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Heaves

I recently found out my horse has the very beginning stages of heaves. My vet suggested turmeric to help as an anti inflammatory. Looking for any other suggestions. He is my planned to be jumper, and I want him happy, to be healthy and comfortable. Never want to jeopardize him in any way. So past experiences, and suggestions are greatly appreciated!

There are plenty of supplements available for heaves. Just do a google search and you will find products to compare. My horse seems to do well on Lung EQ by Uckele.

Turn out. Hayledge, or at the very least watered down hay. The only supplement I’ve noticed a difference with is MSM.

Mine has done well with RespiFree by Omega Alpha. I use hydroxyzine in the summer to keep his allergies in check. I also use work to make his body dialate his airways naturally. The effects last longer than the exercise. I can get his resting breath rate from 28-32/minute pre exercise down to 12-16/min post exercise. The RespiFree helps loosen and thin his mucous so it drains out more easily.

Mine also lives outside and has nets on his round bales, and several hours a day on grass in the summer. I don’t ride in the ring when it is dusty.

I did use a low dose of Prednisone for two summers, but once he was on Prascend the Prednisone wasn’t as effective even at a higher dose (drug conflict). That’s when we tried the hydroxyzine. So far so good.

My old gal has Heaves. She gets Histal-H from Animed and WellPride Fish Oil. The Histal-H has lots of turmeric and the oil helps it get absorbed. Her pasture has misters set up on the fenceline and she likes to stand there. She gets soaked hay cubes. She lives out 24/7 I also use Dex (5ml/brown bottle ) every other day. I have some Ventipulmin but have not had to use it for a while. Occasionally she gets a dose of cough medicine on top of her feed.

Mine has heaves, although they have been well controlled for 2 years now. High dose MSM, Omega 3’s, Vitamin E, grape seed extract, make sure you don’t have them in a stall with the hayloft overhead. All the particles can cause massive inflammation. I can’t use steroids as my pony will most likely founder on them.

Clean stalls when horse is out and keep them out as much as possible unless dusty outside. I don’t soak hay, just shake out the dust and wet to keep the particles down. I only wet what I know he is going to eat in one sitting. So mold doesn’t get a chance to grow. I do use a nose net on him if it is really dusty out and hasn’t rained in a bit.

I allergy tested so I could keep up with the causes and finding out the triggers helped me know when to increase meds or increase supplements, and take it easy.

We had one with heaves a few years ago. Soaking her hay helped at first, but eventually her symptoms worsened. Dex caused her to founder and she was hospitalized twice before the vets figured out she was allergic to even the smallest amount of Dex. We tinkered with, and overhauled her diet several times, changed her bedding, tried various meds and even had a customized serum made. Eventually, we started to run out things to try so she was put on 24/7 turnout, and “poof”, the heaves disappeared. After a good nine months of living outside, she was able to live in the barn again, but we gave her as much turnout as possible and she got the stall with the most ventilation, i.e. she was at the end of the barn.

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