figure out where the allergies were coming from, and that worked until he went to the filbert bush. any other things i could be looking for?