My gelding has a mild case of heaves and I have been searching for more natural ways to treat and relieve symptoms. I have been trying to do some research on essential oils and their effects on heaves. There are some sites that tell you to feed and some that tell you to let him breath it in. I am wondering if anyone has used essential oils for heaves or any other things I could try. I would love to hear everyone’s take on heaves and things/supplements that have worked best for you and your horse.
In 2017 my 19 year old QH who had never been sick ever --developed a cough in January. After pulling him out of the first flight, then second, then hilltoppers --I contacted the vet. She came out and first we tried dex with no change. Horse would cough when ridden. We then switched to prednisone and ventipulmin. I took horse to an equine pulmonologist who confirmed the diagnosis and treatment. He did say that the Ventipulmin could be given with an inhaler, but since I was having success with it as an oral medication, there was no need to change.
But, both vets told me that the horse would never be sound for the kind of riding I do --fox hunting/mounted archery. Gradually both lose efficacy.
So I bought a young horse. TA DA within a month my horse was symptom free --cured? --both vets said they were amazed that he recovered; but since neither could pinpoint the cause --perhaps it left as mysteriously as it came.
Other things I did (that probably didn’t matter) —power washed my entire stable with bleach (in case it was caused by mold), stripped stalls to clay and put in coarse sand. Sold all existing hay and bought entirely new from a different vendor. Horse was always outside 24/7 —so not sure if an of that helped. But I felt better doing it.
Today the horse is now 22. He hunts occasionally. He has no sign of heaves. I primarily use my young horse as he is younger and as talented (ok, maybe a little more talented) than my older horse.
I must say that I found the prenisone/ventipulmin effective --my horse could be ridden as normal when he was dosed --but it is crushingly expensive.
I do not have a good vibe about essential oils used instead of medication —but each to their own.
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Heaves is the older name for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
You do realize that there is no actual scientific evidence for essential oils having any healing effect on chronic lung disease in any species?
You do realize that real essential oils can be toxic to humans and pets when ingested and irritant to skin?
You do realize that essential oils these days are being intensely marketed these days by multilevel marketing scams that will say and do anything to get a sale or preferably a new downstream rep?
”‹”‹”‹The minty or tingly varieties of plant extract can be useful in temporarily relieving cold symptoms of nasal congestion, especially along with steam. This could be Vic’s vapor rub, or steaming your face over a pot of peppermint tea, or using essential oils in a hot bath.
But none of that is going to reduce chronic inflammation and breakdown of the lungs, essentially asthma for horses. You need to address this more systematically including changing management
”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹(24/7 turnout, no dusty stall bedding), feed ( soaking hay, no hay bags or roundbales) , and appropriate pharamaceuticals to slow the progressive deterioration of lung tissue.
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All the above that you have said has been done and addressed. he is currently outside 24/7, eating soaked and hay cubes hay, and he is also on Dex and ventipulmin when he has these flare ups, all vet recommended things i have done. he still has the odd flare up with season changes etc and was just hoping to see if anyone had any insight to using essential oils or some other type of supplement for maintenance. Thank you for your response, will not be giving him anything i think will harm him so am curious to other supplements people think help. if essential oils are not the path to take.
My guy also has a mild case of heaves. Management changes have been big for him, as has adding 300mg of ceterizine (Zyrtec) daily. Personally, I don’t think essential oils will do anything significant to reduce symptoms.
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The vet I use and I were just talking about my options when my horse has a flair-up. We had not talked dosage of the Ceterzine yet. 300mg = 30 little over the counter 10mg pills. Do they sell them in a higher dose or do you really get 30 in your horse every day?
Wedgwood makes a compounded powder version, but it’s spendy ($180 for 50 days IIRC). That’s a little too expensive for my budget, so I order the generic off Amazon and do 30 10mg pills per day. I split it up AM and PM. His grain is soaked so the pills are dropped in right before feeding and he can’t pick them out. They’re tiny, also easily shoved in an oatmeal pie or Fig Newton.
ETA: He’s a 16.3h, 1300lb warmblood, so your dosage may vary.
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I cannot remember the dosage or pharmacy, but they do make horse-sized pills of cetirizine. This was for seasonal allergy, not copd though. I don’t remember it being shockingly expensive.
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Given the lack of research about the topic, I wouldn’t pursue anything meant to influence the respiratory system in a horse that already had heaves. Even if several COTH members swore up and down that <insert essential oil> cured their horse, the plural of anecdotes is not data.
