COPD - Update Pg. 2 ... We lost her.

[Kendra H]

Good afternoon all...

I have a call out to the vet to get her in today, so you don't have to volunteer the vet. I'd like some insight before she goes though...

She has some clear discharge that has been coming from her nostrils the last week. I don't live at home anymore and my folks are horse savvy in care, but not entirely savvy for health. They're turned out for a couple of hours a day (typically whilst I'm there working) so I don't often see them.

My Mom messaged me this morning to say that Little One was labored in breathing and she "thought" blood was coming out of her nose. I quickly made a b-line for their place and got her up to the stall. She had no desire to move and the last thing I wanted to do was put her in a stall if she in fact had COPD... But considering I have a large horse and another mini, she wouldn't get her full dose of tri-hist. Still had to give it to her orally via syringe as she had no desire to eat her feed. NO blood from nostrils. Not sure what she "thought" she saw.

Her symptoms:

* Panting/Quick Pace Breathing

* Very inconsistent WHITE mucus from her nostrils. She's never had green or yellow.

* Goopy eyes - She's had this since last fall. They aren't excessive, but she certainly secretes more goop in her eyes than the others. This, too, is white.

Her gums are nice and pink and she's nicely hydrated. No mucus in her nose today. She will eat her pellets and hay. I started her on tri-hist today because well, my allergies have been berserk the last month... and I decided to make an "assumption" that there are allergies involved. I recently started looking into heaves/copd today, so if this is in fact what she has, please bear with me on the big red flags of DON'T do that!!

I would like some more insight on copd you may have to offer if this is what it sounds like...

I can also snag some video if you are interested.

Thank you sincerely!

 

[Contessa]

I have a little mare that has copd/heaves. It started slowly and progressively has gotten worse over the past 2 years. She is worse in the spring and on very hot days. I have 2 vets tell me there is nothing medicinal that will help and it can't be cured. I have to make her environment comfortable for her. She does much better outside but has a stall she can go into to get out of bad weather. If your mare's symtoms came on suddenly, I don't think it is copd/heaves. It sounds like maybe she choked but that's just a guess.

 

[madmax]

I have a horse with heaves and when he has an episode he coughs and gags really badly, I can see him swallowing something he coughed up.. I can see him breathing from his abdomen and giving a push exhaling, nostril dialated. He will be in obvious distress. There is a treatment, don't know why Contessa's vets say there is no medicine that helps. Perhaps she can tell us more.

One cc of dexamethasone brings him back to normal in few minutes. He does get antihistamine tablets in his feed daily. Hot weather can make him worse.

Hope this is a little help.

 

[Kendra H]

I have a horse with heaves and when he has an episode he coughs and gags really badly, I can see him swallowing something he coughed up.. I can see him breathing from his abdomen and giving a push exhaling, nostril dialated. He will be in obvious distress. There is a treatment, don't know why Contessa's vets say there is no medicine that helps. Perhaps she can tell us more.

One cc of dexamethasone brings him back to normal in few minutes. He does get antihistamine tablets in his feed daily. Hot weather can make him worse.

Hope this is a little help.

Thank you - this does help.

You can see Little One heaving from right before her flanks. Coughing and the nostril dilation.

Thank you again!

 

[Kendra H]

I have a horse with heaves and when he has an episode he coughs and gags really badly, I can see him swallowing something he coughed up.. I can see him breathing from his abdomen and giving a push exhaling, nostril dialated. He will be in obvious distress. There is a treatment, don't know why Contessa's vets say there is no medicine that helps. Perhaps she can tell us more.

One cc of dexamethasone brings him back to normal in few minutes. He does get antihistamine tablets in his feed daily. Hot weather can make him worse.

Hope this is a little help.

Thank you - this does help.

You can see Little One heaving from right before her flanks. Occasionally coughing and the nostril dilation.

Thank you again!

ETP: It does seem to have gotten worse with the hotter days. I have a video from my phone to show how she's breathing if anyone cares to see it, but I think the description of it is pretty straight forward. She had some white mucus in her nostrils again, but that's about it.

 

[Boss Mare]

Could be heaves.. Although when I first read this I thought of choke. Could also be the beginning of a respiratory crud.

Good luck.

