COPD - chronic pulmonary obstructive disease

From: Grant

Dear Jessica, horse sense is a real godsend, my wife and I read it religiously. In fact, we've cancelled most of our horse magazines, we get better information from you, and we can live without the ads and cute stories about rich riders and their show horses. I have a question about our gelding; we brought him from Wyoming with us when we moved to the Midwest last year. We thought he had adjusted just fine even though he went from a 150-acre pasture to a stall. We ride him every day, or I should say we were riding him every day. A few weeks ago he started to cough and we figured he had picked up a virus from some other horse, this barn has horses in and out all the time. But the cough won't quit, and he seems to have trouble breathing. We called the vet and he says he'll be out on Monday and it sounds like COPD. What I want to know is what exactly is COPD and is it similar to what we called "heaves" in Wyoming? It seems to me I remember that heaves isn't curable. I'd hate to lose this horse. The vet will be here on Monday and I don't want to be sitting there without a clue about what he says to me. Can you help? Thanks Jessica, we're devoted fans.

Sorry to hear about your horse -- I've been there, and it's no fun. COPD is a nasty disease, very similar to asthma or empysema in humans. I can't tell you what the vet will say about your particular horse, but I can certainly tell you something about the disease, and about the management issues that will involve you and your wife.

COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is often called "heaves". Old-time horsemen called it "broken wind" -- as in, this horse is (or is not) "sound in wind and limb". A horse with COPD is NOT "sound in wind."

It's almost always a disease of stabled horses, not outdoor ones. That's because it's usually a reaction to organic dust allergens of the type commonly found in barns. The horse becomes hypersensitive to these dust allergens. It usually starts with moldy hay -- molds and mold spores are particularly bad. Horses can also have this reaction to alfalfa hay -- they actually become allergic to it!

There are other factors that can push a horse over the edge into COPD: sometimes a virus will bring it on, and it doesn't have to be anything huge, evil, and exotic, just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, common or garden variety virus. ANYTHING that challenges the horse's respiratory immune system can cause trouble, because then the horse's resistance to disease is lowered, and it's easier for it to develop COPD.

Having said that, it's very much a management issue -- and if you can contrive to reduce your horse's environmental allergen levels, you may be able to get the COPD under control. You'll have to work closely with your veterinarian on this, and you'll need to listen to your horse! Don't assume that something will work because it worked on another horse somewhere else, or even another horse on the same property. Every horse is different, every horse's ability to tolerate allergens is different, and environmental allergens that are well below the tolerance level of horse X may be well ABOVE the tolerance level of horse Y. So listen to YOUR horse -- literally. And watch him. There are some drugs that may help initially, but over the long term, it's management that will determine your horse's future.

Your vet will probably suggest some or all of the following:

1) If the horse is indoors, get him OUTdoors -- all the time. If you keep bedding in the run-in shed, be sure to use shavings, not straw.

2) Whatever you feed him, put it on the ground. Grain, hay, pellets, whatever -- it goes in a feed pan ON THE GROUND. Your horse doesn't need any more challenges to his respiratory system.

3) If you feed him alfalfa, change to grass hay; if you feed him grass hay, soak it; if you already soak the hay, you may need to change to a pelleted feed.

4) If his field and especially his run-in shed is downwind of your hay storage area, move him where he can be UPwind.

5) Stay current on your horse's shots -- he needs his vaccinations. COPD and other diseases can go around and around with each other -- every challenge to your horse's respiratory immune system puts him in more danger of developing COPD; COPD weakens his respiratory system and makes him more susceptible to the various diseases that fly around... by keeping up on all the vaccinations that your vet recommends, you'll give your horse a better chance of resisting COPD and the damage it causes.

6) Monitor your horse closely! If he seems okay but is getting thin and less interested in his feed, you have a problem, and your vet will need to know ASAP. Let your horse tell you how he feels. He will. Know his normal TPR, so that if and when you find him with an elevated respiratory rate, you will know exactly how much it differs from his normal rate. Know the typical posture of a horse suffering from COPD. It's recognizable if you know what to look for, like the round-shouldered posture of chronic asthmatic humans. A horse suffering from COPD will stand still, head down, trying to breathe: you'll see flared nostrils and you'll notice that the horse is WORKING to force the air out of his lungs. If you're close enough, you may even hear wheezing. If, when your horse sheds his winter coat`in the spring, you see a new, strange-looking "heaves line" on each side of your horse, between his flank and thorax, you'll know that he's been struggling hard to exhale for quite some time -- long enough to build up that extra ridge of abdominal muscle.

It sounds impossible to keep a horse dust-free -- but it often IS possible to manage a horse with COPD. Sometimes, just moving outdoors and eating off the ground is enough. Sometimes it takes more management, and sometimes it takes medicine -- and you definitely need your vet to work with you closely on this. Good luck!

Jessica

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