Heaves

[Allybits2813]

Hi All,

I wrote here years ago asking for suggestions about my mare and her heaves. The heat and humidity we’re having has been brutal on her. Shes 28 and in great shape otherwise. Winter months she has hardly any flare ups, but right now she’s huffing and coughing. Shes on Smartbreathe which I don’t believe is doing much for her, MSM, and recently back started on Spirulina. I’ve been giving her Air Power the last few days and do see a small improvement within a half hour of using it, but it’s just not enough. She’s primarily outside 24/7 but stalled during the middle of the day when the sun is out and it’s just too hot, it makes her worse. Shes in a well ventilated barn with a fan on her and soaked hay. She has gotten low doses of Dex during these bad spells but I don’t like giving it.

I’ve seen a lot of people having great results with Heave Ho, anyone try this? I’m waiting on the vet to come out and check her out, meanwhile I’ve been looking into nebulizers and what the different options would be to give her. I’m totally clueless about these, how they work, what to go with. Can anyone help me out here and recommend what they’ve used on their horse? I plan to talk to the vet about this all as well but so far what I’m seeing looks like it’s going to cost a ton.

I’ve allergy tested her years ago, went through nearly two years of allergy shots with no improvement. Trihist never helped her. Like I said above, SmartBreathe I don’t see a difference. Shes back on Spirulina, I take spirulina as well and I know how beneficial it is, but it’s so hard to get her to eat with Spirulina in her grain. Give me all your suggestions!

[cayuse]

Zyrtec helps my pony, he has skin and respiratory allergies.
I also have a beclomethasone inhaler which I use mostly on the hottest, humidist days when the air quality tanks. It is give through an “aerohippus chamber” which has a cup that fits over a nostril. He gets 2 or 3 puffs, it would be more puffs for a full sized horse. It is a steroid, so there is that to consider. And it is spendy. I have found if I time his med to just before he is exposed to his triggers, I can nip a flare up in the bud and use much less of it. I hope you can find some relief for your mare.
Oh, I have also used albuterol inhaler, it helps short term.
ETA: Vitamin E has made a little bit of difference, too.

[Allybits2813]

So I’ve heard of people using Zyrtec and Benadryl with their horses, some people say it’s unsafe and others give them daily! Perhaps that’s something to bring up to my vet. Albuterol seems to come with the least amount of side effects from what I keep reading? I feel like that seems to be the safest bet, but as you said, shorter term.

[Melissa.Van_Doren]

I’ve found eliminating loose hay entirely is the best way to control heaves. Cubes - yes. Pellets - yes. But no flakes. Soaking never made sense to me… especially in hot, humid conditions, adding water to hay (which already naturally contains mold spores) is like throwing gasoline on a fire. A friend’s lovely little gelding was close to being PTS in February before switching to a no-hay diet. He’s currently grazing a good fescue pasture and eating Triple Crown Senior, plus ground flax and Heave Ho, with a complete lack of symptoms. (Before the grass came in, he was getting the same, plus alfalfa/timothy cubes for forage.) Lives out 24/7, with access to a shed roof with a good fan to keep the bugs and heat at bay. Because we changed everything at once, I don’t know if the Heave Ho is a big part of the solution, or no help at all, but since the whole package is working beautifully, no one wants to change it to find out.

Hope you find some relief for your girl. Heaves is a nasty thing.

[Allybits2813]

Thanks - I hope so too! I’ve been thinking about getting rid loose hay and putting her on cubes again. It’s been the last few weeks here in MI that have been so rough on her, we’ve been oddly hot and humid. I’ll give Heave Ho a shot, can’t hurt, her SmartBreathe packs are almost done with anyway.

Anyone else use albuterol or any other type of inhaler with their horse? In these rough times I really feel this is something she needs. I’ve been looking at the AeroHippus chamber. As always tia.

[RedHorses]

Mine gets two hydroxyzine capsules (antihistamines) every morning in the heat and humidity. If he gets them before the worst of the heat builds it makes a big difference. He also gets Omega Alpha’s RespiFree (45cc) which noticeably thins his mucus, allowing it to drain more easily.

The other thing I do is exercise him. I count his breath rate and if it is 20/min or higher I take him for a ride. Exercise naturally triggers dialation of the airways and the effects tend to last a while afterwards. It has been unusually hot and humid here this year and my horse’s breathing is worse than I’ve seen it. He has been audibly wheezing at trot and canter on some days, and has had more coughs during the early part of my rides.

Just for clarity my rides (through fields and woods - dusty rings are forbidden) go in this fashion:
Walk, actively marching forward - what I call his going places walk. On bad days this is enough to trigger a cough or two. We walk several minutes, then do a short trot. In the current heat this invariably causes another cough or three. I find he gets past the cough quicker if he keeps trotting, but if he really wants to walk or if he trips we walk, then try the trot again after he stops coughing. Coughing is one to three coughs, not a fit of can’t stop coughing.

As the ride continues the trots get longer and we throw in a short canter. Canter works the horse’s lungs like a bellows both easing the work of breathing and forcing deeper breaths. It also triggers a cough on bad days, and we come back to trot or walk when he coughs.

As the ride goes on both trots and canters are longer and easier for him, and I’m always paying attention to how he feels as I’m not going to push him beyond what his breathing can handle.

The results have been dramatic at times. Resting breath rate after recovering from the ride has been half the pre ride rate. Not in this terrible weather - if I can get him down to 20 or below I’ll take it. This past week he’s gone from 20 with visible effort before the ride to 20 with less effort after the ride on some bad days.

