# Dealing with heaves in horses



## MooreAcres (Jul 12, 2006)

My new horse, Emmy, has heaves. They seem pretty mild, although I have noticed that she forces air out a little louder and harder than other horses. I think the fact that she's overweight has something to do with it though. I was just wondering how others of you deal with horses that have heaves. How do you feed them? How do you exercise them? General care?

Thanks, Erin


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## Kari (Jul 12, 2006)

My senior gelding, Rudy, has heaves. They were very bad, but I was able to get an allergy test done on him (he's allergic to 31 things, including barn dust, timothy hay, and oats) in order to figure out how to feed him. I also have a custom blend of herbs I feed him, Tri-Hist from the vet, he's anemic so he gets Red Cell, and I mix beet pulp in with his senior feed. He also is on pasture and I supplement that with orchard grass (which I get from another state).

Can you tell I love him? LOL

We used to show, but the allergies and heaves brought an end to that. He's been fine with light work, though, and I was able to get his problems under control. So, I'd say that with your mare, get her on Tri-Hist, and/or herbs (I can dig up where I get mine, if you want), whatever to keep her managable and not become worse. She should be fine with exercise.... just don't expect her to gallop on the beach (Rudy has done this...




: )!!

Kari


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## shoeboxstables (Jul 12, 2006)

Our 30 year old Morgan mare has heaves, and we use a combination of Tri-Hist, an injectable steroid, and something else that I just cant think of right now. Our vet just mentioned to us recently that they have just developed a new treatment for heaves that is one shot every four months, and no problems in between. I'm not sure how it will work on minis, she was testing the effectiveness of it on a few other horses first before we tried it.

Turning her out 24/7 has seemed to help, and if you do stable, good ventillation is a must! Lowering the height of a feed bucket will help, and don't use hay racks, since all the dust and debris will just float into their respitory system. Soaking the hay will help reduce dust there, but it is important to actually _soak _ it for a good 20 mins, hosing is not enough.

We still use her for light work, and just watch their stress levels. Also take note, my mare always is very bad at certain times of day, so pay attention to that. Losing weight would help. Staying active is extremely important, to keep those lungs moving and working air, because with a horse with heave, inactivity could cause the part of the lung that is not filling with air to die, and eventually lead to death. You'll start to notice a "heave line" as your horse gets worse, like how I tried to show in the picture (her's was hard to see at the angle, so I drew it in)






This occurs as a result of the lower part of the lung dying.

So my main advice would be to observe you horse, talk to your vet, and trim her down a bit, because I knkow that helped my old lady. It may progress, it may not, just keep an eye on her. Lowering her bucket and adding more pasture time (possibly with a grazing muzzle or on a dry lot) will help too.

Good luck!


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## Robin_C (Jul 13, 2006)

You've gotten some great advice already about your horse's heaves. I'd like to add just a few more words as I, too, have an older, overweight gelding with heaves (COPD). There are many different triggering factors and if you can isolate what contributes to your horse's attacks, you will be better equipped to manage this chronic disease. For 9 months out of the year, my gelding is fine. His problem is not exacerbated by some of the more common triggering factors: 1) molds in hay or grass 2) environmental dust, pollens, air pollution, 3) allergies. Casper simply has problems handling our heat/humidity here in Florida, so summer brings on his worst symptoms with deep coughing, and difficult, labored breathing. I joined the COPD/heaves Yahoo group and got some excellent ideas there including adding MSM to his feed (many of the group members also recommend Spirulina, especially for "allergic"-type horses). Knock on wood, Casper has been symptom-free thus far this summer on the MSM alone, despite temperatures in the 90s with sweltering humidity. I do keep him outside on pasture for most of the day. He is stalled at night when it is cooler. He is overweight, but I have no dry lot, so it's either pasture or stall -- pasture and fat seeming preferable to being stalled and overheated. In the past, he has occasionally required an injection of dexamethasone to break up particularly bad attacks (works well and almost immediately) but use that only as a last resort. Prednisolone would be another steroid recommendation to discuss with your vet. I gave him a trial of Ventipulmin last year with absolutely no relief, though it does give some horses good relief. Unfortunately, it may take some trial and error to figure out just the right combination of treatments and management options for your horse.

The MSM is a simple and inexpensive first step that is worth the trial IMHO. You might also want to join the Yahoo COPD/heaves group for additional info/support.

Robin C


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## Casnos Minis (Jul 13, 2006)

My rescue mare form CHMR has heaves. When she first came you could see her heave line reallly well, now it's hardly noticable. I notice if she's on grass she coughs more than in our dry lot. I have EquioPathics Asthma and allergy and I also have another liqiud from Dr. Benson's. I can't remember the name of it. When she first came I used both daily, now I only have to use the astma and allergy once in a while. Like yesturday she coughed alittle so I gave her some right in her feed. The people that gave her to CMHR said she didn't take her meds in her food, at first she didn't want to , but now no problems she loves it. Also the asthma and allergy is all natural, safe for brrodmares, etc. My vet checked it out for me and said it was a good choice. You can get it from Jeffers for around $15 a bottle.

Christy


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## Marty (Jul 13, 2006)

I bought a very old pony for a quarter named Lil Darlin some 20+ years ago and she had the heaves.

I used a liquid steroid (dexemethosone) and shot it in her feed

I removed all bedding from her stall, or if I used any, it was straw that I wet down with a hose

I also dampended her grain daily with water, and also her hay and kept a fan running in her stall

We absolutely did not use force exercise. She was a pasture ornament and the barn mascot

I kept her out of the barn as much as possible as she seemed to do much better not being subjected to being locked up in a stall; only for storm reasons was she put up.

If I had a heavy horse today, the first thing I would do would be to have her tested for allergies and all of the above what has already been mentioned and also I would buy stall mats for her stall.


