FIRST RESPONSE
When your horse has to work to breathe, call the veterinarian--then take steps to make him more comfortable.
Heaves flare-up: When your horse has to work to breathe, call the veterinarian---then take steps to make him more comfortable.
Your horse’s heaves have been under control for months. By paying careful attention to his environment you’ve kept him breathing freely, even without medication. But a single dusty flake of hay, missed during the rush of evening feeding, was enough to trigger a flare-up. A few coughs at the beginning of your ride were the first clue and now, hours later, you’ve found your horse standing in his pasture, working so hard to exhale that you can see his abdominal muscles bulge.
Technically known as recurrent airway obstruction (RAO), a type of equine asthma syndrome, heaves is an inflammatory reaction to inhaled dusts, molds or other allergens in the horse’s environment. Exposure causes the airways to swell, constrict and clog with excess mucus, making exhalation more difficult. RAO typically affects older horses, and while the disease cannot be cured, you can take steps to manage it and keep your horse’s airways healthy. Measures to reduce the dust in a horse’s environment--such as wetting or steaming the hay, using low-dust bedding and increasing turnout time---can help keep heaves under control. But sometimes even the best efforts cannot prevent a flare-up. When one
occurs, it’s time to call the veterinarian. But as you wait, you’ll want to try to make your horse more comfortable.