Hi, i went to pick up my mare at thé trainer s barn 3 days ago. I rode her There and she was coughing while i was riding her. Brought her home and she IS still coughing when stabled and also in work. When in the stable she might not cough for two hours and thén cough for 2 or 3 minutes and then stop again. I noticed she will also start coughing when she eats. She IS eating normally and seems fine. I asked thé trainer for how long this was going on and hé Said that for a week now. Should i call a vet? Should i wait more days thinking maybe she got cold somehow? What would you do? Mare IS 3 and never had épisodes of coughing before. Tia
Could be a low level respiratory bug or could be the start of asthma/COPD/heaves from dust.
If there’s absolutely no sign of a respiratory illness I would go ballistic on removing as much dust as possible in her environment which could mean a new form of stall bedding, 24/7 turnout life, and rinsing her hay. Make sure she eats off the floor. No round bales.
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Heaves at 2 coming 3?
I think a horse could get a sensitivity to dust at any age. Not necessarily full blown COPD. Was there anything at the training barn that could have given more dust exposure than at home? Bedding, arena footing, hay, less turnout, etc. Anyhow I would go full out on dust suppression and give her a few weeks.
Consulting a vet is of course never a bad idea. But how much diagnostics do you want to do?
My mare was 6 and started a cough when I first took over her care and used a nice deep bed of pellets. It got worse and worse. I took her bedding away for a good 6 or 8 months and cough went away. I then switched to large flake shavings and she was fine for over a decade.
Since last summer, the occasional cough has returned. She’s now 20. We’ve had drier summers with forest fire smoke. I do plan to ask the vet next routine visit.
I gave my first horse a chronic stall cough by being so meticulous with fluffy bedding. She was in her teens after ten years in a stall. She never ever coughed when she retired to a field.
So I feel like there’s a wide range of coughing that’s about dust sensitivity that isn’t actually heaves or COPD yet but is a warning sign.
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My mare started coughing one week ago, she s been AT the training stable for 3,5 months and never cough so i don t know what could it bé, nothing changed but it s something that bothered there and also hère at home
Well, a call to a vet is never a bad idea.
They will want to run tests for respiratory illness, and if there’s no obvious illness, maybe tranq and scope lungs for chronic inflammation.
How do you know it only started last week? She could have been coughing for months? Would the trainer notice?
One week is not a long time to run through a respiratory infection or a reaction to dust.
Given my experience with dust and coughing in two horses, I would first do a real environmental clean up and give it a couple of weeks to resolve. But I have had horses a long time and am quite DIY 
I don’t know how much control you have over her living environment. My first choice would be 24/7 pasture turnout, obviously not in a sandy dusty dry lot.
What is her living situation feed bedding arena footing?
Does she have any other symptoms like lack of energy runny nose fever off her feet?
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Take her temperature and go from there.
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Id be doing at least twice a day monitoring of temperature, quarantine if at all possible, and taking as many precautions as possible with cross contamination. Coughing for minutes on end for at least a week would have me very concerned. Does the trainer take ample precaution with quarantining or is it a pretty constant flow of training clients and horses coming back from shows? I’d probably also call the vet even without a temp Tuesday morning to loop them in.
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I’d call your vet. You are describing quite a bit of coughing. Your vet can listen to her lungs, pull blood and yes, you want to be checking her for a temp.
Do you hear wheezing or any airway blockage?
Because it has continued on since she’s been home if it were me I’d call the vet.
P.S. I have a heaves horse and experienced repeated emergency calls while boarding. Very expensive. Since I got her home I’ve had no terrible attacks. She might cough once or twice here and there but what you describe sounds different from what I’ve experienced with my mare’s COPD/heaves issues.
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I Know because i Saw her 2 weeks ago and she was fine, she has plenty of energy and her nose is slight runny but really just a little
No, no Airways blocage, perfectly fine for thé rest.
Yes it s a Big training place. My concerne IS more if that could be astma or heaves but she breath normally otherwise and i thought that heaves would bé more on an older horse
In my experience horses in stables get coughs often. I know a horse that’s about 6 or 7 I think who needs her hay soaked and has a nebulizer for asthma. Also low level respiratory infections can run through barns. If you want a diagnosis call your vet
And her temp is normal? Here’s another idea. What about wetting down her hay for now? I have hot water and do a cheap steam for my horses sometimes and they love it.
Like others said, anytime any of us has a cough we want to avoid irritants. Reduce dust with a spray hose on her bedding too.
Was she stalled in an arena?
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Yes température IS normal, no she has a Big stable in a barn with good ventilation and horses never cough there, but she started coughing AT thé other barn at thé training stable, so thé initial problèm Comes from there.she also eats grains but fussy on Hay, maybe because AT thé older barn Hay was better or because of the change. I ll call the vet tomorrow.
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If you bring the vet out and you/they want to rule out heaves/asthma don’t do the blood test. It has many false positives. The gold standard is a skin test done by a dermatologist.
Way back one of my vets did the blood test and later I had a skin test done and compared the results. Pretty surprising. I did learn through the skin test she has many allergies and it’s helped me since then. I sent her to the university and they did the lavage etc and found no scarring or respiratory infection.
She’s not stalled and keeps me super clean - few hay strands trapped under things to decay - big trigger. When I notice any expanding ribcage, labored breathing what works so well for her is Respire by Horse Tech. I give her two scoops in a syringe and it stops what’s brewing. It has spirulina which is known to help with allergies, jiagoliean (sp?) which opens their veins or something like that, and MSM was it? Anyways, for us it works.
I often water down down the lean area and the bedding if it’s windy.
In this book, with a cough they talk about fever - flu and pneumonia. They also talk about COPD/heaves/asthma.
I hope this helps you.
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Allergies can happen at any time and can manifest as heaves.
My daughters mare started with just a random cough here and there. Then had coughing at the beginning of her ride, then occasionally while eating ( grazing ) and finally a full blown heaves episode.
We had the vet out, he examined her thoroughly, diagnosed and we gave her the required treatment( lasted 3 weeks), hay soaked etc… Once the issue resolved and Winter came we found we no longer needed to soak her hay and she has never coughed again in 4-5 years now.
I would have the vet out and hopefully you can find out and treat the issue for good.
Would definitely have the vet out. Of course it could be any (or none) of the things listed here, but I got a front row seat last year to my friend’s experience with her gelding when he had a cough that came out of nowhere. Totally healthy, no respiratory issues or history. End of November we went out to ride one day and he coughed a few times during the ride, which was odd for him but it wasn’t overly concerning. It quickly escalated over the next few days and by the time she got him to the vet, he scoped with pneumonia. He didn’t even present with a real fever, was eating normal, etc. We still don’t even really know how it evolved. Anyway, none of this is to scare you, but for me personally, a cough will never just be a cough.
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And how did your Friend treat it?
Pneumonia typically requires a lot of antibiotics. And a lot of rest. It’s dangerous in horses.
How far did the horse travel back home and what was the travel setup like? I knew a horse that got a horrible cough for months after riding in a trailer with a musty hay bag in her face. Not my horse, not my place to recommend treatment, but it’s a known cause of mechanical pneumonia (triggered by particles in the lungs not bacteria originally).
