Does anyone have a horse who clears their nose repeatedly while riding? It’s not a cough, like from the lungs, it’s more like she’s trying to blow something out of her nose. My horse does this when I first get on, just a few times while walking, then when I start trotting, she will clear her nose continually for a couple of minutes. She stretches her neck out and down to do it, so I let her get it over with at the beginning of the ride, until she stops. Then it settles down, but sometimes when I start cantering, she will do it again, after she’s already been going for 15 minutes or so.
A little back story: She has been doing this since I started her back into work after a long layup. During the layup, I moved her to a barn that unfortunately, had pretty dusty air (from shavings / sawdust used as bedding). I also was feeding her out of a slow feed hay net (morning and evening hay), while lunchtime and night check hay were fed from the ground. When I stopped feeding from the hay net, the sneezing improved for a time. Then it started up again. I’ve now moved to another barn, where she gets much more turnout, much more hay, all fed from the ground, but it’s a heated barn. The sneezing seems excessive especially when compared to the other horses. There are 40 or more other horses - and they don’t do this like she does.
Question: Should I call the vet, or is it a management problem? Or a behavior - maybe she just wants to stretch her neck? I do let her stretch during the ride, and there are plenty of times when she is not sneezing and is able to work just fine.
It is a good thing for then to clear the cobwebs. Mine doesn’t do it for minutes but usually in the first trot and then after the first canter. He will cough cough. Then snort snort and maybe another cough snort. When I did work him 2 days in a row, he didn’t do it as much the next day.
When I say it is a good thing it is because they do it when they are relaxed. They won’t do it if tense or frightened.
How many times in minutes? Does it lessen if worked daily?
When a barn is heated or closed up tight you have air quality issues that can affect some horses who are sensitive. My daughter’s horse is sensitive to dust and she is one who does a fair amount of nose clearing, snorting etc… when being warmed up on most days.
Life in a closed up barn would be death to her as well as eating hay in any closed feeder or hay bag.
It wouldn’t hurt to have your vet give her a check up if you are able. Check her lungs and breathing and see if a life not stalled might be a better option .
Do they offer boarding where they have stall /paddock option where she can come and go as she pleases?
I have one that does it all the time. Mine always blows her nose once or twice when we start trotting and then several times when we pick up the canter. It never changes frequency-wise and is never a cough. She’s never lived in a dusty area…she’s lived out 24/7 since she was born and none of the hay I’ve had with her has been particularly dusty. So in my mare’s case I don’t think it has anything to do with management. It doesn’t change at all when we’re at shows and she’s in a stall 24/7 for the week (or two or three) that we’re there.
I’ve asked several vets and clinicians about her over the years and mostly the answer has been, “some of them are just like that.” Nothing stands out on vet checks, and she was gone over pretty closely when she was imported from Germany as a 4yo and spent a month at UC Davis for quarantine.
So, I was just going back over my website because I haven’t looked at it in a while and I need to renew my hosting services (etc.). I kind of randomly stumbled on a headshot of my mare who does it and noticed something I had never noticed before, but was on my mind because of this thread. If you go here: http://www.flyingfsporthorses.com/home/photo-gallery/ and (bear with me here) go to the 25th photo down, you’ll see the photo I mean. It’s the headshot of my black jumper mare and it has me wondering if there’s something about the shape of her nasal tissue that makes her feel like she needs to blow her nose more than your average horse (or did the photo catch her doing it and that’s why it looks so weird?). I’ve never noticed a shot quite like that of any of my other horses (none of whom blow their noses like this mare).
I’ve got one who’s sinuses produce more mucus than most horses. Quite dramatically sometimes. Exercise loosens it up and he will cough or blow depending on other factors when we start trot and/or canter. I check in with vets periodically to confirm there is nothing to worry about unless something changes.
The time at the dusty barn may have set up an irritation or inflammation that your horse hasn’t been able to shake. Antihistamines or steroids may ease that long enough for his body to heal properly.
My gelding is like this. He always sneezes more in comparison to other horses. He’s a dramatic animal in general, so this does not surprise me with him. :lol:he does have allergies though. Very sensitive to dust, molds, grasses and a few other things. Sometimes he will cough during a flare up. So I figured it was linked to his allergies/sensitivities.
