Dunsford & Shawyer Equine Veterinary Surgeons

15/05/2024

29/04/2024

Dunsford and Shawyer is an independent Equine Veterinary Practice based in Midhurst, West Suss*x. We provide care for horses, donkeys and ponies twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, within Hampshire, West Suss*x and Surrey.

We offer care on an ambulatory basis, whilst having the luxury of our very own day-clinic, with stocks, trot up and sand school, for more in-depth investigations.

What do we stand for and therefore why choose us?

- You become part of the 'D&S family' - Founded in 1999, the practice has built a reputation for high-quality care with a comprehensive, joined-up, family-doctor approach with clients and patients. We want to break down the 'client-vet' barrier, in that we can sit down with a cup of tea and discuss what we can do to help you and your horse, because we believe your opinion in this, is just as important as ours!

- The same vet, every time - We aim for our patients see the same vet every time. We believe having a good 'vet-horse' relationship is vital in understanding what is normal or not, for your horse. In extremely exceptional circumstances, you may see one of our covering vets, but in general it will be either John Dunsford MRCVS or Bridey Shawyer MRCVS.

- Kindness - We are strong believers at D&S that if you are kind to the horse, they will be kind to you. Whilst your horse is under our care, you can rest assured that they will be treated as one of our own, whether that at your yard or our clinic.

- Education - We feel educating our clients is a vital part of caring for your animals and therefore we aim to provide client talk evenings, educational social media posts and videos to ensure you know when the right time is to call us for help!

- Evidence based medicine - We are an open-minded and experienced practice who work with the latest developments and research within our work when looking to improve the welfare and outcomes for our patients.

- Prevention is better than cure - D&S strongly believe in the value of preventative medicine, and this is often demonstrated within our vaccination visits by including a full clinical examination and brief lameness assessment. An 'Equine MOT' if you like.
Additionally, we feel passionately in undertaking all our dental examinations with sedation - even in the best behaved horses! This is because we feel sedation is vital in ensuring the mouth can be thoroughly examined, thus ensuring any pathology is identified and treated as early as possible.

- Helping you, help your horse! - We feel so strongly about the importance of preventative medicine, that we are introducing a new charging policy for combined vaccination and dental visits, whereby the call out fee is capped at the cost of a local visit, regardless of your location within the practice area. This way we can make the vital things as financially possible, as we can, for you.

If our approach to veterinary appeals to you, please call our office to register your interest with Jo, our lovely office manager - 01730 810742.

15/04/2024

Vaccinations

It has come to our attention that our reminder service for vaccines has not been working as we expected. Although it is the client's responsibility to monitor when their horses are due, we apologise for this, as we know how useful these reminders are to you.

To be up to date, your horse should receive an Equine Influenza vaccination every year, and a Tetanus every other. Unfortunately these rules are very strict and if you miss the vaccine even by a day, your horse may not be covered and a re-start course would be required.

Please check your passports to ensure you know when your vaccinations are due, and call us on 01730 810742 if you need to check a date or book in to see us!

Thank you, Bridey

30/03/2024

Easter, Spring, and Asthmatic horses

Today, finally, things have started to look like Spring is arriving, and with Spring comes the changing priorities for how we manage our horses. Now that the driving rain has eased enough for us to raise our heads and take a look there are new leaves forming on the trees as well as blackthorn blossom and catkins on the willows. Catkins always mean airborne pollen, and for some horses airborne pollen means asthma.

Where we are, here in Midhurst, there were some long yellow hazel catkins to be seen in the hedges a month ago, but today there are willow catkins out all around us. Usually the weeping willows are among the first trees to come into leaf and the last to lose their leaves in Autumn. But there are many willows, and a lot of them like the Goat willow and the White and Grey willows are easily overlooked as they are often scrub and a bit shapeless, and as such are hidden in plain sight.

