breeding COPD mares

[HorseyGurl22]

My mare is 14 years old and has the early signs of COPD or heavse (coughing and heavy breathing). She use to be used as a brood mare and produces nice foals so my goal when I bought her was to breed her, then all the coughing started.

I was wondering if anyone else has a horse with COPD and what you are doing about it. Also, if you have a mare would you or have you bred her? If so, do you think it was too hard on her?

 

[wwminis]

[SIZE=14pt]Yes, we have a mare with COPD and we retired her this year at 16! She foaled a beautiful colt this spring, but the nursing almost did her in! You can use Ventapulman to help them breath, but not while they are in foal! It will cause a bred mare to abort! Azium also is great for COPD, but none of the meds should be used for extended periods. My advice to you is to retire your mare and let her be a baby setter! There are so many good brood mares out there, so why take the chance of losing your mare and foal![/SIZE]

Bill

 

[Ashley]

Nope, while we had a mare who had it. She loved being a mom and was a very good mother, but the stress and worry of her kid made it to hard on her.

 

[HorseyGurl22]

These were my feelings too. I don't want to stress her anymore then I need to. I just wanted to see if may be someone else had experience with this.

We tried to Ventipulman with her, but after giving hera couple of doses her respatory rate nearly doubled so I didn't really feel comfortable giving it to her again. Our vet was talking about trying steriods, but I'm not a big fan of using steroids especially for long periods of time.

Is there anything else you guys have found that helped your COPD horses live comfortable lives?

 

[wwminis]

[SIZE=14pt]One thing that helps our mare is to keep her out of the barn and away from dust![/SIZE]

We also wet her hay to remove the dust from it! Put her on a good pasture as much as possible and avoid making her run very far! They can lose a lot of weight from breathing so hard so watch her close! We have doubled our mares feed this summer and fall and she's picked her weight back up to normal! The summer and fall months are very hard on COPD horses! Once the cold weather sets in your mare should start breathing a little easier!

Bill

 

[HorseyGurl22]

yes, she out in a grass paddock 24/7 (no barn built yet). I was looking for more information on the best way to soak hay to minimize dust.

I would actually like for her to lose a little bit more weight as she a bit of a chunker. I feed her a hand full of 10% complete pellet feed 2x a day. Is there anything else I should be giving her that would help?