Treatment & recovery

Treatment of IAD is part environmental and part medical. Your vet will advise you to try to reduce dust, pollen and mould spores as much as possible in your horse’s environment. This can be done by soaking your horse’s hay, changing his bedding if there’s a lot of dust in it and not mucking out around him. You should also adjust his turnout hours so he spends more time outside where the air flow and air quality is much better. This helps to address the underlying inflammation. If the IAD has developed into a secondary bacterial infection — which is what the endoscopy procedure will determine — your vet will prescribe a low dose of antibiotics. Recovery times vary, but a healthy horse with antibiotics and a dust-free environment should recover in between seven and 10 days. If the condition is chronic, this takes longer.

Worried about your forage?

Every owner knows it’s a bad idea to give your horse dusty hay. But if you’ve got a dusty batch and can’t avoid it, then soak or steam it to reduce the dust spores. Both processes have their pros and cons. Soaking hay in water wets any airborne particles to keep down the dust, but can increase mould particles if the haynet is left soaking for too long. Steaming hay is often more palatable for your horse, but you’ll need to buy a proper steamer if you want to be certain the steam is killing bacteria effectively.