I have noticed over this last week a little flurry of asthmatic horses. Two of whom have had no history of asthma before although they are both older patients and as such are in a higher risk group for developing asthma. My daughter’s mare and another horse on the same yard as her are also asthmatic, and as such I keep an eye on the trees around them throughout the year. In general, neither of them suffer breathing troubles in the winter. And although there are many oak and some poplar trees around them I suspect that it is the willows which really set them off. On examining the horses this morning they are just starting to breathe a little faster, and a little more laboured while at rest. And on squelching across the field there are indeed willow catkins starting to appear in the hedge.

Summer pollen-associated asthma in horses is difficult to manage as the pollen is everywhere in the air. In the UK the native trees which are anemophilous, that is wind pollinated, are the Oaks, the Birches, the Hazels, the Alders, the Willows and the Poplars. They can easily pollenate between trees a kilometer apart and often further just by the amount of pollen in the air, so there is nowhere to hide. Also as with human hay fever, which is also an allergy to pollen, atmospheric conditions play a significant role in the degree of horse's exposure to airborne pollens each day. And patients may also be allergic to several different tree pollens as well as grasses and pollen from other anemophilous plants too. Some horses’ reactions to pollens are very distressing and in human terms would be termed as very severe attacks. For horses who suffer like this, inhaled steroids are the only really effective treatment apart from moving to somewhere free of the pollen or pollens which trigger the attacks. Unfortunately, inhaled steroids come with a price tag, whether that is with human type single-use asthma inhalers or the excellent veterinary ones which are now available. The best investment is probably to buy a Flexineb nebuliser. These recharge on a USB charger and use relatively cheap steroid which we can supply to clients. However they cost the best part of £1000 on-line although we may be able to better this price a little for patients. If you are thinking of buying one second-hand there are a couple of things to watch. One is that they come in three sizes and you need the correct fit for your horse. Also the heating element needs replacing every couple of years and it may be cheaper to buy it new all things considered.

It is in the nature of allergies to worsen over time, and an uncontrolled allergy may progress sooner than a controlled one does, as well as causing distress for the patient. Pollen-related asthma patients will always have an unexpected severe attack sooner or later, usually on a bank holiday or the day before you go on holiday. So it makes sense to have some inhaled steroid therapy to hand for your horse even if you do not need it on a day-to-day basis. Steroid tablets are a possibility for emergency use or where there is no other choice but there is a theoretical risk of laminitis and side effects with prolonged use. Other drugs like clenbuterol syrup or powder in the feed are useful but they are not enough to combat significant ongoing asthma or a severe asthma attack, and as such you do always need to have a steroid treatment to hand.

I would be very interested to see any comments from owners who have just started to see asthma again after a winter remission, and to know what if anything is bearing catkins within a kilometer or so of their horse. Look up Hazel, Alder, Birch, Oak, Poplar, and the several native Willow catkins so you can identify them and then see what you can find. Getting a handle on what sets our horses off reduces our own stress, as it stops it all being so frustratingly unpredictable and random. And it also allows us to plan ahead with effective strategies and treatments.

Below are two photographs of a Grey willow (I think!) seen on this morning’s dog walk, and two of the White willow behind my daughter’s horse’s stable, growing alongside a golden variant of the White willow.

Happy Easter to all.

John.

21/03/2024

I am excited to announce that Bridey Shawyer MRCVS is joining our practice this Easter.

Bridey is an exceptional vet who we were lucky enough to have had as our student during her years at vet school. After graduating she has worked in Equine practices in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight before her clinical internship at the Liphook Equine Hospital.

Bridey grew up locally and is settled in the area where her family have been clients of ours for many years. She has joined to partner me in taking our practice forward into the next two decades, and to safeguard our practice’s values, approach and thoroughness which mean so much to us.

John.

