I’m not sure if this has ever been addressed here before. I’m in NJ and there are MANY horses exposed to the horrible air quality due to the Canadian forest fires. We’re on day 4 of hazardous air quality. I worked my PerchX walk trot yesterday because it wasn’t as bad as Tuesday and Wednesday. I’m feeling chest congestion because of the air quality. Should I be concerned about my horse? Is there anything I can do to help at this point? I’m thinking providing him with a natural expectorant to help clear his lungs. No, he doesn’t have any symptoms, I just know how my lungs are feeling and I’m thinking about his as well. TIA.
2 Likes
We’ve all been through this in the West for years.
Don’t work your horse at all if you can feel the smoke.
I’m not sure what good an expectorant would do for small particulates if there isn’t phelgm as well.
We’ve had some bad smoke here in Vancouver over the years but it’s always been from a distance, not up close. The exposure risk is much higher if you are caught up in wildfire areas obviously.
You can’t do much to keep horses out of smoke, just don’t work. I find they tend to be quiet when it’s hot and smoky anyhow
Once the air clears just monitor them and get back to work slowly.
7 Likes
Some walking on the less bad days is ok because it will help the horse clear its lungs from the bad days’ junk. Making sure they stay hydrated also may help, and things that can reduce airway inflammation (omegas, MSM, spirulina, DHA type stuff) may not hurt other than some of it might not be that tasty as an occasional supplement, and nebulizers are expensive if you live somewhere they this is kind of a fluke thing. It will take horses longer than humans to recover from the smoke, and so you may want to stick to walking or light walk/trot for a few weeks. Not everyone does that and some horses appear to manage ok. I have one that is very bothered by smoke. When the smoke was thick here for a few days (and AQI was only 160-170 so not nearly as bad as we would get with close fires), I nebulized my horse and did light walks indoors. I also did not turn him out those days.
2 Likes
We had high AQI (250) last Tuesday. Mine showed no symptoms, but I waited 4 full days of good AQI readings to do light riding. Part of my thinking on waiting a few days before riding was based on a UC Davis study from the CA wildfires. He seemed fine after the two rides I’ve had.
Will be interested in seeing some guidelines. The UC study recommended 4-6 weeks recovery (no riding) following extensive exposure with symptoms of coughing, runny nose, and teary eyes. Mine had none of those.
Was it just one day with the higher AQI? If so, and with no adverse reaction, I think he’d be fine now.
Tuesday was high the couple of times I checked, Wednesday and Thursday were low/acceptable at the times I checked.
I thought it was prudent to just wait a few extra days to let them clear out anything that might have entered into their lung tissue.
You’re right, it was probably ok. However, our area is not actually monitored, values are estimated based on monitoring stations that are not that close. I also didn’t have enough data (i.e. time points for the entire week) to know what their actual exposure was.
1 Like
We had the smoke REALLY bad about a month ago or so. As in, barely 1/4 mile visibility it was so thick. I’ve never seen anything like that in my life.
I did not exercise my horses at all for a good 5-6 days. Of course, they’re standing out in it in the pasture but I wasn’t about to go make them work in poor air quality. I noticed some extra snotty noses afterward but mine didn’t seem to have any long lasting effects.
Except … my 17 year old gelding bled after his barrel run a couple weeks later and he’s never bled in his life. I wonder if it was related …
And my 7 year old mare has developed some respiratory issues, but that had popped up BEFORE the smoke arrived, but I’m not sure if it contributed after or not.
Kind of impossible to know.
1 Like
