Playing it Safe

 Well as the election was stressing me out, TC was too! 

On Monday, TC came out and coughed through his entire (very short) ride. I was immediately scared for him, he had tapered off his Smart Breathe Ultra supplement the weekend before and we hadn't nebulized since he went back to work. He seemed totally fine coming back into work (we were 2-3 weeks in) until that day. 

I nebulized him Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning and then on Tuesday, he didn't cough once and seemed back to normal. Phew! Random bout of coughing on Monday I guess, oh well, he was probably fine. But, then Wednesday I noticed that his resting respiratory rate was elevated (22-27 bpm). I texted my vet to ask about it and she offered to come out on Thursday, so that's what we did. 

First, before I go on, I do want to say that I was so happy when she said "wow, I mean I know he's out of shape but his topline looks way better than when I saw him last" which we both decided meant that he DID have ulcers this summer and that they are gone! I told her I had him on a preventative supplement and she was happy to hear that. 

He's looking so damn good right now

Thursday his respiratory rate was 20 breaths per minute, which she said was on the high side of normal. It was hot (90 degrees), he's out of shape, he's growing back his coat like his life depends on it, it could all be explained. She watched him work in the dusty round pen where he didn't cough at all and she basically told me that he was probably fine. No signs of respiratory distress, nothing to suggest there's anything wrong with him, really. 

I'm not a "probably" kind of person and so I asked her what we could do to make sure. There are a ton of tests, she said, but that many of them were fairly drastic, like pumping fluid into his lungs, then sucking it back out and testing it for bacteria. Yikes, no thanks. I'd rather just back off and bring him back slower.  

Then she mentioned a lung ultrasound and I asked how much that was. It was less than I charge for lessons, so I said yes. He didn't even need to be sedated, he just stood there with this stupid look on his face while she ultrasounded his lungs. 

Y U DO??

The right lung was completely normal. There was one "comet" which is a sign of inflammation, but she said that most horses have a couple of them in each lung just from being horses. Dust (he lives right by an arena), smoke (obviously), allergies (not that I know of but they can develop them later in life), etc can cause them and it's not a big deal to see one or two of them in each lung. 

We moved to the left lung and that one was also pretty normal, another "comet" was found but nothing exciting until we moved down toward his elbow. And that's when we found very mild inflammation. The lungs were just a tiny bit fluffy looking there. No comets or anything, just... fluffy. 

Apparently this can be totally normal in horses. Again, dust in his paddock, dust from the arena, dust in his hay, mild allergies that don't affect him directly yet. If you ultrasounded all the lungs of all the horses in the world, there are plenty performing at a high level with lungs that looked worse than his do now. 

The way he's been coming back has been so nice,
I just want to continue!

BUT we don't know if this is normal for him (hello future horse's vet check, I'll be ultrasounding lungs because it's so cheap and gives us a baseline because the smoke is probably only going to get worse every year), so we have to assume it isn't given that he coughed that one day and seems to have a slightly elevated respiratory rate. 

Playing it safe, I'm going to nebulize and then walk undersaddle for two weeks. I've also ordered him another round of his breathing supplement and that'll come this coming Tuesday. We tentatively have a recheck in two weeks. If he's still breathing weird in a week and a half, I'll push the vet check out by a week and we'll give him more time. If he's breathing normally, I'll keep the appointment and we'll see what the lungs look like again. 

When we ultrasound, if his lungs look better but not perfect, I might do another two weeks of walking. If his lungs look pretty perfect (just one or two comets but no fluffiness), I will slowly put him back to work. If his lungs look the same, we'll just assume that this is normal for him and I'll probably go slower than I normally would putting him back to work. 

He was looking soooo good, I'm bummed

I texted my trainer friend to tell her I wasn't coming this weekend and she said her horse had this same thing happen coming back from the smoke! She said she just walked him undersaddle and did light trotting every day and he returned to normal. He was coughing more than TC is (because TC literally isn't coughing except for the one day) and he's back to full work now and doing great. 

I wonder if the breathing supplement was really helping and that I took him off too early? Or if it was just a coincidence? Or if he had just snorted some hay on Monday and he's actually totally fine? I don't know. I just know that I want to play it safe. There's too much bullshit going on in this world right now for me to put my horse at risk at all, even if it's likely that he's fine. 

At this point, it's apparent that I love this horse more than life itself and I will pour everything I have into him to keep him the happiest, healthiest creature that ever existed. I think I have a problem here...  But I'm happy to report that I'm not the only one, I think the SO is pretty obsessed with him too. When he found out that we were doing an ultrasound he asked for a picture of TC because he thought TC probably had a really "derpy look" on his face.