02/12/2023

NEW LOWER DRUG AND MEDICINE PRICES

As a contemporary independent practice we are excited about the future which we believe will be an independent one. Vets coming into the profession want to be able to make their own decisions and make their own contribution to the veterinary world. Six corporate companies now own three quarters of all UK vet practices and they own some of our biggest on-line pharmacies too. Independent practices do not have to worry about shareholders and can practice as they see fit even if doing so misses some opportunities for profit.

Despite corporate buying power our practice can now compete with the on-line pharmacies thanks to deals we have recently been able to strike with the drug companies. We are pleased to report that we can now supply most of the drugs clients have chosen to buy via prescriptions and can dispense these from the practice for less than the cost of buying them on-line. We can then also give the support and after care for our patients who we are dispensing for.

We will soon be announcing new structures for our visit, vaccine and dental charges but in the mean time if you are an existing D&J client with a patient on a prescription please call the office for the price which we now supply your horse’s medication for ourselves.

Dunsford & Jackson
Adam and John

01/11/2023

Spooky Horses

Dear All.

I originally posted this last Halloween but I thought I would put it put it out again as rider safety is something which always worries me and which is never very far from my thoughts. Not least in windy weather.

I have a friend with a yard who I have known for twenty years. When she was a girl she started a little book in which she wrote down the names of any horses she was lucky enough to ride. She still keeps the same book more than fifty years later and it contains well over a thousand names.

She has known and looked after a lot of horses. Yet when we were chatting recently she said that it has only been in the last ten years that she feels that she has finally begun to actually understand horses. This too is entirely my own experience as a vet. In a busy working day a vet can meet a lot of horses and clients, and always with a limited amount of time and the need to be somewhere else. And in this limited time it is often easier to interact with the client than with the patient. But if as a vet you do get an opportunity to form relationships with your patients as individuals it is, I have found, a wholly different experience. There is so much there in their behaviour and body language which are clues to their diagnosis and to and their level of comfort or pain. But as a vet you also need a trusting and open relationship with the owner, so you can comfortably discuss these things and how a patient can be helped within the client's constraints and means.

I imagine that for all of us we are strongly influenced by our early experiences with horses and their people. But we only have to watch YouTube clips of horses taken when we were young to realise that today things no longer look as they did then. Time passes, and the lot of horses, as well as of people generally improves with advances in medicine, housing, working practices and health. Children’s legs are no longer clamped in callipers, and we no longer recommend smoking as a desperate therapy for asthma. We have changed our collective understanding of, and philosophy towards many conditions as new treatments have become available.

But still things we assimilate in early life, and common things which are in plain sight are easy to normalise and miss for what they are. This is as true for young vets as well. When I first entered practice a lot of conditions such as Equine asthma and middle aged creeping lameness’s were either not recognised or were considered part of the normal landscape unless they were fairly extreme. And when I was a new vet the general bar for what was acceptable in Equine discomforts was very much lower than it is today. It is true that we can do so much more now. But that better attention to these things has become increasingly mainstream is a credit both to vets who have been able to spread the word without causing offense, and to owners open to new ways of looking at pre-conceptions they have held for fifty years. As with my friend, and undoubtedly as with myself.

Horses communicate all the time but sometimes we do not take adequate note or maybe we just don't complete the train of thought. Sometimes they choose not to communicate with us, but then that is telling us something too. With soundness we might ask how do we know if a horse is in discomfort? Well if a horse is moving in an altered way then that is to avoid a discomfort, or a perhaps a group of discomforts. Maybe he or she now favours one rein, or has started to over-reach, cast shoes or need brushing boots when they’ve never needed them before. And while discomforts are part of getting older for all of us, it does not mean that they don’t bother us, and sometimes badly. Add to this a possible stomach ulcer which are common in uncomfortable patients. And maybe a bit of asthma stress which the horse endures but we only know as an occasional cough, and some undiagnosed dental pain, and you get a horse who is about to lose it if there is just one more little thing.

