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Lisa Layman (Lisaml)
| | Posted on Wednesday, Apr 11, 2001 - 11:49 am: |   |
My daughter's 17 yr old barrel horse (Sailor) was diagnosed last month with heaves. We immediately treated him with Tri-Hist which completely stopped the cough. We also wet his hay (soaked for 2 - 8 hours) and am looking for a supplier for Alfalfa cubes. He is always in a turnout, never stalled in the barn. She does take him into the barn for saddling him though. We are just coming into the pollen season here in Michigan which our vet says may very well cause him to have the heave symptoms again, and this summer, he said the dust will also most likely bring on these symptoms. At this time he doesn't think Sailor has any permanent damage to his lungs.
After reading the postings on heaves my concern is are we just masking the symptoms by using tri-hist? We are making permanent environmental changes for him by wetting his hay and switching to alfalfa cubes. As for dust being an allergin, I don't know what to do for that being that my daughter races/trail rides him almost daily during the competition season and pasture is on the back of our 80 acres. Maybe I shouldn't worry on the dust/pollen problem until I know if that is a factor for him? How long can he be on tri-hist? Should we also consider using the prednisolone (spelling?)?
Thank you.
Lisa
P.S. Prior owner said he had cough during the spring but cleared up as season passed. I don't know if she treated him for the cough though. |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM (Dro)
| | Posted on Wednesday, Apr 18, 2001 - 6:43 am: | |
Hello Lisa,
No I don't think the Tri-Hist will subsantially cover up the symptoms, but it is important you address the primary cause. The why and how of this condition, the most likely causes, treatment, and how to prevent further damage are covered in detail in the associated with this forum. To get to it you can use the navigation bar at the top of this page and click on, Heaves & Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease then click on the articles title. Let me know if you have other questions.
DrO |