 

[crisco41]

well my beautiful riding horse Lou has heaves. Hers can be pretty bad. This is what i do for her...I had called the vet about putting her down..then I started searching on my own

and this is lou now..with NO hay..NEVER round bales..and when she needs hay it is the cleanest dust free stuff..and I soak it if she is having a flair up. If its a bad flair up..its cubes. and sh eis oputside..blanketed or able to use an open lean to.

dex was part of her treatment plan..and tri hist..

I was not inpressed.

i started giving her albuterol treatments..up to 2 times a day. I would also put sterile saline in the nebulizer with her albuterol..and it really seemed to help

Lou is feeling pretty good. This is her now

I can maybe help you if you get a diagnosis of heaves. It doesnt have to be catostrophic. Esp if you caught it early

 

WOW! What a godsend you are to Lou!! Such a pretty girl!

 

[FurstPlaceMiniatures]

I had a made with severe heaves. She was in clenbuterol and oral dexm. ( my mother was "scared" to inject it, but that's a fight for another day ). As a last ditch effort, just to say we gave it our all before we put her down, we tried allergy shots.

Holy wow did they work! Vet said it'd take 6 mos min to make a difference, after 3 mos on shots, she went off the dexm completely. Has had 4 shots of it since. We started shots 3 years ago.

I highly recommend them!

 

[Contessa]

Kendra-Has your vet been out to see your mare yet?

Madmax-I only stated what 2 different vets told me. The one recommended putting a fan in her stall and wetting down her hay and grain. The other one just told me to wet down her feed and keep her out of the barn. She isn't crazy about wet feed but she eventually eats it. Both said it can't be cured with medicines. It can only temporary relieve severe outbreaks, which I haven't had any. She just constantly heaves to breath and sometimes coughs when she first starts to eat.

Furstplace-I am going to ask my regular vet what she thinks about allergy shots. Over the counter medicines did nothing for her.

 

[FurstPlaceMiniatures]

OTC meds did nothing for my poor girl either. The shots are cheap - 150 a year. We got them made for her specific allergens through Cornell University.

 

[Kendra H]

I'm sorry for the delay MHF...

I do bring back sad news. I spoke to the vet when I initially posted this and they implored me to continue her on the Tri-Hist and if her conditions worsen... to take her to the Equine Vet/Hospital we have. Little One was 100% two days after regulated consumption of Tri-Hist... She was back to herself, chasing Logan, harassing him whilst stealing his food. She seemed normal.

Just yesterday she tanked. I found her in the run in, struggling to breathe again and small tints of red in her mucus. We dosed her for Tri-Hist again and looked for improvement. This morning we got the vet out and she implored us to take her to an Equine Hospital, immediately. She thought Little One had phenomena.

I loaded her up and took her our closest equine hospital where seven vets worked earnestly on my poor girl. They had her on a respirator and she improved on that. When the main vet arrived, she audibly noted a heart murmur. She asked me if anyone had ever told me that... Of course I had no idea. Little One is just over two years old and we've never had an issue with her.

They did an ultrasound on her to look at her lungs for fluid. They weren't able to find fluid, but found her lungs were not at full capacity. They wanted to do an xray on her lungs and trachea.

To make an unbearable long story short... We had to put her down yesterday.

Phenomena wasn't the culprit, it was congestive heart failure. They believe she was born with the murmur and she said they could "fix" her issue, but no promises that it wouldn't happen again. It was an unbearable decision that broke my heart to put such a wonderful horse down. They did any evaluation on her body after she was put down. There were no abnormabilities (anatomy wise) with her heart, but it was swollen, the walls were thin, and her lungs were almost completely collasped.

Needless to say the vet said we had made the right choice. We could have stablized her, but there were no promises that she wouldn't go into CA again tomorrow.

I'm absolutely heartbroken, this Little One was an incredible horse with an incredible heart for people.

 

[madmax]

I am so very sorry for your outcome, it sounds like she was a special and fun horse to own.. RIP Little One.

 

[Riverrose28]

Oh no! I'm so sorry for your lose.

 

[MyMiniGal]

My heart goes out to you. I'm so sorry. Will be praying for you.

 

[wingnut]

I am so sorry to read of your loss. {{{ hugs }}}

 

[CZP1]

Sorry

 

[chandab]

So sorry for your loss.

 

So sorry for your loss. A very hard decision for you, but one that you did with love and I applaud you for letting her go to a better place. {{{{{HUGS}}}}}

 

[BSharpRanch]

So sorry.