These things can clearly be topics for discussion on where to pitch things with preventative and interventional veterinary input, welfare and Equine mental health. But looking at it in this post solely from a selfish human point of view, it is my experience that horses in discomfort are always more unpredictable and more dangerous. They have a heightened level of alertness, and in any given situation they are much more likely to overreact compared to a comfortable animal, sometimes with catastrophic results.

When animals are spooky people naturally think of eyes, or maybe just that it’s commonplace in some horses. But often the answer is pain or cumulative discomforts. Uncomfortable patients are tetchy, do not work well, may become reluctant to load or enter a school and become bad tempered and nippy. Our sport is fundamentally dangerous and people can become very seriously injured. And this can be just when encountering a tractor or a lorry in a country lane.

I guess my message is to always look twice at horses, and the second time with the comfort question in your head. This is clearly good for them, but it may also keep you and the ones you love safe.

John

13/09/2023

Dunsford & Jackson – Your Independent Equine Vet Practice

Recently, there has been a great deal of media attention regarding the veterinary profession, services and fees. We wanted to take this opportunity to address these concerns to our clients.

UK independent vet practices are increasingly rare. In fact, over half of all practices are owned by just six companies! You may not be aware but many of your local practices have been sold to corporates. Often the branding and looks of the practice are retained to conceal they are now owned by a corporate.

At Dunsford & Jackson, we strongly believe in the approach of an independent veterinary practice.

What does that mean for you and your horse?

We remain committed and consistent with our goals, aspirations, ethos and culture, without financial targets and shareholders clouding our commitment to our patients and clients.

We put the patient centre-stage and form relationships with our clients to provide excellent healthcare and welfare for their horses.

Our practice treats each patient with respect as an individual. We focus on our patient’s physical health, their comfort, their welfare and their mental health

We always seek to be friendly open and accessible. We believe that involving owners in their horse’s investigations and treatments is interesting and reassuring but also gives the best outcome for the patient. Because we are your independent practice that work closely with our clients, the best diagnostic and treatment are considered and designed for a successful outcome for your horse while taking care of your budget. We will provide you with excellent patient and client care.

We strongly believe in continuity in the care of patients, which is possible within our practice structure. We also aim to be focused and effective when patients have health issues and not let problems drag on.

We see it as it as important to effectively treat any causes of discomfort, pain and anxiety in our patients. Whilst being a patient welfare issue this also has a bearing on rider safety and allows the most successful and rewarding partnerships between horses and riders.

We are inviting new clients to joint our wonderful practice. Please call us to discuss what’s best for you and your horse.

Join us – make it your practice

10/06/2023

Looking out for each other.

Reducing the risks for older horses and their owners.

We have just had Dementia Action Week and it seems to be a good moment to be thinking about risks associated with the medications we prescribe for our horses. I was talking to a client who was saying how forgetful her mum had become, and that her mother now visits her ponies several times a day which she thinks is because her mother isn't sure she has tied the gate properly or given the ponies their tablets on her last visit.

Medications such as those in sachets probably do not pose such a risk. But tablet medications such as Prascend, which is a common medication for older patients comes as tablets in a blister pack and can become confused with human medications. There is a common scenario of an older horse owner who takes tablets every day, maybe several different ones. And of their older horses who are probably on Prascend. Add in to this some early dementia and there is the possibility of the owner accidentally taking the horse's tablets which are calculated for a half ton patient.

I think that we should all be aware of this possibility and collectively do all we can to anticipate and avoid this disaster. If someone in your family is in this position please give it some thought. We as dispensing vets are always pleased to know if a client has early dementia, if they or their family are willing to share that with us. Within our independent practice we can note and share this information, and do our best to look out for both our client and patient from our end.

John.

01/06/2023

Because we are coming into the hot months as well as the concerns associated with climate change, I believe it is important to discuss Exertional Heat Illness (EHI) and its associated fatal form of heat injury, heat stroke (HS).

This condition occurs when an individual is unable to adequately deal with the metabolic heat that it produces when being physically active resulting in the elevation of the horse’s core temperature causing damage to multiple organs.

