September 2023 Issue

Page 22 September 2023 EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN By Dr. Janet Beeler-Marfisi, Equine Guelph There’s nothing like hearing a horse cough to set people scur- rying around the barn to identify the culprit. After all, that cough could mean choke, or a respira- tory virus has found its way into the barn. It could also indicate equine asthma. Yes, even those “everyday coughs” that we some- times dismiss as "summer cough" or "hay cough" are a wake-up call to the potential for severe equine asthma. Tell our advertisers you found them in East Coast Equestrian! A New Forest pony grazes with wildfire in the background. Smoke drifting south from Canadian wildfires this summer likely exacerbat- ed asthma in East Coast horses. (Photo by I-stock) Rise in Smoke and Smog Leads to More Equine Asthma Formerly known as heaves, broken wind, emphysema, chron- ic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), or recurrent airway obstruction (RAO), this respirato- ry condition is now called severe equine asthma (sEA). These names reflect how our scientific and medical understanding of this debilitating disease has changed over the years. We now consider heaves to be most comparable to severe asthma in people. But what if your horse only coughs during or after exercise? This type of cough can mean that they have upper airway irritation (think throat and windpipe) or lower airway inflammation (think lungs) meaning inflammatory airway disease (IAD) – which is now known as mild-to-moderate equine asthma (mEA). This air- way disease is similar to child- hood asthma, including that it can go away on its own. However, it is still very important to call your veterinarian out to diag- nose mEA. This disease causes reduced athletic performance and there are different subtypes of mEA that benefit from specific medical therapies. In some cases, mEA progresses to sEA. Impact of Air Quality Poor air quality, or air pollu- tion, includes the barn dusts – the allergens and molds in hay and the ground up bacteria in manure – as well as arena dusts and ammonia from urine. Also, very importantly for both people and horses, air pollution can be from gas and diesel-powered equipment. This includes equipment being driven through the barn, the truck left idling by a stall window, or the smog from even a small city that drifts nearly invisibly over the surrounding farmland. Recently, (Continued on page 40)