[pony4me]

Fifteen year old TB is coughing again. We'd had multiple vet visits. Blood work, meds, wet the hay, move him to different stall, give him lots of turnout, get him back in regular work, complete allergy workup, don't have him in the stall when cleaning. Cough goes away when on ventopulmin (sp?), and then comes back. He didn't cough any during the whole lesson yesterday, but today he coughed a little when we got to the ring, and the worse as we started trotting, so we just stopped.

Any suggestions for the next vet visit? Trainer and very competent barn manager are baffled.

thanks.

[bathsheba8542]

Yes, call in a specialist and have a bronchoalveolar lavage performed to find out what is causing the problem.

[ElisLove]

I don't know a lot about horses with coughs, however as a dog groomer I deal with some dogs that have coughs. Sometimes coughing can be a sign of a heart problem. I do a few dogs that cough when their congestive heart failure acts up. No idea if that can relate to horses or not, but just thought I would toss it out there.

[pony4me]

Yes, call in a specialist and have a bronchoalveolar lavage performed to find out what is causing the problem.

I assume that's a culture or sample of what's in the lungs? Correct me if I'm on the wrong track. I was thinking of asking if the vet could do something like that. I'll try to find out more. We have an excellent vet, with a great clinic. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Judysmom]

I assume that's a culture or sample of what's in the lungs? Correct me if I'm on the wrong track. I was thinking of asking if the vet could do something like that. I'll try to find out more. We have an excellent vet, with a great clinic. Thanks for the suggestion.

Yeah, ask about that. Also ask about scoping/ chest films if you go to the clinic. The only reason why I mention that is I had one present like heaves, but it was really lung cancer

[bathsheba8542]

I had the BAL done ... mine wasn't heave-y but coughed. Yes, the BAL is a procedure where the horse is tranquilized and a tube is put through the nose into the top of the lung. A small area is basically flushed and the liquid and cells are extracted. It gets centrifuged and then examined at the lab to see what's in there. It took about 45 minutes, cost $800 and the results were back in 2 days. For my guy, it turns out it his coughing was a result of mast cell disease, which I get is like permanent allergies. He's retired now, and doing great, but with the diagnosis it gave me insight on how to keep him comfortable.

[Calamber]

If the ventipulmin worked I assume that he has some chronic kind of inflammation/fluid going on somewhere. Unless you are really wedded to spending $800 on a specialty test (and not saying you should not do more diagnostics of course), but I would if it were my horse, try him/her on a course of iodine powder to see if it has a positive effect. Used to work on the TBS at the track who because of staying inside, dust etc. would sometimes get pharyngitis which often times caused this kind of regular non-productive type of cough. You did not say however, if this was a deep cough or kind of a dry hack. That would make a difference and if it were deep sounding in the chest I would for sure get more diagnostics.

[Freebird!]

How does he do on Prednisolone? There is a Yahoo Heaves group with lots of good info and tricks for COPD horses.

[Laurierace]

I had the BAL done ... mine wasn't heave-y but coughed. Yes, the BAL is a procedure where the horse is tranquilized and a tube is put through the nose into the top of the lung. A small area is basically flushed and the liquid and cells are extracted. It gets centrifuged and then examined at the lab to see what's in there. It took about 45 minutes, cost $800 and the results were back in 2 days. For my guy, it turns out it his coughing was a result of mast cell disease, which I get is like permanent allergies. He's retired now, and doing great, but with the diagnosis it gave me insight on how to keep him comfortable.

Wow, thank goodness it didn't cost anywhere near that much to do a lavage as I am a bit of a scope/lavage if warranted addict. I pay $60 for a scope and $40? for the lavage and diagnostics. One filly had it done 7 times. Sorry you had a bad diagnosis.

[Martha Drum]

If you get a COPD/RAO diagnosis: I have a 16 year old with COPD who has done well with an inhaler (not a nebulizer), getting daily puffs of fluticasone, and puffs of albuterol as needed. When he has a bad flareup, the vet has set out a precise regimen of decreasing oral dexamethasone that smacks down the inflammation and that he tolerates well. I hunt this horse, so his disease is either early stages and/or my vet's program is managing it pretty successfully.

BTW, he lived in a stall, turned out all day, in Massachusetts until I moved here three years ago. We gave him soaked hay and prednisolone as needed up there. Now, he lives out 24/7 and doesn't get hay at all from say April to November, so I expected he'd be much better. Wrong; his worst-ever attacks are in August, when he hasn't been near a flake of hay or spent more than 10 minutes in a stall for months. He's allergic to goldenrod, daisies, dandelions, etc. etc. So I plan to increase the number of puffs of the fluticasone as we come into late May.

[AKB]

Have you tried giving him Lucerne Farms Dengie instead of hay? We have one who used to be so allergic to hay that we put the whole barn on Dengie and cleaned out all of our hay and straw while he visited a neighbor. His cough was gone in 2 days. He was off hay for years until we discovered he could eat orchard grass. He went 5 years without coughing, except if he was near hay. Now, he is coughing on and off, so we may have to stop the orchard grass and go back to Dengie.

[Atlas Shrugged]

I gave mine a course of RVI for a few weeks and it helped a lot. Dengie safe choice stuff too.... she had metabolic problems as well and did not need the "sweets".

[Wayne]

Sometimes it can be related to the quality of the air. My horse had a much more difficult time breathing when the air was very humid. Delt with it by modifying the amount of work that she was asked to do or even increasing her Ventipulmin if it was going to be hot and humid for a few days. She had allergies and I had her on shots which helped a lot. Moving to a different barn was what helped her the most. Gave her Ventipulmim before she was going to hunt and she did very well. Good luck.

[katyb]

Mine has coughed on and off for 8 years - worse if she is in an enclosed stall or trailered long distances, and also worse at the same times my son with allergies is flared up. After a work up with my vet, he said we should treat her symptoms if I wanted, but otherwise to accept that she is a horse who coughs (and has a snotty nose at times) just like I do with my son. It doesn't seem to bother her much, if at all, so I have followed that advice, and eight years later, she is no worse.