How doe these conditions arise? It all comes down to thermoregulation of the horse. Thermoregulation is the horse’s ability to maintain its body temperature within certain limits even when the surrounding temperature is different. Thermoregulation is part of the greater process of homeostasis, which is a number of self-regulating processes the horse uses to maintain body stability in the face of changing external conditions. The horse relies of homeostasis and thermoregulation of its internal environment to remain healthy while disruption of these processes leads to diseases.

The horse’s normal temperature range is 37.5-38.5C (99-101F). The exercising horse is contracting various muscles in its body, which requires energy that is derived from stored chemical energy converted to mechanical energy. However, this process loses roughly 80% of energy released from energy stores as heat so may be regarded as relatively inefficient. The horse must have effective ways to dissipate this generated heat, otherwise, the raised body temperatures may be life-threatening.

During this work, the body core temperature increases as heat is generated and the horse’s blood system distributes the heat throughout the body. Hodgson and colleagues have theorized and confirmed via treadmill studies, that the racehorse has the highest rate of heat production compared to other sporting horses. In fact, the racehorse’s body temperature can rise 0.8 C per minute reaching 42.0 C. But what core temperature of the horse can it tolerate and not succumb to heat illness and mortality? The critical temperature for EHI (Exertional Heat Illness) is not known but studies have demonstrated that a racehorse can be found to have core temperatures between 42-43 C without any clinical symptoms. Currently, anecdotal evidence is only available suggesting that a core temperature of 43.5 C will result in manifestation of EHI with the horse demonstrating central nervous system dysfunction such as ataxia (uncoordination). In addition, temperatures greater than 44 C results in collapse.

I’ll let you absorb all that and the next post will be strategies to prevent and treat EHI and HS.

Adam

22/05/2023

FACT Check - PSSM

It is quite common that John and myself can be asked about PSSM and we are happy to have a discussion as there are many misconceptions and misunderstandings regarding this frustrating disease. We hope this post will help clear up any confusion with straight facts. A more detailed article that I have written for Horse & Hound will be available in the next week or 2 so look out for it.

Equine polysaccharide storage myopathy (EPSSM, PSSM) is a hereditary condition that causes rhabdomyolysis, also known as tying up or azoturia and presents as episodes of muscle stiffness and pain after exercise. This condition is known to affect breeds such as Warmbloods, Thoroughbreds, Cobs, Arabians, American Quarter horses, Dale Ponies, New Forest Ponies, and Heavy horse breeds. The s*x of the animal is not a factor in inheriting the disease.

PSSM is the abnormal accumulation of glycogen (the horse's stored form of glucose) in muscle. With PSSM, affected horses have 1.5-4 times higher muscle glycogen levels in their muscles compared to a normal horse. This accumulation ultimately leads to muscle fibre breakdown (necrosis) resulting in muscle weakness and loss of muscle. There are 2 types of PSSM that include type 1, which is caused by a genetic mutation and type 2, which also may be genetic but the exact cause is unknown.

Diagnosis of this condition with a thorough history and clinical examination. A blood sample is taken to look at the levels of specific muscle enzymes. Dunsford & Jackson regularly take blood samples to test for these muscle enzymes when we are performing a lameness investigation for our patients.

A genetic test is available for PSSM1 looking for the genetic mutation from a blood sample. However, this test can provide negative results despite suspicion of PSSM. There is no adequate test for PSSM2 but a muscle biopsy is recommended. The biopsy is only of value if the horse is older than 2 years.

Unfortunately, there is no cure for PSSM but many horses with the disease can be managed successfully with the appropriate diet and exercise programme. John and I will be with you and your horse every step of the way by developing the perfect exercise and diet programme to alleviate this disease and provide your horse good health and wellbeing.

If you have questions or wish to discuss further give us a call and you can talk to John of myself.

