Hello, my mare has reoccurring heaves. We have hay steamer, and med protocol that we use when she is having an issue. We plan to allergy test her the next time she is 30 days med free. I am curious about equine inhalers. Has anyone used a single nostril one and if so is there one in particular you would recommend? Did you see a benefit to using it over just the oral meds alone?
TIA
Sorry your mare has heaves. I do not have any experience with the inhaler --however, a neighbor used one with her horse and thought it was highly effective. What the two vets that treated my heaves-horse was that the inhaler was redundant to the prednisone and Ventripulmin I was giving. Both (consulted independently of each other) felt there would be no greater effect if I used an inhaler, too. So I did not get one.
However --hopeful note here --my hunter developed RAO (heaves) in January of 2017 and was completely unusable for about 3 months --then we found the right combination of prednisone and Ventripulmin so that he could be ridden --problem was it was hugely expensive ($40/dose --might need 2 doses a day). And he was 19 years old. Ultimately, I bought another horse to hunt. Gradually, I stopped treating the RAO horse and stopped riding him (except for now and then, just a walk down the trail, no meds). By March of 2018, RAO horse was heaves free! Two vets declared him absolutely sound, ride him how you like, no medication necessary. But he is 20 years old and I had the other horse going well. I ride him, but nothing like I used to (daily, miles and miles).
Since there was never a clear cause for the RAO (hay tested negative for everything --same hay he’d had for 12 years, grown in the same pasture, made by the same person) and he (and all my horses) are out 24/7 with run in sheds,) --there was no clear reason why he stopped being Heavey.
If you need a bottle of open Ventripulman at a greatly reduced price, let me know!
I use a single nostril inhaler on one of mine. I think it is called an Aerohippus Chamber. The meds I use with it are beclomethasone and once or twice we used albuterol. It gets the meds where it needs to go effectively once they adjust to the cup over their nostril and the “puff” noise it makes when you dispense the med. It really only took two or three times and a lot of treats before pony stood like a champ for it.
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