Prolonged cough

[midnight star stables]

Wanting your thoughts on ways to get rid of a dry, non-productive cough. Not severe, just constant. Vets are not concerned that is is serious. Horse has been treated with 4cc of Prednisolone Acetate daily for the last 3 1/2 months, but I find this appears to have irritated the cough more. Is not believed to be illness related, but rather heaves or something similar. The vet was out today doing more shots, and talking with him, he was thinking Sputolysin powder may be the next thing we try.

She gets daily turnout, and stalled nightly in a large 10x10. She is not over weight, but rather fit. UTD on vaccinations and in all other way great health. We do not live on an overly dusty property either. She is currently on grass hay which is watered and in a busy snacker. We got a better price and will be switching to a different hay supplier in a few weeks. We'll see if that makes a difference. =) She is grained a complete feed from Purina and has water and salt openly available. We use shavings here and have tried three different companies for her. We liked all the shavings, as did the horses, but just trying different things - pine, mill, local wood, etc. I haven't really seen a difference. I may be able to try straw in the future, and will bring it up to the family. We use Zev regularly when there is a sign of illness. In past years, it has helped, but as I said, I think that this is a breathing issue rather then illness, it has not helped.

This issue is becoming rather frustrating as we have not been able to "fix" it.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue, or has ideas. I love my girl, and want her to be healthy!

Thanks.

 

[Charlotte]

We occasionally have a horse like you describe. We have had very good results with this product in a number of cases.

Cough Free

Charlotte

 

[midnight star stables]

Thanks Charlotte! I have never seen that before and I am going to see if I can order it in Canada or have it shipped.

 

[Pipruda Miniature Horses]

Wanting your thoughts on ways to get rid of a dry, non-productive cough. Not severe, just constant. Vets are not concerned that is is serious. Horse has been treated with 4cc of Prednisolone Acetate daily for the last 3 1/2 months, but I find this appears to have irritated the cough more. Is not believed to be illness related, but rather heaves or something similar. The vet was out today doing more shots, and talking with him, he was thinking Sputolysin powder may be the next thing we try.

She gets daily turnout, and stalled nightly in a large 10x10. She is not over weight, but rather fit. UTD on vaccinations and in all other way great health. We do not live on an overly dusty property either. She is currently on grass hay which is watered and in a busy snacker. We got a better price and will be switching to a different hay supplier in a few weeks. We'll see if that makes a difference. =) She is grained a complete feed from Purina and has water and salt openly available. We use shavings here and have tried three different companies for her. We liked all the shavings, as did the horses, but just trying different things - pine, mill, local wood, etc. I haven't really seen a difference. I may be able to try straw in the future, and will bring it up to the family. We use Zev regularly when there is a sign of illness. In past years, it has helped, but as I said, I think that this is a breathing issue rather then illness, it has not helped.

This issue is becoming rather frustrating as we have not been able to "fix" it.

Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue, or has ideas. I love my girl, and want her to be healthy!

Thanks.

We have a horse here who had the exactly same symptoms you describe 2 years ago,we tried all sorts of remedies and then the vet decided to blood test for allergies and he is allergic to various grass and tree pollens, we now put him on Ventipulmin granules (think this may be available in Canada as syrup) in March through to September, when the pollens are around, and have not heard him cough since.

He does stall walk quite a bit, so we have him bedded on shredded cardboard (again not sure that you can get this where you are), which produces no dust at all. My vet advised against straw as it can hold spores which can irritate the upper respiratory system.

 

[tifflunn]

Not sure if it will be helpful- we had a little guy a few years ago - that had an cough after meds it still lingered- we changed his bedding to peat moss for a month- saw a difference in a couple of days- kept him on the peat( I sprinkled water on it ) for 2 months- he did very well with it.

Tiffany

 

[Dee]

We had a horse like that and we had her on Ventipulmin and it worked awesome. Yep its avaiable here in Canada in a syrup

 

[Julie/Azariah]

Last year we had weanlings start with a dry cough...in Oct it progressed to pneumonia. We treated with SMZ (several coarses), Tribussen?Sp Paste, and Naxcel for 2 coarses... always came back. So... we tried Power Pack Dewormer. Though I had dewormed them monthly from the first month, they must have had some parasites. Within a week their bellies weren't as round...their coughs were gone and we haven't dealt with it since then.

I have used Cough free as well and for some things that works great. But if things persist I always look at other options.

 

[MOJO]

We used a product called Vetri-Cine 1000 for situations like this, had a couple of the top show horses in the country on it several years ago. It boosts the immune system and helps boost oxygen levels, it can be ordered through allvet.com, they have good info on it. It is great for allergies and numerous other things. I worked a show barn and had all of the horses on it, they travelled all over the country, no illness. After we got the chronic coughs settled in one of the top mares, the other #1 mare blew her entire coat, out most of the season trying to figure it out, lots of tests with no answers, put her on it and the coat came back and she went on to win the worlds. Those 2 cases were what convinced the bosses to put the whole barn on it, it works wonders. You would need to reduce the dosage, It is dosed for full sized horsess, so it would need to be adjusted accordingly.

I would talk with your vet about it first, as with anything new reactions could happen. I personally have never had any problems but have heard of 1 person that said they did, this said I have doubts that they reduced the dosage to a mini dose.