He can be otherwise symptom free with his allergies and not experiencing a flare up, but the sneezing is still there.
This is going to sound stupid, but my mare will do this occasionally to “get out of work” (get out of my shortening the reins and asking for something harder). She will start doing it and will go and go and go and go - they’re short, not clearing anything, and you can feel the small root she gives when she does it, trying to get more rein.
I let her have 5 or 10, then I give a firm “enough” and leg her on while I shorten my reins. She stops snorting, sometimes with baby sass, and gets to work.
This does not sound stupid! I think my horse does the same :rolleyes: sometimes, usually during his first canter, he feels a bit tense/like he’s waiting for or trying to force out a sneeze. And he does this little root thing too. Like he cannot possibly focus on anything else while sneezing. Then, he hates the watery nose he gets from sneezing and will fling his head once or try to rub his wet nose on his leg… At the walk or trot… And people think he’s attempting the Spanish walk because he gets mad that I don’t let him do this…which results in stomping…and he’s a Spanish horse so…“angry Spanish Walk” it is.
Anyway, I say enough and it’s over.
His whole personality has a dramatic flare, but he’s a really good horse I swear :lol:
This is great timing because my horse has the EXACT same symptoms as yours, and today we just got a diagnosis. Even the same oddity of getting better with exercise, not worse, until cantering which triggered the sneezing again. The insides of her eyelids were also red and there was sometimes swelling above her nostrils, especially on days when she had to be stalled due to bad weather.
My vet did a respiratory exam with a plastic bag over the nostrils, listening to the lungs. She thought it was a general hay/shavings mold/dust allergy and prescribed the cheap OTC antihistamine cetirizine. My horse was moved to a paddock outside and her hay was watered down and fed from the ground. There was great improvement but not 100%. We went to the vet hospital.
At the vet hospital, we did a bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL, $150) to get a sample of the fluid in the lungs to test for infection or inflammation. They found inflammation and diagnosed her with a mild case of inflammatory airway disease, similar to asthma and induced by airborne particles (not any specific allergen but any dusty environment). It likely started from an environmental cause (my guess is a long stay inside the barn) and then the inflammation never got a chance to completely die down. We got prescribed another antihistamine, ventipulmin, which might get the inflammation under control and once this very long flare up has died down, the condition might be manageable just by environmental changes with a course of antihistamine again if another flare up happens in the future. It could get worse over time with no treatment. It also might be necessary to just have her live on an antihistamine. But it’s very treatable.
This is so similar to what I experienced. I don’t recall my horse having any visible swelling or redness, but I did do a a scope/lavage and he was diagnosed with IAD. I’ve not tried antihistamines with him yet, but I do have a Flexineb with a a steroid (Pulmicort) and brochodilator (Atrovent) prescription on hand. If he has a flare up. I filled the prescription 2 months ago and haven’t had to use any medication. It’s nice having everything on hand, and sometimes he goes months without needing the nebulizer.
I did allergy test him, so I know his allergens. I prefer the nebulizer since it delivers the meds directly to the airway to alleviate inflammation. I use it before I work him when he’s having a flare up.
I also have my horse living in an in/out paddock situation with dust free bedding, watered hay, and plenty of Omega 3’s and MSM in his diet. I think this is why I don’t have to medicate him much at all. Management is key.
My vet also gave me some Balsamic Air but I won’t use it in my nebulizer. I do give it orally with a syringe (he seems to like it, actually) and that seems to help the airway too. We had some really cold dry days recently and he began to cough under saddle just a little bit, so I gave him this stuff for a few days and it stopped. It was quite minor, the coughing, so I didn’t get out the nebulizer. Plus, this stuff doesn’t test so may be useful if he has any minor coughing during competition season.
No idea about the effectiveness of an antihistamine, but Ventipulmin is usually effective. IME, it takes environmental management, a steroid for inflammation, and a brochodilator to open the airway. For maybe about 2 weeks, then all is settled. I do believe that exercise helps. The key, as you noted, is to be active with treatment before it becomes something worse. If you do nothing, you risk scarring in the lungs and other issues.
