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Reasons for Respiratory Diseases in Horses
Is your horse suffering from coughing, nasal discharge, performance loss, or even having difficulty breathing?
The reasons for these symptoms are diverse. Possible causes include infectious diseases caused by pathogens such as:
- Viruses
- Bacteria
- Parasites
Sensitive horses, a weakened immune system, and contaminated feed all contribute to infections. Often, acute respiratory diseases are treated too late or insufficiently, leading to recurrent infections or even chronic conditions.
These chronic, non-infectious disease courses can also cause the same symptoms mentioned above.
Don't Ignore the First Signs
Often, horse owners notice just a little bit of coughing. At the beginning of riding, a few coughs may occur. After the training, some horses may also show a little nasal discharge. However, these signs are often not just "a small cough" and "a little nasal discharge" but the start of a chronic condition.
Failing to treat these symptoms can have serious consequences. The "small cough" and "bit of nasal discharge" can quickly turn into a serious chronic issue. The course of such chronic respiratory diseases varies and doesn’t affect every horse in the same way. However, it is clear that constant airway inflammation will not only lead to significant performance loss but also a loss of quality of life for your horse. One of the worst cases is severe difficulty breathing, even at rest.
What Can Horse Owners Do to Support Their Horses with Respiratory Issues?
The answer always lies in a tailored bedding and feeding management plan.
Since the domestication of horses, they have relied on humans. The wild horse once roamed the steppes in herds, eating a variety of plant material.
Today's working horses are typically housed in open, free, or box stalls with bedding chosen by humans and are fed roughage provided by their owners. This means that the horse is inevitably exposed to more dust. It is up to the horse owner to keep the horse healthy, which also includes creating a dust-free environment for them.
However, this is where the challenge lies. Horses are "continuous eaters," meaning they are ideally busy with eating for over 15 hours a day. Therefore, they keep their noses in dusty bedding and even dustier hay.
Hay as Traditional Roughage
In our region, it's not possible to provide horses with a vegetation-free winter, meaning we cannot feed them on pasture all year round. Humans must still ensure that horses receive enough roughage-rich food. This is achieved by preserving the basic feed – grass.
The most traditional method for this is hay-making.
However, hay is the largest factor contributing to inflammatory processes in the respiratory system. The drying process of hay results in a significant number of mites, bacteria, and molds. Dust is also another issue associated with hay.
It has long been known that even hygienically high-quality hay contains a large number of health-threatening microbes due to the preservation process (Vandenput et al., 1997). The most common problem reported by horse owners is diseases of the respiratory system (Holmquist et al., 2002). A study by C.E. Müller proves that the vast majority of horse owners and keepers have had negative experiences with feeding hay to the respiratory tract. This is also supported by an analysis by Von Clausen et al., which showed that in 2004, respiratory diseases were the second most common reason for euthanasia in horses.
Silage and Haylage as Alternatives to Traditional Hay?
As a less dusty and microbe-rich roughage, haylage theoretically presents an alternative to conventional hay. Unfortunately, in practice, this is often not the case.
Due to insufficient silage processes or procedural errors, microorganisms such as Clostridia, enterobacteria, and Listeria can form in haylage. This results in anaerobic spoilage of the haylage, which then triggers aerobic spoilage from organisms like molds and yeasts. Additionally, the fermentation products and acidity of haylage can cause serious health issues. There is also the risk of botulism, a life-threatening poisoning caused by small animals in the preserved bales.
Gastrointestinal disorders, such as colic or loose stools, are often linked to feeding haylage. Studies, such as those by M.J.S Moore-Colyer and A.C. Longland, confirm the concerns of horse owners, as the majority report negative experiences with feeding haylage.
Other Potential Alternatives for Hygienic Roughage
Many horse owners and even stable operators now use watering of hay to protect horses from the dust found in hay.
This method primarily aims to bind the dust in hay so that it doesn’t enter the horses' airways. While watering does bind the dust effectively, it also washes out the nutrients and causes a significant increase in microorganisms. An overload of bacteria, yeasts, molds, etc., is counterproductive, as these health-threatening contaminants can cause diarrhea, reduced lung function, liver strain, etc.
How Does Inhalation and Feed Additives Help with Respiratory Issues?
Every horse owner fears the diagnosis of COPD, RAO, or IAD. But what should you do if the veterinarian has diagnosed this condition?
Many horse owners resort to familiar methods such as inhalation, medications, or dietary supplements. These can be effective to some extent and up to a point, but they don’t address the root cause of the problem.
It’s crucial to address the cause rather than just treating the symptoms!
But how can we effectively maintain roughage in a high-quality hygienic state, while binding breathable dust and eliminating harmful microorganisms?
The answer is unconventional and unfortunately still not as widely known as the method of watering – hay steaming!
Scientific studies from renowned researchers who have been studying this area for years, such as Moore-Colyer, James, Stockdale, Leggatt, and many others, show that steaming hay results in the complete elimination of yeasts and molds, such as the health-threatening Aspergillus fungus. Additionally, bacteria are killed by the hot steam. Lung-penetrating dust is reduced by up to 94% with this method.
The concept of hay steaming makes sense. Similar to a steam cooker, nutrients are retained. Only the NSC value (Non-Structural Carbohydrates) decreases. However, sugars and starch are not necessarily desirable components in hay, as they can cause insulin disturbances. This imbalance in insulin production can often lead to diseases such as Equine Metabolic Syndrome (EMS), laminitis, and Equine Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy (PSSM).
Not only in theory but also in practice, hay steaming has proven to be beneficial for horses suffering from respiratory diseases. In summary, just like watering, hay steaming offers excellent dust-binding properties and, additionally, eliminates harmful microorganisms. Furthermore, it is successfully used for gastrointestinal diseases caused by bacteria.
For horses that are restricted to eating only a small amount of water-soluble carbohydrates (WSC) and non-structural carbohydrates (NSC), hay steaming has proven to be the ideal solution for daily roughage feeding.
Further Studies on This Topic:
- James, R. & Moore-Colyer, M.J.S. [2013] Hay for horses: The nutrient content of hay before and after steam treatment in a commercial hay steamer. Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science Conference, Nottingham April 2013.
- Von Clausen, M., Preisinger, R. & Kalm, E. [2004]. Analysis of disease data in German Warmblood breeding. Züchtungskunde 62, S. 167-178.
- Holmquist, S. & Müller, C.E. [2002]. Problems related to feeding forages to horses. Proceedings of the XIIIth International Silage Conference, S. 152-153.
Author:
Dana Böhnke [2018]: "Influence of roughage quality and preservation method on feed intake and acceptance in horses."
