Allie has been on the bronchodilator for 7 days as of Friday. Saturday we had some rain so I took the opportunity to ride while all the stupid dust was wet.
Under saddle she felt amazing. Everything was easy, her canter was astounding, transitions were amazing. She was on fire and made me miss riding her so so much. She hasn't felt like that in a long time, I felt like she was at a show she had that much presence and was a little bit wired for sound (in a good way).
As for her coughing, she did cough 5 times. Severity of cough was about a 4. I'm going to ride her again Monday/Tuesday then call the vet on Wednesday to see what she thinks.
I've been wetting down her hay and feed and I've even bought hay cubes to try as they aren't dusty at all. But we have had a stack of back burning going on the last few weeks (in Australia we burn all the bush around residential areas in winter as it is less likely to have a bush fire in summer if it's had a recent burn) and it's been so bloody dry so I'm not surprised at all that she is still coughing. I've started her on three days of 5ml of bute (vet said I could try that too) just to give her the best chance but I really think, for this first bad flare up, that she'll need steroids to calm everything down.
In other news I've been riding a friend's thoroughbred for her while she recovers from falling off and being stepped on (ouch!). His name is Prince and he's also recovering from some pretty awful owners who pretty much just thrashed him around. He's quite weak in the hind quarter and back so has trouble with balance and freaks out a bit when he's asked to do something without leaning very heavily on your hands. But, after just a couple of rides with me being very stern when it comes to being soft to the bridle and NOT leaning on my hands, ever ever ever, and he's doing so much better already. His owner hasn't had her own horse before and is a lovely girl who got him a little over a year ago and has spent this whole time getting him better. Hopefully he just keeps going from strength to strength. She's going to get some lessons from me and probably from Linda too once she's all better. I'm excited to see this horse in such a great home (we've known him for a long time, I used to trim him for an old owner about 5 years ago).
I'll leave you with some Prince schooling photos. He was a very very good boy yesterday. Both horses were. Just if I could get this bloody cough sorted I would love to get Allie to some dressage clinics or comps fairly soon. I'll look at jumping again once she's been in remission for a while. Things are looking a bit better today. :)
4 comments:
Glad that Allie seems to be doing better. The horse I had with heaves would cough about 3-5 times per ride but otherwise was fine. My vet said that as long as he wasn't struggling with breathing the coughing was okay.
Prince is very handsome. I see he's in a quarter sheet. The Canadian in me is curious about the temperature?
for reference, here it's about 12 degrees and the ponies are out without blankets and have fly masks on. I expect that it will warm up to about 20 and I shall wear shorts. ;)
To reply to your question in the last post, it took years to learn to manage his condition and part of that was accepting that I wouldn't always know what the trigger was so I couldn't always predict or prevent a flare-up. Sorry, but wanted to be realistic.
I am not a vet! But here is what I have learned:
The steroids are very important in reducing inflammation and keeping it down until the flare-up passes. The bronchodialator opens the airways (clears mucus in some types), which is important for immediate relief and rescue purposes. The two meds work in concert to provide comfort and quality of life. Allergies ramp up so the speed of response to treat is very important.
With my vet's guidance, I have to treat my horse about four times a year. The worst problem he ever had was due to a camp fire, so it sounds like you have a challenging environment on your hands.
Ah yes! Prince is recently full body clipped and it was a cold windy day on Saturday. About 11 degrees Celsius I think. We used allies quarter sheet on him to help with warm up and then just never took it off.
If Allie isn't clipped she winters without a rug unless it's pissing down with rain and wind. But I nor ally clip because she grows a huge thick coat that takes forever to dry and she sweats during the day if there's sun out (which isn't abnormal here, winters are very very mild. Normally lows of about 1 overnight and about 15-20 during the day. Never any snow and only occasionally frost. Your winter photos always astound me! How you guys cope with all that snow without complaint. :)
Thanks Val. I really appreciate your honesty. :)
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