10/11/2022
Making the long drive to Florida for the winter? Read this post for tips on how to prevent shipping fever!
With all of the excitement of heading t Kentucky for US Dressage Finals and Florida for the winter circuit, it is important to remember how to keep horses in tip top shape for the big journey so they can get off the trailer ready to compete. One common pitfall of shipping horses is pleuropneumonia—and it can cause horses to miss the entire winter season due to illness and prescribed rest. Pleuropneumonia, commonly called Shipping Fever, involves pneumonia with fluid that has accumulated in the pleural—or lung—space. Some predisposing factors to shipping fever include recent long travel, fast exercise (think racehorses or eventers coming back from a three day event), prolonged head elevation (being tied in a trailer without access to lowering the head), and other viral respiratory infections.
Pleuropneumonia is also known as shipping fever, because many factors that predispose horses to pleuropneumonia are present when trailering horses, so it is not uncommon for horses to develop shipping fever after a longer trailer ride. Horses are often tied in trailers without the option to lower their heads and clear their airways, allowing pathogens or debris to remain in the respiratory system for longer periods of time. Many people trailer their horses with shavings on the floor, but this can create dust particles that cause airway inflammation. Transporting horses causes a decrease in certain cells of the immune system that are responsible for clearing pathogens and foreign material from the airway. Since the lung tends to already be a relatively immune-suppressed organism, the increase in airway inflammation, decrease in particulate clearance, and the immunological and mental stress from trailering can set the horse up for an airway infection
Intense exercise, such as racing, causes temporary immunosuppression due to an increase catecholamine release, oxidative stress, inflammatory mediator release and activity, decreased secretion of mucosal antibodies and decreased function of other immune system mediators. Pairing an impaired immune system with factors that predispose a horse to a respiratory infection increases the risk of a horse getting pleuropneumonia.
Reducing the risk factors of pleuropneumonia is the best way to prevent it. While there are no vaccines available for pneumonia, horses that frequently travel and show or race are recommended to get vaccinated against certain viral respiratory infections. Decreasing the amount of respirable debris, like dust from shavings, and increasing the number of rest stops to let the horse clear its airways can also help prevent the accumulation of particulates in the horse’s airway. Keeping horses hydrated and properly fed are the biggest foundations of building a strong immune system to combat shipping fever.
Some horses stop drinking on trailer rides and can sweat out vast quantities of highly necessary electrolytes without adequate replacement. EnviroEquine’s Electrobalance in paste form can be given on the go, no feed required! For those that prefer daily electrolyte feeding, Electrobalance also comes in a granule form that is easy to add to feed. The ElectroBalance works to replace the electrolytes lost during intensive exercise, sweating from stress (like shipping), and provides muscle support via oxidative stress damage management with Vitamin E. Giving electrolytes before, during, and after shipping ensure that a horse is receiving proper minerals and water throughout the stress of shipping, helping bolster their immune systems.
