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Sick horsey
Aug. 14th, 2007 08:43 pmNo, not me. Asher has what we believe are allergies. He often develops a cough this time of year, and I've thought it might be ragweed pollen, which is in full bloom here now. We have some mild antihistamines we give him and that usually helps until the air starts to clear.
He's been coughing and we've been dosing, but without much success this year. This evening it got worse, turning to a fairly obvious dyspnea. Tthat's like asthma in humans, where the horse seems unable to catch his breath and pants like a dog. Fortunately, not severe enough for him to start mouth breathing, because that means a real bad problem in a horse. Just nostrils dilated and huffing breaths at a fairly high rate (40 or more per minute, where the norm for a resting horse is probably 15-20) and you can see his flanks contracting at each exhalation. Gary noticed the muscle contractions first and thought it was colic, but it isn't. He's eating and pooping, for one thing, and colicky horses generally lose interest in food.
The vet is due tomorrow anyway for one of her regular visits, but we called her. She had us take his temperature and asked some questions, then decided it wasn't an emergency yet. She asked if we had any dexamethazone, but we don't. Then she named another strong anti-inflammatory drug, I forget which, but we don't have that either. She settled on a smallish dose of bute, which we do have, and told us to give him a cold water bath to help relax him. So we took him out and gave him a nice washdown with the hose while his brother Archie stuck his head out the dutch door and made worried noises. Asher didn't complain about the bath (they never do when it gets hot and humid, they obviously enjoy that) but he didn't like the bute and tried to spit it out. I think he got most of it down in the end. Went out to check on him a few minutes ago, and he's still panting, but looks less worried about it. And he is chewing down his hay as steadily as usual. I'll check again before I go to bed, but I guess he's OK for the moment. It would be nice if the temperature would drop, though. He's such a sweet boy most of the time, we can't help but worry. He has a heart murmur and might be inclined to congestive heart failure, though so far there have been no signs of any problem there. Anyway, the doc is going to leave us some other drugs for the first aid kit tomorrow, which will be good I guess.
Oh, and I discovered, to my embarrassment, that I've forgotten what I learned as a vet student 35 years ago about using a stethoscope. We have one, and I wanted to count Asher's pulse with it, but couldn't find his heartbeat. He's not that fat, so it had to be me doing the wrong thing. Unfortunately, I won't be here tomorrow when the vet comes. Hopefully she'll show Gary and he can correct whatever I was doing wrong.
It was clear and sunny this morning, but cloudy and ominous by sunset. I suspect we'll have more thunderstorms overnight, just as we did last night. Simon, my bearded collie, is afraid of thunder, and the only time he gets on the bed is when there's a thunderstorm during the night. He was up there, twitching like crazy, for about 40 minutes. I don't mind much, I like having him in bed with me, but it keeps Gary awake and he's much more sensitive to sleep deprivation than I am...
He's been coughing and we've been dosing, but without much success this year. This evening it got worse, turning to a fairly obvious dyspnea. Tthat's like asthma in humans, where the horse seems unable to catch his breath and pants like a dog. Fortunately, not severe enough for him to start mouth breathing, because that means a real bad problem in a horse. Just nostrils dilated and huffing breaths at a fairly high rate (40 or more per minute, where the norm for a resting horse is probably 15-20) and you can see his flanks contracting at each exhalation. Gary noticed the muscle contractions first and thought it was colic, but it isn't. He's eating and pooping, for one thing, and colicky horses generally lose interest in food.
The vet is due tomorrow anyway for one of her regular visits, but we called her. She had us take his temperature and asked some questions, then decided it wasn't an emergency yet. She asked if we had any dexamethazone, but we don't. Then she named another strong anti-inflammatory drug, I forget which, but we don't have that either. She settled on a smallish dose of bute, which we do have, and told us to give him a cold water bath to help relax him. So we took him out and gave him a nice washdown with the hose while his brother Archie stuck his head out the dutch door and made worried noises. Asher didn't complain about the bath (they never do when it gets hot and humid, they obviously enjoy that) but he didn't like the bute and tried to spit it out. I think he got most of it down in the end. Went out to check on him a few minutes ago, and he's still panting, but looks less worried about it. And he is chewing down his hay as steadily as usual. I'll check again before I go to bed, but I guess he's OK for the moment. It would be nice if the temperature would drop, though. He's such a sweet boy most of the time, we can't help but worry. He has a heart murmur and might be inclined to congestive heart failure, though so far there have been no signs of any problem there. Anyway, the doc is going to leave us some other drugs for the first aid kit tomorrow, which will be good I guess.
Oh, and I discovered, to my embarrassment, that I've forgotten what I learned as a vet student 35 years ago about using a stethoscope. We have one, and I wanted to count Asher's pulse with it, but couldn't find his heartbeat. He's not that fat, so it had to be me doing the wrong thing. Unfortunately, I won't be here tomorrow when the vet comes. Hopefully she'll show Gary and he can correct whatever I was doing wrong.
It was clear and sunny this morning, but cloudy and ominous by sunset. I suspect we'll have more thunderstorms overnight, just as we did last night. Simon, my bearded collie, is afraid of thunder, and the only time he gets on the bed is when there's a thunderstorm during the night. He was up there, twitching like crazy, for about 40 minutes. I don't mind much, I like having him in bed with me, but it keeps Gary awake and he's much more sensitive to sleep deprivation than I am...
