Collapsed Trachea

[Barbie]

[SIZE=12pt]Hi all-[/SIZE]

Well, today my 12 year old stallion, Lowrey's Lil Candyman was scoped by Dr Porter of the University of Florida up at Surgi-Care in Brandon and was diagnosed with a collapsed trachea. I know this is not a good thing and will ultimately shorten his life. His symptoms, which usually only appear when he is excited or running, are honking, some coughing and a definite difficulty getting his breath at that time.

My question to you all is - have any of you had this with any of your miniatures? If so, what did you do? Right now, Dr. Porter suggested I take a little weight off of Candyman and also limit his excitement. I'm going to clip him in the next couple of weeks as the heat seems to aggravate him and I can blanket him when necessary. He is usually a really calm stallion, so that is a good thing. He also has a really tiny herd of two mares as I can hear his breathing already this spring.

Any information or help will certainly be appreciated as he is an absolute doll and I want to do whatever I can to keep him comfortable.

Barbie

 

[Hosscrazy]

Barbie -

I had a gelding with a weakened trachea - it had not yet collapsed, but in time it probably would have. My vet's recommendation at the time was to see if the condition worsened and if so, there is a surgical procedure where a small stint can be inserted into the trachea to keep it open. Did your vet mention this surgery to you?

Best wishes,

Liz R.

 

[HGFarm]

My neighbor has two- an old stallion and a mare. This is not horribly uncommon in Minis. The stallion had surgery on his and it helped some, to lengthen his life anyhow (he is about 22 now) but surgery will not help the mare (she is about 18) This is a problem they are actually born with.

Here is a link to one article- if you go to the internet and search, it may give you a more broad idea of what is going on.

http://www.vet.upenn.edu/bellwether/v63/article6.shtml

 

[Manyspots]

Our friend Kay Haroldson of Aces Miniatures in Des Moines, Iowa has had a horse treated for this. I believe she is on the Breeders connect part of Lil Beg of you look under Iowa for Aces Miniatures. Lavonne

 

[Barbie]

[SIZE=12pt]Liz- the surgical vet did talk about the stint. She said she has done a couple in minis, but that it is very experiental. The stints are pretty small for this use.[/SIZE]

Lavonne - I e-mailed Kay to see what info I can get from her.

That article is interesting - shows that surgery can be successful.

Thanks for the info.

Barbie

 

[Lmequine]

I had a Shetland mare with a collasped trachea. She lived about two years after being diagnosed. She also made that weird honking nose when she breathed. She was not a candidate for a stint since the majority of the trach was involved. The heat of summer was the worst on her. I had her put down last year...she was 14 years old. She had became unable to stay in foal (fetus could not get enough oxygen) and she was losing weight. When we did the necropsy nearly the entire trachea was folded in on itself. The vet was amazed that she was able to stand and get around at all. From the research he was able to find it was caused basically from the cartilage breaking down, sort of an immune response gone bad in her system. He did not not know if it could be an inherited condition or not.

 

[Michelle@wescofarms]

We have a mare that was diagnosed with collapsing trachea 1 1/2 years ago, she was in the hospital for hyperlipemia, an underlying infection and a had a month old foal on her too. The vets felt it would be a waste of time/money with her condition/age to do surgery, so they sent her home after a week in ICU and really expected her to die they told me later as any attempt to wean the foal stressed her, but we couldnt get her to eat much. She didn't die, lived on a buffet literally in my backyard and is doing fine.

We don't make her run or do anything that will cause her breathing problems to worsen. She is in foal again so we'll see how she handles foaling/post foaling - any problems and she's done breeding-wise.

Thanks for all the good info - its good to see progress for this condition is being made!