Dampness

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Dampness ( steam ) is a colloquial term for pulmonary emphysema in horses that arise from a chronic disease of the lungs or heart . Until January 1, 2002, dampness was a warranty flaw .

root cause

If a disease of the bronchial system , usually associated with cough , is not treated in time and lasts for several weeks, the initially damp cough changes into a dry cough. This can quickly become chronic and subsequently lead to the appearance of dullness.

Another cause of the dampness is the wrong covering of the horse in winter. Often the owners only cover their horses overnight and do without the winter blanket during the day. However, this means that the horse no longer has a real day-night mode because the temperature difference is missing.

Symptoms

Damped horses breathe with difficulty and irregularly even with little exertion, and often there is also a cough. The so-called steam gutter is usually also visible , an indentation in the body between the abdominal muscle and costal arch . At the beginning there is usually no noticeable reduction in the horse's performance, as it counteracts this by supporting the exhalation with the help of the abdominal muscles and increasing the breathing rate.

A complete cure is not possible according to the current state of medicine , but the symptoms can be counteracted with long-term preparations. It is also advisable to do work appropriate to the horses' lower resilience and to avoid factors that could irritate the respiratory tract and lungs.

literature

  • Walter Salomon: The energetic treatment of the horse. 4th edition, Sonntag Verlag, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-8304-9340-2 .
  • Lars Thiele, Anett Thiele: Horse diseases - causes and solutions. Neobooks.com 2013, ISBN 978-3-8476-3780-6 .

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