Adam

15/05/2023

Equine Asthma

There has been a noticeable little flurry of horses with laboured breathing and a cough over this last couple of months. We would have called this COPD twenty years ago and RAO ten years ago. The names have gradually changed for good reasons but they are all terms used for the same symptoms. That is a horse with a cough, laboured breathing, maybe some flaring of the nostrils at rest, a tight chest and a shortage of stamina at exercise. The modern name for this is Equine Asthma.

The term COPD was borrowed from Human medicine and stands for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. It shares symptoms with Equine Asthma but in the human COPD the symptoms are because the lungs have suffered damage. Smoking is the most common cause of COPD in the UK.

RAO stands for Recurrent Airway Obstruction. It was a term adopted in the nineties to allow thinking and research into the Equine condition to be freed from inappropriate associations with human COPD.

In Victorian times Equine Asthma was termed ‘Broken wind’ and in the day of working horses was considered a big economic problem due to affected animals being unable to do any further work. I am a little squeamish to think of the suffering of horses then, but as today’s welfare charities point out the survival of people and horses in developing countries are inextricably linked. The horse has to work or the people starve. But if vets can deliver the tools to help working horses people are keen to do so. In Victorian texts it was believed that 'broken wind' was caused by poor quality food and an over full stomach. But most interestingly they had already noticed by 1855 that 'broken wind' is also inherited.

Equine Asthma has now been accepted as the definitive term for this group of variations on a single condition. The term Asthma is also borrowed from human medicine but it is qualified for horses with the word Equine to underline that the Human and Equine asthmas are cousins rather than siblings. They have much in common but a few differences too. I think that it is good that we associate the two as we all know people with asthma or maybe have it ourselves. And as such we can instantly grasp the condition the horse has, and recognise the distress, anxiety and fatigue it can cause to the patient. And how even when the patient is not showing overt symptoms they are fully aware of it, and also how unrecognised or unacknowledged asthma limits performance.

So what is asthma and how does it vary with horses and people?

Asthma is the work of our immune systems. We live our whole lives surrounded with bacteria, fungi, protozoa, viruses, dusts, venoms, injury, and the threat of tumours. Almost unbelievably people can live to one hundred in this toxic and hostile environment, and often with very little trouble. This is made possible by our fabulous immune systems which have evolved through many millions of years of trial and error. The basic design is much older than humans, or indeed mammals. So horses and ourselves have very similar immune systems and as such we are both vulnerable to asthma.

Our immune systems use protein antibodies in cooperation with a variety of specialised immune cells to do their work. Different classes of antibodies have evolved to deal with different threats. They are called Ig-A, Ig-E. Ig-G and Ig-M.

Ig-E is thought to have evolved to deal with tumours, parasites or prehistoric predator’s venoms which were frustrating our ancestor’s chances to pass their genes on. Today when we and our horses live in environments which did not exist when our antibodies evolved we find that Ig-E can sometimes fixate on inoffensive everyday things. Similar situations have probably happened many times before, and each time evolution has fixed these ‘bugs’ in the system. But while we and our horses wait the few million years for evolution to sort it again we have to deal with allergic conditions like asthma.

Asthma is heritable, that means that if we inherit the genes for it we are at much higher risk of it. This is true of horses and of people. In asthma our immune system fixates on one, or more than one thing in the environment and engages with it as if it were a significant threat. Asthma causes the smaller airways to go into spasm and increases the production of mucus and immune cells in the airways. This combination causes the laboured breathing and the cough and limits how much oxygen we can use.

Immune systems are adaptable and agile. They are able to make their own decisions. Not using consciousness, but in the way that computers do with inputs and outputs. They store historical data about threats which is why vaccines work, and they reinforce their capabilities and resources where they perceive threats or trouble. In asthma immune systems install quick-response pathways to be alert to and engage with any further unidentified threats, which is why asthmatics subsequently become reactive to smoke, dust, ammonia from urine and such as well as the known allergens.

