Recurrent Airway Obstruction

Lungs – Mucus plugging, chronic bacterial infections, pronounced inflammatory response, damaged airways leading to respiratory insufficiency, progressive decline in pulmonary function.

Since each horse is different they can show different types of symptoms. Some horses get many symptoms and others none. I’ve provided you a list that seems to be one of the most comprehensive I could find. This list is provided from an article by DVM Bentz Commissioner for the Kentucky Racing Commission.

“A horse doesn’t care how much you know, until he knows how much you care.”, said Pat Parelli. “You took care of your horse, so your horse took care of you.”, Said Elton Gallegly. I feel horse care is very important to sustain a happy, and healthy horse. If not cared for correctly, they may become very sick. Anthrax, West Nile Virus, Rabies, or Lyme Disease, are only some of the diseases that can occur. If not cared for, they may affect you as well as your daily life. Anthrax is caused by bacteria in the food, water, or soil, that the horse is around. This disease may cause death to your horse. This is why it is very important to change your horses food and water daily, as well as mucking out the stall, if you have one. West Nile Virus is caused by a mosquito bite, or by a bird. This may cause weakness, trouble in walking, muscle spasms, or death. Rabies is caused by a bite from an infected animal, or contact with infected saliva, from something that was already infected. Rabies may cause depression, agitation, aggressiveness, and your horse may slowly develop paralysis, or death. Lyme Disease is caused by ticks, and can cause arthritis, lameness, neurologic disease, eye disease, dermatitis, or death. To prevent these diseases from happening, you must

A horse stall needs to be kept clean daily to prevent illness. The ammonia from urine can cause respiratory illness and wet, dirty bedding can affect their hooves. Good quality hay or wood shavings makes the best bedding in a horse stall. Make sure the bedding doesn't create a lot of dust that will affect the horses lungs. Horses like to have access to a good quality hay to eat when kept inside their stall. Water needs to be offered at free will and the container should be kept against a wall in a safe

“Equine Influenza is considered one of the most infectious diseases that has been recognized in horses for centuries”(Smith). Equine Influenza has been known for its outbreaks and has been identified all around the world. Many people don’t understand how dangerous this disease can be. Horses can either get really sick or die from this disease. It’s not very common that horses would die from this disease, but it has been seen. As a result, equine Influenza is a very contagious disease that is difficult to treat and track.

He can feel his windpipe coated with the thick, red liquid and his lungs feel heavy. Exercise-Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage (EIPH) is common in racehorses. This disease occurs when a horse experiences excessive exercise and essentially is the result of burst capillaries in the lungs. In the University of Melbourne, researches did a study of Australian racehorses. Their studies revealed that 56 per cent of racehorses have blood in their windpipe, and 90 per cent have blood deeper in their lungs. This condition is difficult to determine, however, because only about 1 per cent of horses show outward signs of bleeding. In Australia, a horse that shows signs of EIPH is suspended for three months after the first offense, and is suspended for life if the horse shows symptoms a second time. Horses with EIPH in the U.S. and Canada are not allowed to race. Another common respiratory defect found in racehorses is inflammatory airway disease (IAD). This occurs not because of over-exertion, but the exposure to dust, allergens and, endotoxins. When spending 22 hours in a stall, the horses come into contact with all of these via bedding, feed, dust, and daily racetrack activity. This respiratory disease is second to lameness as far as prevalence, and causes the horses to have difficulty breathing due to their inflamed airway. Despite all of these issues found in racehorses, the worst is yet to come. Everything in life comes

When an animal develops typical symptoms such as cardiac, pulmonary or those of mixed form of the disease, African horse sickness should be suspected (CFSPH, 2006). The fever form of the disease can sometimes be misdiagnosed as an early febrile stage of AHS or early febrile form of any other equine disease since it is difficult to differentiate them (Coetzer and Guthrie, 2004). It is common to confuse the clinical signs and lesions of the AHS and those of equine echephalosis (Coetzer and Guthrie, 2004; Mellor and Hamblin, 2004; CFSPH, 2006). Differential diagnosis must include diseases such as equine echephalosis, viral arteritis, equine infectious anaemia, Hendra virus infection, purpura hemorrhagica, and equine piroplasmosis (CFSFP, 2006;

Make sure all fences are in good repair. Carefully check for any poisonous plants frequently. Most people do not have the knowledge to identify poisonous plants in their horse pasture. If you are not familiar enough with the poisonous plants for the area where you live to readily identify them, purchase a good photographic guide to poisonous plants. Inspections for these plants should take place often because seeds from these plants can blow in and sprout anytime.

These other sources of fiber for a hors’s diet come with one major problem, you still need hay to make them or give the horse something to chew on as a replacement. Straw is just hay without any nutrional value. What will we feed horses in this ever changing climate when we are no longer able to grow crops like hay? Most of the fields in the southwest of the U.S. are in areas prone to drought so what will

The incidence and recognition of respiratory diseases in horses has increased over the past two decades, and recent research has shown the need to pay close attention to the environment, to reduce the level of exposure to the disease-causing particles (Canada, H). If the horse is suffering from a viral or bacterial infection of the respiratory tract, or an allergic response to the presence of inhaled respiratory particles this can cause inflammation of the small airways, increased mucus production and bronchospasm, such as Recurrent Airway Obstruction (RAO) or Inflammatory Airway Disease (IAD) most commonly found in race horses (Woods, 2005). The equine athlete's world usually creates conditions where overexposure to respiratory particles is

In order to maintain a healthy and normal gut function, horses should be allowed to trickle feed all day long, ideally with forage provided ad libitum – restricted or insufficient fibre leads to increased risk of equine gastric ulcer syndrome (EGUS) (MRCVS, 2016)

Owning a horse involves a lot of work, but the joy they bring is worth it. Therefore, keeping them healthy and happy also requires extensive and attentive care along with dedication from their handler. In order to take the right care of horses, a handler should acquire knowledge about things concerning their horses, especially about ailments. One of the ailments that the handlers should be aware about are issues relating to stomach ulcers. The indications of this would include weight loss, anemia, abdominal pain, elevated heart rate, weakness, and melena. If the horse is showing any of the above indications, then it might be suffering from an ulcer. Thankfully, with the ulcergard for horses, handlers can prevent or reduce this suffering.

If you need to use an inhaler or nebulizer to take your medicine, ask your doctor how to use it.

Onset and severity of signs are dependent on toxin dose. A small amount of botulinum toxin (103 IU) may cause the onset of clinical signs within three to seven days. Affected horses may show only mild dysphagia and recovery time is about one week without therapy. Clinical signs progress rapidly in cases where large amount of botulotoxin (108 IU) is injested. Affected horses may be recumbent within 8 hours of toxin intake. Rapid development of clinical signs is a poor prognosis (Whitlock and Buckley, 1997). The first signs that owner notices are the horse’s inability to eat, drooling or profuse green nasal discharge and recumbency. Dysphagia or inability to swallow manifests as milk exiting the nostrils in foals during nursing, and it is

Internal parasites are silent killers: they are an important cause of morbidity and mortality in horses of all types. Unbeknown to an owner, parasites can cause extensive internal damage, yet present little to no clinical sings of a heavy infection. In terms of management priorities, establishing an effective parasite control program should be second only to supplying the horse with the necessities of good quality feed and plentiful water (American Association of Equine Practitioners, 2017). The plethora of publications describing recommended control measures are a testament that control is difficult and there is a wide spectrum of opinions regarding best practices (Corning, 2009).