Lower Airway Disease
Most horses will suffer a low-grade transient cough once or twice a year; however those that develop a longer-term (more than 3-4 weeks) cough usually require further investigation by endoscopy. In these cases there is often a reason why the cough is not resolving and the most common of these is the presence of an allergic airway disease (such as COPD) that may be further complicated by the presence of bacterial infection. This is most common in both younger and older horses and the cough cannot be managed correctly unless the allergic disease is identified and treated appropriately with inhalers.
Endoscopy allows us to:
- Visualise the airway and look for inflammatory secretions and evidence of chronic inflammation.
- Detect and identify bacteria - this allows selection of appropriate antibiotics if required
- Monitor signs of inflammation - this is particularly useful in allergic airway conditions, as these can be raised even when they are not fully under control, despite there being no external symptoms.
Endoscopy is performed under standing sedation and horses only need to be in at the clinic for a day, please contact your vet for more information.