The common allergens which are responsible for the development of Equine Asthma are fungal, bacterial and pollens. Important secondary stimuli are smoke and ammonia from beds but can also be chemicals such as those used in disinfection. An important difference between human and Equine asthma is that Equine Asthma often has a middle-aged onset. This is significant as quickly developing asthma in a mature horse in work or competition is a considerable problem.

We know that the health of a patient’s microbiome affects the health and rationality of their immune system. Another Victorian observation or perhaps an obsession was that Broken Wind and flatulence were linked. This is quite interesting as many asthmatic horses are also flatulent today. It could be that horses with unsettled microbiomes are more prone to developing asthma. It could be that the laboured breathing which increases the abdominal pressure produces noisy flatulence. It could be that the stress of the asthma attack upsets the patient’s feeding and microbiome. In the past it was common practice to cut the a**l muscle on ‘Broken winded’ horses to allow the gas to pass silently. But contemporary authors report that the constant smell was more offensive than noisy explosions in the days of driven horses. If it also smelt bad it might suggest a mixture of all three. They also thought that poor food caused ‘broken wind’. But I think they were probably confusing inhaled allergens from poor forage with digestive causes. Although it may have been a double problem with both inhaled allergens and an unhappy microbiome. It is my experience that microbiome really matters in Equine allergies, and I favour cutting out all supplements other than a feed balancer, a joint supplement and a pre-biotic such as Baileys Digest-plus.

It has been long recognised that there is a summer version of Equine Asthma. We used to call this SAOPD which was Summer Associated Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Some Equine medicine specialists still favour the RAO name to allow room to embrace these various variations of Equine Asthma. These summer and spring reacting horses are almost certainly reacting to airborne pollen. Tree pollen is a spring issue and grasses are an early summer problem, and there is of course a big overlap in when these pollens are about. Recent research has suggested a link in some horses which react to skin allergy testing and in their asthma profile, this is exciting as if a link can be established in individual horses then tailored asthma vaccines may be possible one day. Research into and understanding of Equine Asthma is constantly on the move and developing, which is fantastic for both our horses and for us.

This recent wave of asthmatic horses is therefore probably mainly due to tree pollens, although a lot of stored forage is also getting very problematic by this time of year. And it is quite likely that these tree pollen reactive patients will also react to different pollens later in the year. I was interested last summer when a client with an asthmatic horse fed him some hay on the same day he baled it and yet the horse still had an asthmatic attack. It was in June and it was meadow hay. It is likely that the horse was reacting to grass pollen in the hay rather than there being many microbiological spores. The pollen will persist in the hay until it is fed even if that is at the end of the season and may also be present in Haylage.

Equine Asthma is established, triggered and reinforced by allergens and irritants in the horse’s environment, and addressing these practical and logistically difficult problems still has to be at the heart of managing what is still currently an incurable condition. Pollen allergies are particularly hard to manage but addressing other risks and irritations in the environment will certainly help. I think that as vets of today we need to engage with asthma in a more positive way than maybe we have in the past. I suspect that nearly all horses who have a little cough when they first start work or have some mucus sounds in their windpipe on examination already have some degree of asthma and that these should be wake-up calls for us. This is also true of the everyday ‘hay cough’. In general dusts affect our noses whereas mucus or irritants cause us to cough. Lessening the burden of Equine Asthma is to do with us understanding the condition, reducing their exposure to problematic environmental factors, a thorough veterinary diagnosis and effective medical treatment where environmental management has not been successful or enough. The most effective current medical treatment for Equine Asthma is unquestionably inhaled steroids, and this should probably be first line of treatment when the condition is diagnosed rather than the last resort when both owner and patient have become frustrated and exhausted. Equine Asthma is thought to affect over sixty percent of our horse population to some degree, but like so many other Equine health topics if we all become engaged with the problem we will already be most of the way towards sorting it.

The photo is of pollen laden birch catkins taken on a windy dog walk last week.

John.