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Original poster

Horse breathing very fast?

38 replies

Pleasedontdothat · 22/07/2020 20:24

Any ideas what this could be? DD’s horse moved fields last week and since the first 24 hours or so he’s suddenly started breathing much faster than normal. The bet happened to be on the yard soon after it started and had a look at him and thought it was probably tummy ache from eating too much grass. His lungs and airways all sounded fine, no temperature, heart rate a bit faster than normal but not crazy, he seems perfectly happy and is moving beautifully - no signs of lameness or soreness anywhere. He’s pooing and weeing normally (poo is definitely green grass poo but isn’t sloppy) but he is farting a LOT ... we’ve kept him in a couple of nights since and he’s been fine in the mornings when he gets turned out. However, he’s been out for the last two nights and the breathing’s not getting any better. We’ve got him in tonight and tomorrow he’s going out in a bare-ish paddock and if there’s no improvement we’ll obviously call the vet back, but I was wondering if anyone’s seen something like this before?

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Original poster
Pleasedontdothat · 22/07/2020 20:25

Vet not bet ...

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MyBeloved · 23/07/2020 08:31

Does he suffer with allergies? Is he coughing at all?

Original poster
Pleasedontdothat · 23/07/2020 08:41

No coughing, no allergies that we know of. He seems completely normal - apart from the fast breathing. We kept him in overnight and this morning it’s much better, although not completely gone. DD’s going to take him for a hack later and see how he is then.

He’s usually the fittest, healthiest horse you could imagine - apart from a nasty cut sustained in the field earlier this year the only thing on his vet records was his vaccinations, so it’s just not like him at all ... he’s our first horse and the responsibility is very stressful!!

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pinkpolo · 24/07/2020 13:04

Could it be a mild colic? I've had a horse that came in one night from the field, was breathing fast and heart rate was up. Got the vet and it was a mild colic. One injection from the vet and he was thankful fine.

Hope you get to the bottom of it OP 🤞🏼

maxelly · 24/07/2020 13:54

The only reason for him to breath like that I can think of (if his heart and lungs sound fine and he isn't coughing) is pain, and given the farting (!) it sounds as though his tummy/guts are the culprit. Like pp I'd guess colic (mild case).

It's a good sign the vet wasn't unduly concerned and that he is pooing as normal (constipation a v bad sign in horses as can indicate an impacted or twisted gut) - how is he today? I think I'd be inclined to get the vet back if not showing more improvement, just to get some painkillers for him if nothing else?

Original poster
Pleasedontdothat · 24/07/2020 18:29

We got the vet back out today as he’s still breathing very fast - normal respiration rate for him is about 10/minute and it was >30. It’s also shallow and very uneven.

Still a bit gassy but nothing she’d call colic - she’s now suspecting asthma, triggered by something in the field. He’s off work for a few days and is on medication (ventipulmin) and she’ll see him again on Monday by which time we’re hoping he’ll have started to respond to treatment

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MyBeloved · 25/07/2020 12:47

Glad the vet came back out, op. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery :)

Floralnomad · 25/07/2020 12:53

We have an asthmatic pony and the first occurrence was after a neighbouring farmer sprayed a field , none of the other horses were affected just ours . She’s only had a couple of attacks that have warranted a vet coming out and we’ve managed to cut back our ventipulmin use drastically by using Ventilate supplement daily . Ventipulmin is ridiculously expensive as a long term answer .

Original poster
Pleasedontdothat · 26/07/2020 07:21

Dd and I are going to take a walk around the field today to see if we can spot any potential triggers - it’s a huge field so this may take some time ...

Has anyone heard of asthma in horses being triggered by oak processionary moth caterpillars? His field backs onto a wood where some were found three weeks ago and I know they can cause breathing problems in humans

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MyBeloved · 29/07/2020 00:17

How's he doing, @Pleasedontdothat ?

Original poster
Pleasedontdothat · 29/07/2020 07:19

@MyBeloved up and down ... the ventipulmin is having some effect as at times his breathing goes down to 14/15 but then it wears off and it shoots back up to 30. It’s uneven as well - couple of shallow breaths followed by very long one. The vets are scoping him on Friday to try to pinpoint the diagnosis. He’s still cheerful but it’s obviously taking him a lot of effort as he’s lost all his spring grass chub. Dd and I are very worried

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Floralnomad · 30/07/2020 23:01

Good luck with tomorrow @Pleasedontdothat, hope you manage to get a diagnosis .

