does anyones else's horse get the heaves THIS BAD?!

[chinchillalover0927]

sorry i dont know if it is spelled heeves or heaves. my breeding stock paint gets them every year. they have gotten progressively worst over the last 5 years or so. I have included some before and after pics of her. This dramatic weight loss happens every year. She cant breathe, wont eat unless its night time or if its feed, and when it gets bad enough she lays down due to being to worn out and breathless. She is on every medication she can be on but it doesnt help anymore! The only thing that calms it down is shots which we only do to her when it gets to bad because we dont want to stick her with needles every day.

Anyone have any home remidies or something that maybe could help my baby out???
BEFORE

AFTER!!

 

[Riven]

Images have been moved or deleted...

I had a mare who had heaves. What kind of diet is your horse on?

Pasture is the best thing for a heavy horse. Keep the barn free of dust as you can. Water down your hay and use alfalfa cubes to keep the dust down.

 

[chinchillalover0927]

she is just on pasture. we are now giving her feed to help her cuz she wont eat

 

[sheltiefan]

Also make sure her hay is not dusty or moldy. I had a horse with it long time ago and the vet told me that and she also would prescribe meds for her

 

[chinchillalover0927]

her hay is dust it sits in the barn .... but ive been giving it to her cuz its all she will eat

 

[starleomach]

try hosing the hay down with water when giving it to her it will keep the dust down. Unfortunatly there is no cure for heeves

 

[chinchillalover0927]

ok ill start that tom and hope it helps. here are her pics

 

[saphire]

my, this must be heartbreaking everytime this happens.

 

[Riven]

Have you had her teeth checked and had her checked for a parasitic aneurysm as well?

What is in the pasture? I'm not seeing any grass behind her, it almost looks like alfalfa?

I would feed her a beet pulp and bran mash at least once a day. Is there certain times of the year that this happens? Is this a cycle that repeats or has this been a progressive issue?

You say it seems worse during the day? What is the humidity like there? During the day? During the night? There is a good chance it's not necessarily heaves, but pleurisy ( which hurts like a sob) in which case a steroid would help. Eventually scar tissue can build up from respiratory issues compiling the pain.

 

[mercynursie]

My old gentleman has trouble too. Like everyone else said,keep any dust around them down.If she'll eat hay, there are two things you can try.First haycubes either alfalfa or forage mix(I use this one),you can even spray these with a little water if neede.The other thing I have been using this year I found at Tractor Supply,it's chopped timothy hay but it has a little molasses and stuff in it.It's not very dusty at all and again you can mist it with a little water. This is the stuff that alot of people take to shows/events because it come in compressed plastic bag like the shaving for stalls.I use beet pulp mash every night too.Also esp right now if your pasture is very dry,turn her out in it at night only so the that the dew will keep dust down.Before turning her out dampen her favorite rolling spots too.Hope something helps her a bit.

 

[Kalandra]

Have you had a vet out to check her over when she is going through this? That is some severe weight loss. How old is she?

Does it always happen the same time of year? If yes, have you walked the property to look for any plants that she shouldn't be eating but are growing? Could it be an allergy or that she is eating a plant that isn't good for her?

If you put her in a stall and feed her good clean hay and grain, does the heaving stop?

 

[chinchillalover0927]

no its worst if she gets locked in the barn. yes we called the vet out last year when we noticed that her blood was pulsing through her jugila(sp?) vain. Her heart couldnt keep up with her blood because she is having so much trouble breathing. This happens every year during the summer. Then she will go rite back to being fat like the first pic was. Its just normal grass then we put rie grass during that season. Her barn is loaded with dust so its not a good idea to keep her locked in there.

 

[menagerie]

sorry i dont know if it is spelled heeves or heaves. my breeding stock paint gets them every year. they have gotten progressively worst over the last 5 years or so. I have included some before and after pics of her. This dramatic weight loss happens every year. She cant breathe, wont eat unless its night time or if its feed, and when it gets bad enough she lays down due to being to worn out and breathless. She is on every medication she can be on but it doesnt help anymore! The only thing that calms it down is shots which we only do to her when it gets to bad because we dont want to stick her with needles every day.

First, I hope you've stopped breeding her. Second, why would you not give daily shots if it's the only thing that helps?

no its worst if she gets locked in the barn. yes we called the vet out last year when we noticed that her blood was pulsing through her jugila(sp?) vain. Her heart couldnt keep up with her blood because she is having so much trouble breathing. This happens every year during the summer. Then she will go rite back to being fat like the first pic was. Its just normal grass then we put rie grass during that season. Her barn is loaded with dust so its not a good idea to keep her locked in there.

Why is her barn so dusty? I would think with her issues, steps would be taken to keep her area dust free. So you are saying that the summer is almost over, she's in bad shape and she hasn't been seen by a vet for this condition this year? If she were my horse, she'd be having the daily shots and anything else she needed to get through this.

 

[Riven]

Breeding stock refers to a paint horse with solid coloring. For example a paint bred to a quarter horse, the offspring can't be registered as a quarter horse, but if they have white they can be registered as a paint, if not they are "breeding stock" paints, refering that they are out of paint stock, but don't so color.

