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Heaves

Horse Care
#1

Looking for your best management insight for a horse with possible heaves. Please keep in mind horse hasn’t been officially diagnosed by the vet, and with current situation I’m trying to do all I can on my own but will call or email very for consult if necessary.

16 year old horse. Last summer developed a cough, was on roundbales under a hay hut. Immediately moved bale and started netting hay and watering filled nets.

Cough comes and goes. Will disappear for months, only to reappear and be accompanied by that extra “push” of breath I know is indicative of a respiratory issue.

I’ve switched hay suppliers (just today) and am waiting for herbs for horses breathe to arrive in the mail. I was giving omega alpha (liquid something or other for breathing issues) but am not sure it helped.

Still ridden, rarely coughs when ridden, the cough has just reappeared after a few months hiatus, and is very sporadic.

Lives out on mostly drylot, shavings bedded run in (large flake in case the quick picks were too dusty), hay fed in nets thrown out for them to kick around, soaked hay cube mash 2x a day with vit min, MSM, turmeric, flax, salt, magnesium and pelleted fat.

Lightly ridden w/t/c and on the road and trails. SUPER horse with the best personality and demeanor, want to keep him around as long as possible.

#2

My girl has heaves (still in work) and this is what has helped: Hay wetted down (right before each feeding so it doesn’t sit and mold), no roundbales as they get moldy and that can flare up respiratory issues, when she is stalled she’s in the biggest airiest stall with windows (and not below a hayloft). She gets 10 Benadryl AM and PM and then I do inhalers before rides (both albuterol and fluticasone). If you don’t want to do inhaled drugs, ask your vet about ventipulman. It’s an oral medicine that opens the airways and helped my girl before I decided on inhaled steroids. Good luck!

#3

Sounds like you’re doing a lot of things right! High dose cetirizine (Zyrtec) has been hugely helpful for mild heaves horse. His seems to flare badly in the spring, so we think there might be an allergic component to it. The Zyrtec seems to help. He’s 16.3h and about 1300lbs. He gets 30 of the 10mg tablets a day, split into two doses. We just drop the pills right in his grain and he eats them just fine. I order the generic on Amazon - it’s less expensive that way.

Your vet could probably give a yes or no on a Zyrtec trial via text or phone call given the current circumstances.

#4

My horse has just been diagnosed with heaves after basically being sick since January. She was completely healthy until my husband put a round bale in her field. Long story short, she has just been prescribed Ventipulmin. The vet gave her a steroid shot yesterday and she has been given 3 doses of Ventipulmin. So far there is no change. I am trying to remain hopeful that this will help but I have already tried several things. Anyone have experience with Ventipulmin? My husband says to remain calm …that the vet said in 5-7 days I should see improvement. I expected to see at least a little better breathing by this evening.

#5

I used Ventipulman and it helped 30 minutes after given the first dose. I only had to use it before exercise, as that’s when my horse had flair ups. It ultimately stopped working after a year and I had to move on to inhaled steroids.

#6

Is there a dramatic difference between rounds and squares, with me pulling the hay off the rounds and stuffing nets?

Tonight I submerged the nets for ten minutes each, hoping that is better than just wetting with the hose.

#7

The only thing you’re changing by soaking vs wetting is with soaking you’re removing more of the sugar. The wetting of the hay is just to help it from being dusty. It can’t kill mold spores unless it is steamed. There shouldn’t be too much of a difference as long as both are stored the same way and are dry,

#8

My horse had Heaves symptoms in January 2017 --no cause could be found, diagnosed by 3 vets and all three recommended prednozone and Ventipulman (but like Freddo --I only used the Ventipulman before using the horse). It worked well --but as I fox hunt and do mounted archery, all three vets said that my horse (he was 19 then) was never going to be sound enough to continue those sports --so with husband’s urging and a small windfall from an unexpected consulting job --I bought William Tell.

Within a couple of months, the heave horse stopped having symptoms and has never coughed since. All three vets have seen the heave horse subsequently and none have any idea why he got heaves in the first place, or why he spontaneously recovered. FYI I had all hay tested by two different labs --found to be perfect hay --even so I sold every bale and bought new from another source --made no difference. I power washed with bleach the entire barn (made no difference) Horse was turned out 24/7 --but then he always had been, only ever came in to eat. I replaced all bedding with sand. (made no difference). Bottom line --no one knows why the horse got heaves or why he stopped having them. I think it was a combination of the drugs and rest and time that allowed him to heal. I still ride him --he’s 22 now, but not nearly as much --he used to work almost every day --now he works maybe once a month. William Tell is now my number one horse --but that’s ok. The horse with heaves paid his dues. He can live with me forever.

