Allergies/Heaves

Question
I have a horse who is a love. He is perfect in every way, except his breathing.
The vet had put him on Ventipulman (two different attempts at different
doses) as well as dexamethasone. The Ventiupulman did not help at all. The
Dexamethasone improved his breathing but I know it is not good to put
horses on this for the long term. His breathing is worse at times than others
but is never perfect. If he is just standing there he is fine but the breathing
can affect him sometimes when I am just leading him at the walk. He does
not live on hay in the summer and is outside most of the time (except on
harsh winter days and extremely hot summer days). I know that he also has
partial paralysis in one of the nerves that goes to his lung (as seen by the
endoscopy) but the vet said this is common in some horse breeds and is a
mild case, which should not be causing the problem to this degree. He is a
quarter horse.

Do you have any suggestions as to what to try next? I have a friend who has a
pony with heaves and he is on prednisolone for horses. Would this help?
Would I give it with the dexamethasone or does this replace that? Do you
have any other suggestions?

One more question: His hooves have been very healthy up until a month ago
when I started him on probiotics. It has also been very dry where we live so I
am not sure if it is due to the dryness or if it is anyway related to the
probiotics. His hooves are chipping at the edges and crackin.  What do you
think?

Thank you for your time and help. Any advice is much appreciated.


Answer
Hi Lulu,

Thank you for your question.  Dealing with a case of the heaves is certainly complicated.  Normally the heaves are brought on over years of exposure to contaminants of some sort (dusty hay, poorly ventilated housing, mycotoxins in the feeds) and is generally not detected until it is too late to correct the situation. As you know from your work with the vet, all you can do is work to control the symptoms and make your horse comfortable.  

As far as medications are concerned your vet is probably your best source of suggestions.  Dex is a steroid and should be used with caution.  Any time that I have used it, it was a temporary fix that the horse needed to be weaned off.  The only valuable suggestion that I may be able to offer is a more natural feed supplement that may help.  I have used grapeseed extract for horses in respiratory distress (I also use it as an emergency anti-histamine)...horses seem to eat it quite readily and it has no side affects so can be used long term.  I have always used the Basic Equine Nutrition version of the supplement, because I think they do the nicest job of processing in terms of both purity and price.

When it comes to your horse's feet, I would believe the dry weather is having more of an affect on the hoof quality than the probiotic...for two reasons.  First, I've used probiotics and prebiotics quite extensively and found that they generally have the opposite affect and improve hoof quality in horses that have crumbly feet.  Secondly, any feed that affects hoof quality (good or bad) impacts new hoof growth and takes a matter of several months of feeding before it shows up at the bottom of the foot.  If it is very dry where you are (either consistently or just this season) it would be a good idea to feed a hoof supplement to help strengthen the hoof wall.  Pick a supplement that contains biotin, zinc, and methionine as they are all required to make a better foot.  A trick that I've used during dry summers is to let the water trough overflow and create a bit of a wet spot.  Then when the horses come to drink, they can soak up some moisture from the ground.  I don't know if this is an option for you but it does work well.

I hope this has helped a bit.  Let me know if there is anything else I can help with.

Thanks, Corlena