Help! My big horse has pneumonia

horsegal5 · Jul 22, 2007

[SIZE=14pt]I have a big horse with pneumonia, at least thats what the vet thinks,[/SIZE]

she's been running a temp on and off, mostly on lately 102 to 103, breathing very, very heavy, vet said you can hear it in her lungs, She has been on the antibiotics for a week now, she seemed like she was getting better, but as soon as you take her out of her stall her breathing gets worse. Also her legs are swollen the vet says from fluid as she is not moving around much. Another new thing is a gurgling sound in her front of her chest and throat into her nose, vet said hopefully the pneumonia is starting to break up

she is eating her grain with the meds in them, and drinking, and munches a little hay, she has just got me so scared, she's dropped quite a bit of weight.

we have her on Naxcel and SMZ for antibiotics, and I have her on echineacea as a supplement to help boost her immunity, we also have her on malanta for her stomach, we first thought she had ulcers..

Any suggestions out there, and help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Russ · Jul 22, 2007

Sorry to hear about your horse. I went through pneumonia also this summer(June) in my mini yearling filly. My vet also advised Naxcel to treat it. It worked very well and she kicked the pneumonia.

:

Keep her eating...that is a good sign

: . Keep her drinking as much as you can also....soak her hay a little....will help get more moisture in her and also help if her throat if it is sore from any coughing. I let my filly have some fresh grass....good for many reasons.....keeps the plumbing working/hydrates and is natures homemaide pepto for the tummy. I feed soaked beet pulp also for hydrating.

I see you wrote your giving your horse something for the stomach....malanta, I think that's a smart thing to do anything to help settle their stomachs while on Naxcel is good.

In my own personal experience in my filly I wish I would have put my filly on ulcergard(as a preventative) while she was on Naxcel ........my vet and I didn't agree at the time that Naxcel was tough on the stomach of a horse, he thought she'd be ok so I took his advice, we both learned from that....well here I am in July treating her for ulcers with gastrogard.

Can't think of anything else I did to help but I did give probio's for my filly while on Naxcel....my vet thought it would help. Oh, and I kept a log of daily temp.....that way I could tell where we were at....if I needed to report to the vet.

Good luck, I will be thinking of your horse...it is scarey to go through but sure sounds like you and your vet are on a good track to get your horse better.

Minimor · Jul 23, 2007

It's scary when the pneumonia won't clear up. We've had several cases of it in the past 3 or 4 years. Most cleared up fine, but one mare was really bad & didn't respond to the standard treatment. She started to, and then got worse again. Our vet switched her to a stronger antibiotic (Excenel) in conjunction with Predef 2X, a corticosteroid--even then it took a few days but she did respond, recovered completely. Big sigh of relief on that one! I know some people are very down on the use of corticosteroids, but they have their uses, and pneumonia is one of them. Predef 2X is labelled for critical pneumonia, amongst other things--it reduces inflammation & allows the antibiotic to work more effectively & also counteracts stress. Might be something to ask your vet about if your horse isn't responding to treatment.

HGFarm · Jul 23, 2007

I have only had one Mini that got it- and I noticed a big improvement with appetite, etc.. in 3 days on the antibiotics, so I hope that yours improves quickly! If this doesnt seem to be working, you may want to have the vet take another look to see if another combo won't kick it quicker?!

Sounds like walking the horse slowly, just for some movement to help with that fluid is a good thing though. A tiny bit of excercise is always good healing and may also help in removing the fluid generally from the body. Follow what your vet recommends, but you certainly dont want other problems occurring because of the fluid and fever!! It may be beneficial for small walks several times daily to work some of that out. Not a bigger walk a time or two daily.

Hope your horse is better soon, but if you dont see much improvement, I would be asking the vet about it, just to make sure things are ok.

Jill · Jul 23, 2007

I have not ever dealt with it on horses I keep here, but have had several horses at my former trainers come down with it over the years. For mine, it was usually in the spring and I think changing weather, heavy coats, sweating, and being stalled part of the day and then out the rest of the day contributed. The first time one of my horses had it, I was very worried but he got over it quickly on meds, as did the others who got it in later years.

To help her weight, might try soaked beet pulp, or senior feed (which is processed so the calories and nutrition is easy for the horse to get out of the pellets).

It sounds like you are on the right track w/ the medical treatment and would just let the horse take it easy as much as possible, and make sure if she's stalled that there is plenty of ventalation.

Flaxenacres · Jul 23, 2007

I had a big horse that had pneumonia about 6 or 7 yrs. ago sounded like what you described. My vet had her on penicillan and genocin. and also put her on ventapulman. It is a broncial dialator like asma patients use. But it did take awhile for her to get over it. Also to this day every time the weather changes she starts to cough. Naxel is a very good drug! I have a mini now that has a differant kind of pneumonia. Rhodacoccus, it is a type foals get. The vet had her on Naxel till we could figure out what was wrong. She is a dwarf and she had no symptoms except breathing hard and temp. I think I had to doctor the big horse for 3 or 4 weeks till she was better. Good Luck! Lorie

gorgeous · Jul 23, 2007

We bought a big horse mare several years ago and when she came here she had early stage pneumonia. After several days she had given it to two of our big horse geldings. We felt like we were running a vet clinic by the time everyone was well. It is highly contagious so be sure and keep your horse isolated to prevent others from catching it also. Because it is a respiratory disease it usually takes about three weeks for it to be completely cleared up. Keep doing what you're doing and be patient. She will feel better soon but don't push her too much for a while since she won't be really well for some time.