​​What he can do at the beginning of the ride as compared to near the end shows me just how effective exercise is, and I take some weeks every spring to get his cardio fitness up before the heat arrives.

I did have him checked this week to make sure his lungs weren’t filling up, and the vet advised 8-16cc of Ventipulim as a one shot relief on very bad days when exercise might not be an option. Another one or two hydroxyzine in the evening is anther option (I had actually given him one in the evening last week).

[Allybits2813]

Thanks RedHorses, I agree. I’ve owned my pony for 14 years now and she started showing signs of heaves just shortly after I bought her. Keeping her fit and exercising her always brought her breathing down to near normal. My only reason for not working now is because her breathing is so rough at the moment, her age, 28 now, and it just having been so ridiculously hot and humid, I’m worried of pushing it. I’ll feel more comfortable to start exercising her again when I find something that I know can bring her some relief, right now I just don’t feel right too.

[jawa]

I agree that exercise helps with heaves. My 32 year does better when he has a regular exercise program. Sometimes that’s just being ponied around, sometimes its being ridden, both are WTC.

To keep him from having a bad flair up he goes on a 1cc a day dose of Dex IM. He will get this for 3-5 days and then I’ll taper him off to 1cc every other day to every 2-3 days.

[EquineJunky]

I keep my MILs horse and he has heaves. He is 22 and been dealing with this about 5 years now. Last summer was really tough. We were hitting him with full doses/full course of dex and tapering off. That plan was only controlling him for a couple of weeks and he’d backslide again. There is a drug trial going on for a new steroid trying to get approved. It’s a blind trial and you may get the drug/may not. We did the trial late last summer. We did not get the drug. Vet said the horses he’s worked with in the trial that did get the drug had a very good response to it. It is a steroid but the dosage is much smaller and administered via a special inhaler. https://equinestudy.com/ is the website and has a search feature to see if there is a participating vet near you. Horse has to be evaluated and fit age and scale of severity to be approved for the trial.

Winters were tough until we switched to hay cubes only a few years ago. Now our struggle is NC in July/August. We have not tried ventipulmin, benadryl, hydroxyzine, zyrtec but have tried soaking hay, steaming hay, all kinds of supplements. Vet has him on dex ‘as needed’ (discussed my plan with him) after we finally got him under control early winter last year. He is out on pasture 24x7 so there’s no hay component at all right now. Only gets a tiny handful of wet beet pulp to get his vitamin/mineral supplement. I don’t know if there’s something blooming setting him off or just the dust from being dry with heat/humidity but something about July/August sets him off the past two years. This is now the only time his breathing really suffers. So, with vet’s approval I am watching his breathing closely and giving a small dose of dex if I think he needs it (slight increase in respirations or I see a little effort exhaling). He’s usually around 14-16 breaths per min. If I’m seeing something like 20 (or more) or if I can tell before I even get the count he is exhaling harder than normal, he gets a small dose. Then the next day, evaluate again and decide if another small dose is needed or skip a day. 2 weeks into July and so far I’ve only had to do two consecutive days and this plan has kept him from progressing to full blown heaving/wheezing/coughing so far <knock on wood>. I did ask about ventipulmin last fall and can’t remember the reason why but vet didn’t think it was a good solution for him.

I agree that exercise does have a positive effect. I wish my MIL would/could come ride him more often. It’s tough for me to exercise him as well as my own horse. Of course sometimes riding my horse also exercises him as he sometimes paces the fence when we leave the property. When she does ride, if he asks to stop and rest, we stop. If we see he’s breathing hard, we slow down/stop to let him recover. If he just seems to not be responding well to exercise for some reason that day, we shorten the ride and call it a day (very few times we’ve had to do that).

[RedHorses]

@Allybits2813

Thanks RedHorses, I agree. I’ve owned my pony for 14 years now and she started showing signs of heaves just shortly after I bought her. Keeping her fit and exercising her always brought her breathing down to near normal. My only reason for not working now is because her breathing is so rough at the moment, her age, 28 now, and it just having been so ridiculously hot and humid, I’m worried of pushing it. I’ll feel more comfortable to start exercising her again when I find something that I know can bring her some relief, right now I just don’t feel right too.

I totally understand. My horse also has EPSM which has forced me to learn to be “mean” and make him work when normal horses might get a light ride or day off, because when he’s a little stiff/NQR it means he NEEDS to work and burn the stored glycogen. I learned the hard way that a light ride actually made things worse.

Making him work when his ribs poke through his skin as he breathes in, or when his whole body jerks as he lets the breath out sucks, but I know it will help and he proves it each time. I will admit that hearing the vet tell a fellow boarder that nothing more drug-wise could be done for her heavey horse, but getting him fit would help has kind of imprinted the need to do what I can for mine. Mine has PPID/Cushings as well which means no steroids except in emergencies and then only for a very short time so the exercise is critical for him.

Perhaps you might try active hand walking and see if that is enough to help a little bit. I know it’s harder when they get older. We want to protect them from any discomfort. :yes:

[ladipus]

I have a heaves Horse who is also worse in the heat/humidity …what works for him was investing in a hay steamer …hands down has made a difference of him not needing any drugs …prior to hay steamer he was getting ventipulman and different antihistamines that weren’t working …I give him Aleira …that’s the best respiratory supplement for him

https://arenus.com/aleira/

https://www.haygain.us/

I want to add that soaking hay isn’t helping the problem because heaves horses have an allergic reaction to the mold/dust/ and spores that’s in all hay …steaming the hay kills the mold, spores and dust