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High Respiration Rate but Nothing Else is Off??

Horse Care
#1

Sometimes my horse will have a pretty high resting respiration rate. I’ve only noticed it in the summer. He’s been this way since I bought him 2 years ago and I’ve discussed it with my vet, who thinks it could just be him trying to help cool himself when it’s extra-hot. The horse sweats fine and never has a high heart rate or temperature when his breathing rate is elevated. No coughing and as far as I can tell, nothing is actually wrong with him other than he’s just breathing faster than he should.

I just don’t know if I’m happy with this explanation since there’s nothing I can do for it. It also finally clicked that I think it could be impairing his performance. Yesterday his resting respiration at 3 PM was 48 with relatively shallow breathing and the vet told me not to ride because he could be prone to overheating. The vet did also suggest that it could be part of an allergic reaction, especially since he did also have hives, so I gave him 8 mg of dexamethasone (for a 1250 lb horse). I waited for it to cool down a bit and rode him at dusk. His resting respiration was slightly lower, but still not normal, when I rode. He’s been amazing to ride lately, but was a huge jerk last night. He was fairly good on loose contact, but awful when I rode in regular contact. In the past I’ve just accepted that he can be a giant jerk sometimes, but I’m beginning to wonder if it’s related to his breathing. Especially the difference between loose/stretchy contact vs. correctly on the bit.

He was scoped 2 years ago and scoped clean. He hasn’t been scoped since, but I noticed his elevated respiration on hot days even back then.

Has anyone had experience with this? Did you successfully resolve it or have any way to at least help you horse? I was wondering about allergies, but most of my googling only points to allergies related to dust and heaves, which almost always have coughing as a symptom. I’m thinking about going ahead and asking for another scope to humor me and maybe getting a lung tissue sample but I don’t know if I’ll just be wasting my money.

#2

Something isn’t right and I respectfully disagree with the first explanation that vet gave you. Is there an equine focused vet you could see for a second opinion? I do agree that hives means an allergic reaction to something the horse has been exposed to.

My only experience with rapid breathing in a horse was one that was diagnosed with heaves.

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#3

Hope this doesn’t sound too off the wall, but I have a horse that did that; had his long-overdue chiro/accupuncture vet come out, and apparently he needed a big adjustment through his spine. Vet thought he was unable to full expand his lungs/rib cage because of tight muscles, and that’s why his respiration was high. He seems better now. Now, I’m not saying this is exactly what the vet said, but I hope you get the gist. Vet treatment of chiro/accupuncture worked though.

#4

It’s one of the old guy’s signs that his cushing’s meds need adjustment, that rapid respiration. In our case he doesnt’ thermoregulate as well as some other horses and it shows up as rapid breathing with flared nostrils.

I usually bathe him with cold water to help him feel more comfortable, and I may clip as well, for instance I may clip him again in the next month if the temps are predicted to be in the 90’s.

Don’t know if your guy could be an early onset Cushing’s horse or not.

#5

Is he sweating? Maybe he’s suffering from a degree of anhidrosis and his resps go up when he’s hot? Even without a fever, he could be trying to cool a bit.

#6

Maaaybee before you bought him he developed heaves. Heaves will do permanent damage resulting in the horse having higher and more shallow respirations. It is worse in hotter weather. I own a heavey horse. He is well managed and so never coughs as his environment is managed to minimize exposure to dust, mold and allergens. But the damage is done so he has a higher respiration rate which is even higher when hot, higher still when hot and exercising. He has a higher pulse rate when exercising also. He used to be an endurance horse but now is a pleasure horse.
" Changes in the passageways can result if repeated inflammation occurs and this is often not reversible. There is a thickening of the muscular and fibrous tissues that line the large airways of the lungs in horses with heaves." copied from an article about Heaves.

Just an idea to consider. My horse is regularly rechecked by my vet, his lungs are always clear and sound good but his respiration rate will be high until he dies. Real bummer. I feed him Smartbreathe as a preventative. It has been working for him.

chicamuxen

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#7

Could he have mild gas colics intermittently and this is a symptom of pain?

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#8

Could it be thumps?

