The Coughing Horse

What do we do when we have a coughing horse?

The coughing horse. 

We seem to be seeing a lot of these lately. Horse continually coughing, maybe only once or twice others continually. Not all coughs are bacterial and indeed most aren’t. 

First part is to work out why. 

This will involve passing a scope up the nose and having a look inside. We can then assess for any physical issues and then down in to the trachea to see what we can see. There will often be a lot of tracheal mucous, now getting a sample of that is so important as it then allows us to know what is happening at the cell level. 

Treatment can then be tailored to either antibiotics- we might culture the sample. Or anti-inflammatory meds to reduce the inflammmation. 

We can then work on an environmental plan to reduce dust load to your horse. We still believe that often going there extra mile to diagnose the problem is so much more helpful for a better outcome.