Original poster
Pleasedontdothat · 01/08/2020 14:12

Well that was a bit traumatic 😬. They’d warned us that he would cough A LOT but I didn’t realise how loud it would be .... they only managed to get a sample from his trachea as he kept coughing the tube out when they tried to go deeper. There’s some obvious inflammation there and the liquid came back cloudy which means there’s definitely something going on as it should be clear. We’ll get the results back in a few days. It seems to be being caused by something airborne as his breathing rate was almost normal when we had a couple of days rain earlier in the week. He’s started coughing as well (before the scope) which the vet said wasn’t surprising - she was more surprised that he hadn’t started coughing already! However, he seems really cheerful and everything else is normal - he definitely doesn’t look like a sick horse ...

Vet coming back on Tuesday and fingers crossed we’ll have a treatment plan

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Floralnomad · 01/08/2020 14:15

Well it’s good that they’ve found something , has anyone else on the yard got a cough ?

Original poster
Pleasedontdothat · 01/08/2020 14:51

Not currently - one of the mares had a flare up of asthma a few weeks ago (resolved now) but she’s in a different field and her stable’s in a different part of the yard

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Floralnomad · 04/08/2020 16:01

How is the horse now@Pleasedontdothat, has the vet come up with anything ?

Original poster
Pleasedontdothat · 04/08/2020 16:22

We haven’t got the results back yet - vet says either later today or tomorrow now ..,

He’s still very cheerful but breathing rate about 2.5 times faster than normal at rest

He’s got a new window in the side of his stable so he’s enjoying having a different view in the mornings before we get there. He’s going to have to go back into the big field later on in the week as there’s no shade in the medical paddock and he’ll be bored witless if he has to stay inside .. I just wish it would rain as his breathing was almost back to normal then

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Floralnomad · 04/08/2020 16:48

Where we are I don’t think there is any rain on the forecast for the next week , hope he’s ok with the very hot weather at the end of this week .

Original poster
Pleasedontdothat · 04/08/2020 20:29

Bugger ... they’re going to have to redo the tests - the lab couldn’t get enough cells from the sample so they can’t give us a targeted treatment plan with the info we’ve got. So he’s off to horsepital on Monday...

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Floralnomad · 04/08/2020 20:31

I hope he’s well insured , ours never were and I’m fairly sure I’ve paid for at least 2 new Land rovers for our vets over the years ! Good luck for Monday x

bearlyactive · 04/08/2020 20:42

Good luck OP, hope he is okay

Original poster
Pleasedontdothat · 04/08/2020 20:48

Thanks @Floralnomad - he is insured, thankfully... but as we only have a year before treatment for breathing problems gets excluded there's more impetus to get all the tests done quickly I think .. after years of completely uneventful vet records (basically just vaccinations and worming), this year he’s racked up thousands of pounds in fees with a freak field accident in April and now this .. I shudder to think what my renewal’s going to look like...

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Floralnomad · 04/08/2020 21:08

That’s what happened with most of ours insured for a year or so and then so many exclusions and such high premiums it wasn’t worth it . I think between our 5 ( 4 now deceased) weve had every ailment known to horse except the flu , although one did have strangles which is probably as bad if not worse .

Floralnomad · 10/08/2020 18:24

@Pleasedontdothat how did your horse get on with his tests today ?

Original poster
Pleasedontdothat · 10/08/2020 18:39

@Floralnomad it was all very efficient and he seems completely untraumatised by the whole thing.

They got both tests fine and the samples are being processed in the lab now so we’ll get the results tomorrow. The specialist vet said it’s definitely summer pasture associated asthma but the results will enable them to fine tune the medication. It’s looking like he’ll have a short course of oral steroids then wean off those and have a nebuliser for a few weeks. She also wants him to start back in work as soon as he’s on the medication - couple of weeks in walk, then building it up. It’s probably a combination of factors triggering the reaction but we may go down the route of allergy testing while it’s still covered by his insurance.

Apparently it’s been a particularly bad summer for equine asthma - they’ve had loads of cases in the last few weeks of horses like ours who’ve not had a problem in the past.

Dd is feeling much less stressed now and the vet was very optimistic he’d make a full recovery and he’d be back to jumping and competing again soon (phew!)

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