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I had skin testing done by a dermatologist at Ohio State and it was quite valuable to find all the allergies. For example my mare had the highest mark for alfalfa. AND had a vet recommend the serum allergy blood test and was interesting to see the difference in those results. Was told the skin test was gold standard so had that done afterwards and so glad to have done that because the serum missed SO much.
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I also had an allergy test done and agree it was quite valuable. My horse had a mild yet persistent cough and it would go away with VentiPlus then come back. He is highly allergic to dust, mold, and some plants/grasses. He lives out and I soak his hay. With this set up he is on no meds and you wouldn’t know he has allergies or ever had a cough.
When his allergies flare up he gets a superficial sounding cough (just sounds dry and not deep or with mucous) caused by inflammation of his larynx. So not heaves, but I suppose it could go that direction if not managed.
I do have a Flexineb that I prefer to use over feeding meds orally.
Do not use essential oils for inhalation.
The closest thing I can think of is a product called “Balsamic Air” I have given this to my horse - I just put it in a syringe and dose it directly into his mouth. He seems to like it for whatever reason. When he has had a cough (for example just 1 to 3 coughs during warm up) I have given him this for a few days and it has alleviated the irritation without having to use the Flexineb or medication. My vet gave it to me to try, even though I was skeptical. I don’t know that it’d do anything for a horse with heaves.
I do keep this horse on a high dose of MSM and flax for Omega 3’s.
Agreed. Because essential oils frequently burn the skin; people try it for bug repellent every year and some people seem to think “more is better” and burn the skin off their poor animals.
So breathing essential oils may actually be harmful to an animal that has respiratory issues. Just because it’s not obvious doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
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I use RespiFree by Omega Alpha. In addition to antihistamines in the late spring through summer.
If the seasons change affects your horse it might be allergens triggering the flare, and might be worth trying antihistamines.
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Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease is the older name for Recurrent Airway Obstruction. 
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If I were going to use any sort of botanical medicine in a case of this nature, it would be in the form of an orally administered tincture.
There are a number of herbs which have beneficial effects. I will refrain from listing them, because pharmacologic therapy should involve supervision by trained practitioners.
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And then there’s IAD, as well. I compared the symptoms (RAO and IAD) and would guess that my horse has IAD, except that he’s 20 and according to the last owner didn’t have the same trouble I’m seeing (breathing hard with exertion) when she was riding him a couple years ago. Don’t know if that’s because she didn’t ride in the winter when he was eating hay, or he didn’t exert himself enough when she rode him for her to notice, or he only recently developed it?
She did notice that he was coughing some in the winter, but wasn’t aware of any problems with him getting enough air when she rode him. I’m pretty sure that she had him on full time pasture all summer, no hay, so am optimistic that if I can get him away from the hay that might take care of the problem.
He lives outside and is getting soaked hay (which decreased the coughing significantly), and I’m in the process of getting him switched over to a pelleted complete feed because I want to try getting him away from the hay completely.
Anyone know if the treatments are different for IAD (Inflammatory Airway Disease) vs RAO (Recurrent Airway Obstruction)?
Sometimes Walmart has a pretty good sale on the generic. That is where I get it for my pony. Luckily, he is small so his dose is only 5-10 pills a day. I mix them with applesauce and squirt the mess into him with a syringe. He doesn’t object so it must not taste awful.
From a recent review article by Dr. Mazan at TUSVM:
“Both inflammatory airway disease (IAD) and recurrent airway obstruction (RAO, better known as heaves) are inflammatory but not septic diseases of the equine respiratory system. The causes of both IAD and RAO share similarities, both being diseases of domestication and exposure to particulate matter, whereas it is at present unclear if it is the pathogenesis itself or the severity of pathogenesis that differs. The distinction between the 2 diseases becomes more apparent when history, clinical signs, and response to treatment are considered. Although they are considered separate diseases, there are recent data
to support the idea offered by Viel decades ago that a spectrum of disease exists, with low-grade IAD on one end and RAO on the other end.”
Whoops. didn’t notice that the abstract doesn’t mention therapy. The range of dugs used is similar for both.
Thanks. That makes more sense to me than a lot of what I’ve read. Whatever he has it does seem to be fairly mild, and if treatments are similar I guess it doesn’t matter all that much which it is. I’m sure my vet will have a lot more information and suggestions for me once she sees him.
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I give 120 mg Ceterzine (Costco brand) daily. Stuff 6 in 2 fig newtons…3 to a side…total of 12 pills. Easy peasy. My very picky horse gobbles them up. No smashing, mixing, squirting etc. you may have to introduce the fig newtons without any meds at first till they realize it’s candy…I also use fig newtons for previcox.