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## MooreAcres (Jul 13, 2006)

Thank you all for your advice/experiences.

The more I read and the more I watch the mare, I wonder if she really does have heaves. Granted I've only had her for 2 days, but I haven't heard her cough, not once. I believe I said earlier that she is overweight, so I wonder if that could be playing into the rougher breathing. Right now she's getting 3 1/2 lbs of grass hay per day and a 1/2 cup of grain per day. I have no idea how much she was getting with her previous owner. They just said that she got beet pulp, a little grain, alfalfa, and grass hay. I lunged her, along with my gelding, for a short bit (not even 5 minutes) today just to see how she'd handle it. She seems to do fairly well, but she definately breaths harder when working. I saw what I thought my be a "heave line" this afternoon, but then I looked at my other horses and they appeared to have it too. The line only shows up sometimes and its normally during and right after they've been worked. I don't know much about heaves in general, so am just curious.

Thanks again, Erin


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## Joyce (Jul 14, 2006)

I have one mare with heaves on occasions and certain times of the year. I have had excellent results from Ventapulin (I think that is the spelling without going to the barn to look). I have got it thru my Vet and also from Jeffers Supply. When giving her the meds, I also soak her grain and hay and in a few days she comes out of it.

I agree with Mary Lou.........this is a good thread as we can all learn what everyone uses and does.


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## MooreAcres (Jul 19, 2006)

This horse has not shown any signs of being real heave-y. She just acts like a horse whose overweight. I am thinking about breeding her next month and am curoious what your opinions are on that? Do you think she could handle it?


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## Marty (Aug 1, 2006)

She might be a* "roarer"*

I had a TB that roared. Check it out

http://www.netpets.org/horses/healthspa/roar.html


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## Little Bit (Aug 13, 2006)

I was SO tickled to see this thread, as I have a miniature gelding that's about 15 years old now, I've had him since he was 9 months old. About 8 years ago he started having breathing problems in the fall, and I thought it was an allery to the rag weed that we have so much of here. I also get sick with allergies that time of year here, in SW Texas.





It would only last a couple months until the weather started cooling off, and then he was fine until the next fall, but every year he starts getting sick a month earlier than the year before....This year he started having problems breathing in MAY! :new_shocked:

The vets say that it has developed into COPD, and we have gone the usual route of the Clenbuterol(Ventipulmin syrup), Albuterol tabs, Prednasone tabs, etc. I have even brought him into the house and used Little Bit's nebulizer with the liquid Albuterol before.

Nipper seems to get worse each year as well. He is pastured 24/7 unless for storm reasons, he's never had a piece of moldy hay in his life, so he's really not your typical COPD or Heaves horse, IMO. I do believe that it all started with allergies to the rag weed and pollen and dust we have here in Texas, and developed into the COPD.





Nipper doesn't cough unless he gets very sick with his COPD. When he does my vet has told me I can give him the Tussin DM, which really helps him. This year when he started getting sick I started him on his 1/4 tab of Albuterol. Then when his breathing got a little worse, I started him on a large dose of the Pred. tablets and started decreasing the dosage, as it is not good to have a horse on it long term. I was down to 1 tab of the Pred. with his Albuterol a day, and he seemed to be doing pretty good, but he had a bad flare up the other day. He was coughing just a little, but he sounded REALLy rattley/gurgley, and was having a very hard time breathing. So I loaded him up and took him to the vet to be checked out. He wasn't running a fever, but the vet thought that he may have had something brewing, he said he didn't think the noise was coming from his lungs, but that it was an upper respirtory thing, which is good! He gave him interveniously, a dose of Banamine, Dexamethasone, and Bayatril, which helped him right away., thank goodness! I could hardly hear him breathing with my ear up to his nose! :bgrin Doc sent me home with a couple tubes of Tribrissen paste, and he's back on the large dose of Prednisone tabs of 7 1/2 tabs for about 3 days, then I cut the dosage in half for a few days....trying to keep him comfortable with the least amount of Pred.

I told my vet that I had started Nipper on an herbal product called Breather Powder for about a week, and I wondered if he was allergic to it, as he got SO much worse. He said he didn't know about the herbal stuff and didn't know if that could have made him worse or not, but needless to say, I am no longer giving it to him!

I will most definitely join the COPD Yahoo group Robin, and I would be VERY much interested in this shot that is supposed to work for 4 months!!!! Gosh! that would be wonderful! Does anyone know what it is called????

I have all my dwarf minis on MSM daily, so I will also start Nip on it... seems like it is good for just about everything, but I didn't think about it helping with the COPD. I have used the Tri-Hist before, and will ask my vet about using it with Nipper, as well.

I used to have to saok Little Bit's hay, as he was allergic to it and his nose would get all stuffy, if I didn't and still would even soaked if he ate very much of it. I was told to only soak it for about 5 minutes though, as if you soak it much longer, all the nutrients are washed away, don't know if that is true or not, but found that 5 minutes or so was plenty for Little Bit.

One thing that REALLY helps Nipper breath easier is the Port-A-Cool that Poppa bought for the Biscuits and I this summer. I bring Nip into the barn when it starts getting hot in the morning and turn the coolie on him. The Biscuits (my dwarf minis) will stand in front of it and nibble on their hay,



don't know how we lived here in TX for 15 years without it!



:


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## Dent Kickapoo Kitty (Jun 5, 2009)

Sorry for changing it up a bit. I am dealing with the same problem so I don't have much to say.

We bought a mini mare with heaves back in 06. She is only 7 years old and is in the field 24/7 with a run in stall. At the moment she is on FinishLine for her heaves and eats Weight Control. It would be a shame to not drive her anymore.

Any ideas on what to do?


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