#9

That’s what worries me. Several people have said it helped very quickly. She has had 3 doses and there is no change in her breathing. The Ventipulmin was prescribed by my second opinion vet. My vet thinks Daisy has a fungal infection and had prescribed Itraconazol. After an entire bottle of that, there was no change in her breathing either.

#10

I would recommend doing a BAL before trying other things. If the Ventipulman isn’t helping, it could be some type of infection. If the BAL comes back that your horse does have heaves, you will probably need to look into either an oral or inhaled steroid.

#11

Sounds like you are off to a good start with early intervention! One of my horses has had heaves for about 6 years now. Initially it was quite bad, but with the right management and environment, you would hardly know he has it now.

Biggest thing is finding what triggers the heaves. Most often, dust is a culprit, BUT other things could be playing a role too. It is important to try and minimize exposure to whichever allergens there are.

Infection is possible as well, as people have mentioned.It doesn’t hurt to treat it as such.

One thing I will mention is the first year was quite tough. It took a while to see much change, but I think this was a combination of learning to find the right management system and what worked for my horse. Plus, it did take some time for him to come back after a respiratory attack, even with quick intervention.

  1. Keep him off free feeding on the whole round bale. They can easily breathe in spores from that position. Preferably, feed him flakes/ pieces from the round bale on the ground and always good quality. If you are able to, soaking or steaming is a good option as well.

  2. 24/7 turnout and areas with good ventilation.Also, look into bedding to minimize dust if he does come in more often.Also, keep in mind that brushing the horse could stir up dust.

  3. conditioning routine. Exercise and keeping the horse fit can actually help the horse’s breathing in the long run. Our local vet recommends keeping horses working, if possible and I’ve definitely noticed a difference when my horse is not working. There is a fine line though. Don’t work your horse if he is having a particularly difficult time breathing.

  4. Have the proper medication available if you need it in the case of a respiratory attack to which you should intervene to prevent further lung damage. Drugs are the fastest acting intervention you can get. I have both oral steroids and aerosols available when needed. Talk to your vet about which medication they think would be ideal for your horse. I use them only when necessary and have tried to avoid using them otherwise, as long term, and constant use can cause, in a way, a dependence on the corticosteroid (synthetic ‘cortisol’). I won’t go too much into scientific detail about that, but basically, the horse’s adrenal gland may eventually not be able to keep up with the same levels as the cortisosteroid to reduce the inflammation, thus over time, the horse becomes :dependent on the drug to get inflammatory levels down, as their naturally produced cortisol by the adrenal cortex can no longer keep up. This is a long-term scenario of course, but just something to keep in mind. When the horse needs the drug, then they need it and there is no easy way around that, but daily medication should be a last case scenario. It is also why prevention is so important in the long run.

  5. Diet: I changed my horse’s diet with more emphasis on things that would provide an anti inflammatory benefit. There is some research on the use of Omega-3 to help with this in COPD horses; however, keep in mind that by itself, Omega-3 is technically ‘neutral’. In the presence of lowered Omega-6, then Omega-3 will help with inflammation - as Omega-6 is pro-inflammatory. A horse does need some Omega-6, but be sure to prevent it from getting too high. Some oils, such as corn oil, oats, corn, rice bran, sunflower seeds and certain grains are high in Omega-6, and more importantly, the ratio of omega-6 is much higher to Omega-3.

So, the basics of diet should be also balanced, with emphasis on Omega-3. Then, there are certain supplements that have benefit for helping with inflammation or respiratory issues. I’ve heard spirulina can be helpful, but I’ve never actually tried it. You seem to already be trying the ones that I’ve gone to (MSM, flax and tumeric). Omega Alpha Respir-free is also great, although I actually never saw a great change with it. Oddly enough, I did see a change with a bottle of Liver flush, as did two other people I know who tried it on their horses with heaves.

  1. This isn’t really to help with the heaves itself, but I found that it helped me in understanding when I should be more proactive in management. I took my horse’s respiration rates whenever I went to the barn for a long time- almost a year, then I would take it every so often over the years. It not only gave me an average of what to expect, but I started to notice patterns and long-term, I noticed positive change! I noticed that his respiration became worse, on average, when he was out of work after winter, during hot days, and after vaccinations (triggered the immune system). I was able to be more aware during those periods and intervene sooner if he had a respiratory attack. I also noticed that the first 2 years, respiration rates, on average, were higher (20+), then they dropped a bit in the next 2 years (16/18) and now they are normally in the normal range. He also hasn’t had a respiratory attack in 2 years and rarely coughs. If he does cough, then it is usually early in the morning.
#12

Well, probably too early to tell since I just got the new bale yesterday, but cough seems to be gone. Had a good ride even.