What I don't understand is why she's not on pasture. If she's on grass she wouldn't want hay, she'd want grass. So what is in the pasture for her to eat?

Have you tried aerosol products as well? I agree that not giving her the shots is not only affecting her comfort, but her health. It's like not giving an inhaler to an asthmatic person. For people who don't know heaves in horses is basically the same COPD in humans.

What meds have you had her on? Pred usually works well and is oral.

Here is a good article about heaves with suggestions on meds;
http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/asc/asc172/asc172.pdf

 

[chinchillalover0927]

yea she only was bred once and that was when she was 2 years old i believe. She is on free roam of her pasture but she refuses to go out in the heat to eat grass so i feed her hay and feed during the day and she can eat grass at night if she would like to.. The vet does not need to be called out. He was called out last year and was given shots and told that there was nothing more that could be done to just hope for the best...the heeves has NO CURE, you can only try to help the condition. We went and picked up her shots yesterday. Im not sure what all meds she is on. She is on them every year. She doesnt need to be seen by the vet because he knows whats wrong with her and the condition she is in. Last year was her worst year and it seems that this year is actually better than the last. She has a pink med that is like 200 for a little bottle that i give her 10cc's of , she is on a clear med that she gets 10 cc's of. Also she gets these pink pills that are crushed up and mixed in with the liquid oral medications. She also got two shots that we will be giving her as soon as my mom comes home.

her barn is dusty because it is a barn....
we would need to tear it completely down, concrete and rebuild the entire thing to not have dust in it. Also would need to put an ac unit in it so that she doesnt have a heat stroke......

 

[greychins]

I know nothing about horse care, but I have to say... I find it hard to understand how someone doesn't know what meds one of their animals is on. If I were you, I would call the vet and find out. Just for personal information, I would want to know.

I make sure that if any of my animals is on a med, I know what it's called (or have it written down) and at least vaguely what it does or how it's supposed to work, so I know what to look for if there was a bad reaction or something could go wrong.

For the barn... is there no way to make the barn less dusty? I mean yeah some barns are dusty... but I've been in some that are relatively clean and aren't all that new... there must be some way they do it. This may be an insane suggestion, so feel free to disregard if it is, but would it be possible to somehow plug in an air purifier like right outside her stall?

 

[Spoof]

Regarding the barn thing - southern barns are dusty. Very, very dusty. To provide enough circulation they are also open, so purifiers and a/c's are out of the question. Hard to remember we're talking about humid temps in excess of 115 with the heat index where shade provides little relief.

There are two ways to relieve a southern horse with heaves; move it north or put it down.

Some are so bad no amount of drugs will help. My friend just shipped hers off to Pennsylvania to a friend. It was that or she was going to die of starvation, a perfectly healthy 7 year old! Her heaves got to the point she was going down frequently.

Heaves and lack of sweating are huge issues here.

Please be very careful wetting the food, it makes it more likely to stick and then they choke when they heave and go down. Beet pulp in particular, though if you make it like soup it'll alleviate that. It's hard to get nutrition in them in that state.

She doesn't look as bad as some I've seen, but her body condition is pretty poor.

The stuff that looks like alfalfa is weeds. Her pasture, while full of weeds looks pretty sparse on the grass.

 

[chinchillalover0927]

oh she has plenty of grass , she has a cery nice size pasture... we own 20 acres. she has her own pasture and barn rite behind the house. Im glad you stepped in and let people know that its not me neglecting my horse but it just is really that bad even with vet help.

My mother can tell you every single medication she is on. I do not know because i dont have to go get them for her or pay for it or anything so i just simply give her whatever my mom says she needs. My mom always talks to the vet about her meds, not me so im sorry that i dont know what shes on . I promise we are taking the proper steps to help her. Her shots were given today but i dont want her to become dependent on them if they can cause side effects and health concerns later on.. If that makes any sense to you all ... The weather is starting to cool off and she should get better soon.

 

[cremellomare]

You said the vet hasn't been out in a year correct? She needs to be seen, heaves can change and she may need something different.

When were her teeth done last?

What kind of feed is she on? She probably needs to be on a senior feed with all the good stuff in it. Wet the hay down or feed hay cubes if her teeth can handle it.

 

[Megan]

I understand barns are dirty, and can be different in the south. However can you get down there and TRY to clean it an get rid of the dust?

Hard..however we've been doing it the past year now. My fiance's family used to have a nice size herd of pig and beef cattle. They got out of it a few years back, and when they did the barn just sat. Didn't clean out the rooms/barns. We've been working on restoring the old (100+ yr) barn. We now have 3 of the 6 rooms in the barn cleaned, spider webs removed, most of the old pig stalls cleaned out. It has made a WORLD of improvement in the barn. There is MUCH less dust--even with 400+ bales of hay in our loft, etc.

Try taking a weekend getting in there and cleaning good.. It's a barn, but take out the old power washer and go to town. You'll be amazed by how much it will help with the dust and dirt... Sure it will only get dusty again eventually--but at least you are trying.. If it works--keep up with it. If it doesn't work, then don't bother anymore.

Our barn may not be a top notch barn... However from what it looked like this time last year... It's amazing.