New barn - Terrible Coughs

[HRF_Second_Chance]

We recently relocated barns and our horses have steadily developed coughs. At first it was slight, but now it’s almost all of them and it’s constant but worse when they exert themselves. I’ve tried cough supplements but it’s only lessened them. It appears that EVERY horse has a cough on the property that’s on the pastures.

All of our horses are current on their shots. There’s no temperature, no snotty discharge and the cough appears to be dry.

I had a friend suggest Platinum Performance but I’m curious to hear what COTH’ers have had luck with. The vet seems to think it’s allergies but I’m not able to get him out so I’m calling out another vet.

[DoubleDown]

Have you tried soaking hay? My mare always gets a cough in the spring from the hay getting dusty sitting in the barn all winter. Usually a day or two of soaking stops it. I usually continue it for a week or so to give her a chance to heal. Sometimes it will crop up again, and I just soak.

[Garythesquirrel]

My first thought was dusty hay, dusty bedding, poor ventilation or all of the above.

Are the horses who are on pasture out 24/7?

[HRF_Second_Chance]

They are on pasture 24/7 but no round bale needed right now because they have a 20 acres pasture full of grass. I kind of thought the same about the dust since they are close the road and I keep hoping for a strong rain to clean it all off but it’s not happened yet.

[luvmyhackney]

@HRF Second Chance

They are on pasture 24/7 but no round bale needed right now because they have a 20 acres pasture full of grass. I kind of thought the same about the dust since they are close the road and I keep hoping for a strong rain to clean it all off but it’s not happened yet.

Horse is probably allergic to something surrounding the pasture. Any trees or plants blooming? Have you ever considered allergy testing?

[Angela_Freda]

You tried cough supplements… for how long? Which ones?
Something that is chronic, like an allergic cough, treated after it’s been going on for a while will be harder to treat, needing longer therapy to resolve, if it even does.

[quietann]

It might be something in the environment. My horse has always had mild allergy symptoms to pollen and bug bites, but at her last barn they got much worse. It wasn’t the barn itself, I don’t think. She was outside most of the time (which had its own problems, but that’s a tale for another time.) I tried various things and finally went the allergy shot route, and it helped … a little.

After almost 3 years, I moved her 6 weeks ago to a new barn. As soon as plants started blooming, she had some mild respiratory symptoms. I acted preemptively and started her on Zyrtec and Respire, and she’s doing great. I don’t think it’s just my treating her, though. She loves the new barn and is less stressed (part of the tale for another time)… so just a different environment (different plants, possibly even different footing in the indoor arena) is part of it. The proof will be in the pudding when the bugs get bad.

[candyappy]

Is it just your horses or are all the horses on the pastures coughing? How many are affected?