My usual hay is lovely green soft first cut grass hay, but this last bale dustier than usual.

New bale is coarse as if cut late. Lots of seed heads though, greenish but not nice like usual hay. Nice smell though - almost tobaccoish (obviously not an expert on hay!). Horses like it fine enough, and haven’t heard a cough yet today. Still dusty (honestly in 5 years of keeping horses at home I don’t think I’ve ever seen hay totally dust free, even paying premium prices from a top end grower) but far less so.

I guess I’m changing hay suppliers permanently?

#13

My late gelding had heaves and it would come and go how bad things were. I did purchase a hay steamer and that helped a lot. That said, he only got steamed hay in his stall and ate unsteamed/Unsoaked outside as my senior would not touch wet hay. Not ideal, but…

Humidity was the worst for him. As well as high pollen. He was on Zyrtec (20 2x/day) plus msm and a few other things that helped for a while. Then we added ventipulmin and prednisalone. The ventipulmin did the most but it wasn’t ever a long term solution whereas the prednisalone became one. We’d use the ventipulmin to get him stable and then keep him stable with steroids. Not ideal, but… we were hoping come winter he’d be able to stay on an every other dose of the prednisalone. Unfortunately, he colicked in November and we couldn’t save him.

#14

Never mind, I’m hearing a cough.

There has to be a seasonal allergy component. Pollen etc.

#15

If wetting the hay isn’t controlling the issue, eliminate the hay nets. Hay nets increase the amount of inhaled dust. Feed off a mat on the ground.

#16

Can you elaborate? These nets aren’t hung, I fill them and leave them on the ground. I thought they would prevent the horse from sticking their nose in to the hay as they have to pull it from the net .

#17

Also for those who have done this before, how long after removing the suspected allergen until I should see a response? Meaning how long should I give him on the new hay before deciding that’s not fixing the issue?

#18

It took changing the hay and an increase in meds for my pony to show a difference. I saw a difference in easily 48 hours monitoring his breathing and then slowly cut back on the ventipulmin. I can’t use steroids as my pony will founder if he even looks at them. He’s fairly stable on Zyrtec in the summer and fall. I did have him allergy tested and knowing his triggers is a huge help.

#19

Ventipulmin should be giving noticeable relief. Call your vet back and ask. The longer the horse struggles with breathing the more scarring occurs in the lungs - and that lung function never comes back. If there’s mucus in the lungs an expectorant might help.

My heavey horse is affected by seasonal allergies and is on hydroxyzine in the summer. Exercise is a critical part of his management and on the days he’s having trouble I know I need to take him out for a ride. With exercise alone (because I forgot the drugs until after) I got his breath rate from 32/min to 18/min.

Exercise naturally triggers the dialation of the lungs. Of course the amount and intensity of exercise is governed by what the horse is capable of doing - a walk may open things up enough to allow a trot, which may in turn open things up enough to canter. The limit changes through the ride. The first time I stumbled on this my horse hit his limit in the canter in half a dozen strides. Later in the ride after more walk and trot I invited him to canter again and he didn’t find his limit at all.

Last year an injury precluded exercise and he was also on Prednisolone for the season.

Two years ago a bad haybale triggered a winter heaves flare up. He was on Ventipulmin and hydroxyzine for ten days to clear it up. The Ventipulmin helped ease his breathing very quickly and every day I was listening to his lungs with a stethoscope to judge his progress. He gets all his hay in nets now.

”‹”‹”‹”‹

#20

Bumping this up to get some ideas on bedding.

Horse lives in a stall that opens in to his pastures/paddocks. One sacrifice/riding ring and some sparse pasture. Never locked inside. Stall is at the end of a shop, so rubber stall mats over concrete.

As I continue to suss out and deal with all sources of possible allergen, I realized I’m guilty of letting the stall be dusty because they don’t soil the bedding enough to strip it regularly. So I stripped it yesterday and put in my last bag of shavings.

Going forward I’m trying to decide if I should leave the stall sparsely bedded or change to pellets, keep it deep, and water it regularly for dust control. He likes to lay down in there at night, and with the concrete under the mats it can’t be very comfortable! Thoughts appreciated.

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