#9

[QUOTE=maggini;7721761]
Sometimes my horse will have a pretty high resting respiration rate. I’ve only noticed it in the summer. He’s been this way since I bought him 2 years ago and I’ve discussed it with my vet, who thinks it could just be him trying to help cool himself when it’s extra-hot. The horse sweats fine and never has a high heart rate or temperature when his breathing rate is elevated. No coughing and as far as I can tell, nothing is actually wrong with him other than he’s just breathing faster than he should.

I just don’t know if I’m happy with this explanation since there’s nothing I can do for it. It also finally clicked that I think it could be impairing his performance. Yesterday his resting respiration at 3 PM was 48 with relatively shallow breathing and the vet told me not to ride because he could be prone to overheating. The vet did also suggest that it could be part of an allergic reaction, especially since he did also have hives, so I gave him 8 mg of dexamethasone (for a 1250 lb horse). I waited for it to cool down a bit and rode him at dusk. His resting respiration was slightly lower, but still not normal, when I rode. He’s been amazing to ride lately, but was a huge jerk last night. He was fairly good on loose contact, but awful when I rode in regular contact. In the past I’ve just accepted that he can be a giant jerk sometimes, but I’m beginning to wonder if it’s related to his breathing. Especially the difference between loose/stretchy contact vs. correctly on the bit.

He was scoped 2 years ago and scoped clean. He hasn’t been scoped since, but I noticed his elevated respiration on hot days even back then.

Has anyone had experience with this? Did you successfully resolve it or have any way to at least help you horse? I was wondering about allergies, but most of my googling only points to allergies related to dust and heaves, which almost always have coughing as a symptom. I’m thinking about going ahead and asking for another scope to humor me and maybe getting a lung tissue sample but I don’t know if I’ll just be wasting my money.[/QUOTE]

Does he sweat? I’ve known a few whose anhydrosis showed up this way . . .

#10

I was just at the vet with my cat and she was telling me to watch him for heavy breathing as a sign of heart failure. I’d think it could be a symptom for horses too.

#11

The horse is an otherwise healthy 7 year old TB. Raced through his 4 year old season. Has done this intermittently at least since his 5 year old season, which was when I bought him. His only other issue is that he has a terrible time keeping weight on. His weight is steady, but he’s still maybe a 4+ BCS despite only being in moderate work and getting 10 lbs of a high quality senior feed, compounded gastrogard, and lots of probiotics/prebiotics. I pulled blood on him this spring to see if anything was off and that came back normal. He lives out except for meals (2x day) and when I bring him in to ride and stall him while I’m working with my other horse. When stalled, he’s on shavings with his speed fan on in the top corner of his stall. I haven’t noticed this happen more coming in from his field verses his stall.

Like I said in my first post, he does sweat. But I have noticed that even when he sweats so much that he drips, there’s almost no lather, even between his butt cheeks and where his martingale goes. I’m wondering if he could be deficient in producing latherin and as a result he’s having a harder time cooling?

He’s due for the chiropractor next week on a monthly schedule, but I’m reluctant to think that’s the cause just since he does get seen by her regularly. I’m going to have to keep an eye on this, though, to see if it’s better after he sees her.

I did schedule a vet appt. for Monday. My vet said she’s going to start with ruling out that he’s a roarer even though he doesn’t make any noises, and move on to checking for heaves or pulling blood to check for an electrolyte imbalance. She said we can also do an allergy test, but that they aren’t always conclusive or accurate depending on which one we do.

Thanks to everyone for the advice so far! Crossing my fingers it’s not a permanent damage thing, but who knows.

#12

This horse needs a full cardiopulmonary work up. Soon. Have you done basic blood work? Is he anemic? Liver function?

#13

My mare began the same way and it was anhidrosis. She stopped sweating about a month later!

#14

Hi Maggini, were you able to get this successfully resolved with the vet? Just curious as to what the issue turned out to be? My horse is presenting some of the same symptoms.

#15

I don’t think your horse was being a jerk. I think he was in physical distress.

I would not ride a horse who is in having respiratory difficulty, even if it’s been given Dex to alleviate some of the symptoms.

A loose rein allows the horse to straighten the respiratory tract and take in more air, more easily. On contact would mean bending at the poll and would also indicate doing work that requires more physical exertion both would make any difficulty in breathing worse.

1 Like
#16

3 year old thread.

#17

Yup,

But folks apparently still read it and I stand by what I posted.

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