07/30/2025
The TikTok gods really brought this on this morning just to give me a good Wednesday rant.
💉 Bleeders🩸
Believe it or not, it doesn’t just come from a horse not being fit enough. While yes, fitness is key to any sport that requires physical endurance. Example- Riding your athlete twice a week isn’t going to help matters. Riding your horse 6 days a week, and not increasing their heart rate also isn’t going to help matters. Matters including their soundness, diet, and their 🫁 lungs.
To perform like an athlete you have to practice like one. ***Please do not read that and think you have to run the barrel pattern 6 days a week. Common sense is advised.
I have NFR rope & steer wrestling horses that compete on lasix as well 💯
My mare has proven to be a bleeder. Many dollars and many hours invested to make sure I wasn’t sticking her with meds she didn’t require because in all honesty, yes lasix can be hard on one. But not being able to breathe or bleeding back, is MUCH harder on them. Things my mare can’t help that contribute to her EIPH?
• Inflammatory air way disease 🦠
• Asthma 🧬
Those two things can and are helped on a regular basis. But there is no amount of exercise that is going to make those two things go away. Her IAD is more seasonal due to allergies. She gets steroids and antihistamines to help keep it minimal. How did that come about? She couldn’t catch her breath after an easy work out. I then had her scoped. She had mucus and blisters in her upper airways! Which Is text book IAD
🚩 Note - you do not need to scope one just to see if they’ve bled. You can scope to see many things!
-Do they displace?
- Do they have a lazy flapper?
- Do they have mucus or blisters in their upper airways?
I then invested in a BAL and an allergy panel. The BAL confirmed the IAD and showed her asthma. So why the allergy panel? I wanted to be sure I wasn’t feeding something she was allergic too. It matters!
❤️🩹 If you do not help the underlying issues that contribute to bleeding, they will always bleed through lasix.
She gets regular breathing treatments. What I treat her with in my nebulizer is specific to her needs based off what the BAL had shown. Do your homework. Don’t cut corners. It’s well worth it to know what to nebulize your horse with, then treating it with some random silver they give you (mine went in the trash 🗑️.)
So after all the above, she still gets lasix. Both my horses do. They’re fit, maintained and still get lasix. The horses that travel? They’re battling climate change, altitude change, shaving dust from the haul, and the stress from being on the road. ALL CONTRIBUTE. So while conditioning is beneficial, it’s rare that one is conditioned in all things 😏.
🖤 Disclaimer- if you don’t believe in sticking your horse with a needle 💉 or don’t believe they should receive medication per veterinary recommendation, I hope your diet is as clean as theirs. My page also might not be for you. While I come from a holistic approach, I respect a veterinarians perspective as well.
