Note: we’re going into the vet this afternoon to get to the bottom of this, just puzzling for now.
My dear ol’ grey mare (actually she’s just 7) seems to be developing a pattern of respiratory illness. I got her the May before last from a feedlot and she was pregnant with a nonviable fetus (unbeknownst to me) and had placentitis. She was treated with SMZs while pregnant and after she aborted the foal again, both long courses. It was obvious she’d been passed around and not cared for too well or treated very nicely. The following fall (October?) after I moved her to a new barn for training/boarding instead of my friends house with limited facilities, she comes up with pneumonia. I chocked that up to a poor immune system from everything she had been through. she recovered well with SMZs.
This fall she had an instance of choke, which I thought was reserved for old horses, but the vet thinks she bolts food. I definitely could have been more careful with my pellet soaking, but they were in water… she just bolts food and we need to be extra careful. The vet put on on SMZs for that since her lungs were a touch loud and just to be careful. This weekend she has a very mild cough, tiny bit of clear discharge from her nose. I put in a call to the vet to see her tomorrow, but then get a call from my barn owner saying her breathing is laborered and we need to get her in today. So today we’re bringing her in for some sort of tracheal THING to determine what bacteria is causing this.
So I’m just puzzling, waiting and worrying until then. I haven’t known horses that have had this type of issue, but maybe I just hadn’t noticed and it hadn’t yet happened to me. Puzzle with me or share how your similar story turned out. Tell me if there’s a glaring sign in my diagnosis case that explains it all. Let me know if you think she’s had too much SMZs in the last year and a half.
Other deets: she lives out all the time as were in the SE. has a shelter. Only gets hay and occasional alfalfa (SOAKED WELL SO SHE DOESNT ENDANGER HERSELF). I don’t ride enough, but we just do trails and the occasional low fences.