Dr John Dunsford MRCVS. Silverback Veterinary Equine.

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Dr John Dunsford MRCVS. Silverback Veterinary Equine.

Silverback Veterinary is the successor practice to John Dunsford's Equine Veterinary Clinic Midhurst. We also have Jo, our office manager and nurse.

Silverback concentrates on Equine problems which require adequate time and experience with special skill in connective tissue and MYOFASCIAL LINES. Dunsford and Shawyer is an independent Equine practice, based in Stedham, West Sussex. We consist of two vets, John Dunsford BVM&S MRCVS – who founded the practice, and Bridey Shawyer BVMBVS MRCVS, who joined in 2024. We provide care for horses, donkey

s and ponies, twenty-four hours and a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, within Hampshire, West Sussex and Surrey. We offer care on an ambulatory basis, whilst having the luxury of our very own day-clinic, with stocks, trot up and sand school, for the more in-depth investigations. We have high-quality digital radiography systems, ultrasonography, endoscopy and reproductive equipment to ensure your horses receive the best possible care whilst with us. We have also recently invested heavily in state-of-the art dentistry equipment, as this is something we feel very passionately about. Other areas of interest that we are currently exploring are Equine Mental Health, Acupuncture and the Biomechanics of Lameness. What makes us different? Founded in 1999, John has built a reputation for high quality care with a comprehensive, joined-up, family-doctor approach with clients and their animals. We understand that by taking care of our clients, we in turn care for their horses. We know that horses are more than simply pets or athletes to people, and therefore we strive to build that same relationship with the horses ourselves. We are strong believers at D&S that if you are kind to the horse, they will be kind to you. Whilst your horse is under our care, you can rest assured that they will be treated as one of our own, whether that at your yard or our clinic. We feel educating our clients is a vital part of caring for your animals and therefore we aim to provide client talk evenings, educational social media posts and videos to ensure you know when the right time is to call us for help! We are an open-minded, confident and experienced practice who work with the latest developments and research and constantly look to feed that back into our work to improve the welfare and outcomes for our patients.

24/03/2026

LOCKING STIFLES. - MYOFASCIAL LINES.

It does not follow that young horses are free of troubles, and that if we buy or breed a young unbroken horse it must be perfect.

This is equally true of humans. Our local hospital has a large paediatric block with an out-patients which is always busy managing conditions identified in or developing in early childhood. Similarly, here in Midhurst we have a secondary school in the centre of town. If you are driving through town when the school turns out a wave of several hundred children washes up the main street slowing the traffic. It is fascinating to watch their feet and posture. It is unarguable that even at eleven many children already have problematic posture and gait.

By the time many young horses are broken they are already moving incorrectly. They often have upright pasterns and weak bums. When put into work these problems are reinforced and part of the youngster’s potential will be lost at that point. From then on their posture will be seen as conformation rather than acquired with the possibility of change and improvement.

With geldings one very common presentation is with awkwardness behind and under the saddle. Surgery for persistent locking stifles is more common in geldings than fillies. The 'Functional' myofascial line in horses is the rope of joined muscles which run from each elbow, crosses under the saddle and crosses in the groin after looping around the stifle. You can imagine how separate muscles can make a rope like knotted bed sheets in a jail break.

Gelding, especially castration with complications afterwards is recognised as predisposing to dysfunction in the functional lines by trauma to the groin. This causes a stiff back under the saddle and predisposes to locking stifles. This in turn causes stifle problems which tighten the 'Spiral' lines, and so affect lumbar, SI, and neck function.

All young horses coming into work should be checked for myofascial freedom, and any existing problems should be resolved. All geldings should be checked within a six months of castration to free off tight functional lines.

Myofascial therapy is not available through routine physiotherapy or massage. It is a new and rapidly developing field of Equine veterinary orthopaedics pioneered by a team of Danish research vets over the last twenty years.

The illustrations are of the path of the Functional lines drawn in blue. Where dashed it illustrates where the line runs behind when viewed from in front.

Dr. JOHN DUNSFORD MRCVS
SILVERBACK VETERINARY EQUINE
PIONEERING IN VETERINARY MYOFASCIAL.
Please contact us for treatment enquires by our email.
[email protected]

08/03/2026

SOLVING FOOT PROBLEMS. - A personal view by Dr John Dunsford. Silverback Veterinary.

Foot balance is a popular topic for posts and articles often illustrated by diagrams marked with degrees and brightly coloured lines.

Balance is very important. But balance is so often described as right or as wrong, therefore simply requiring corrective trimming. Few posts or lectures discuss why the balance might have become wrong, and how to prevent it from repeatedly returning to the same problem. Or why correcting it may sometimes be counter-productive or disastrous.

The growth of horse’s hooves has evolved to be stimulated by the forces applied to them. And the normal rate of horn growth evolved to be appropriate to the activity of wild herds and the abrasion of grassland plains.

For our domesticated horses in the British Isles there is also the work on hard abrasive surfaces, together with little abrasion from our soft soils. Horses not in work are likely to develop overgrown feet unless regularly trimmed.

Abrasion caused by work on hard surfaces is effectively countered by shoeing. But this also stops any natural wear, so the shoes need to be removed and replaced to permit trimming in the absence of natural abrasion.

Wild or feral horses on their original grassland plains require no trimming.

Healthy horses land their feet flat on the ground, even if they are foaled with twists in their long bones. Horses with tight myofascial lines often land their feet unevenly and are common culprits for foot balance problems. For example a non-matching pair of front feet is typical as a myofascial presentation amenable to treatment and resolution.

How a horse lands and loads on each foot is dictated by comfort or by avoiding pain, and by mechanical restrictions caused by tight myofascial lines. This is complicated by adjustments the horse makes to relieve pain or accommodate myofascial restrictions in other feet.

Shoeing has many benefits for most working horses and is invaluable to allow horses to work in comfort. When a horse is uncomfortable in shoes there is a reason behind that which needs to be explored, so that discomfort and further deterioration can be prevented.

A shod horse however has a password-protected foot balance so that the horse then cannot alter the balance itself by abrasion. This means that shod horses are put in an impossible position for comfort and freedom of movement if:

1. The balance or trim is poor.

2. A chosen, or vet-prescribed balance is inappropriate for that horse’s orthopaedic or myofascial needs.

3. The foot is not trimmed at the necessary intervals.

4. The foot is poorly shod.

5. A chosen, or vet-prescribed remedial shoeing possesses misjudged features.

Making special surgical shoes, and indeed the careful adjustments that farriers make to each fitted shoe is an art involving a lot of judgement as well as skill. And is certainly not as easy as farriers make it look. Since 1975 only qualified farriers and vets can shoe horses in the UK and this has hugely benefitted horse welfare. When I was first in practice there were still some owners shoeing their own horses by a ‘Grandfather rights’ concession, and I would not want to see some of those feet again.

In my time vets commonly prescribed shoe extensions to force the horse into what we perceived as a good action. What we were actually doing was denying the patient their choices to avoid pain and to maintain balance. These peculiarities of action are actually usually acquired, and are very amenable to combined myofascial and joint treatment. Forcing the foot into an action which is difficult and painful is not the answer.

A lot of the success of bare-foot trimming which some horses enjoy is probably just that removing the shoe allows the horse to wear it’s foot in the way it has evolved to do. This allows the horse to adjust it’s own trim, as when unshod horses repeatedly return to a non-textbook balance in cases of joint discomforts.

Many horses twist a foot after placing it. These animals will often favour soft surfaces to allow this action which they choose to avoid pain and accommodate tight myofascial lines. Shoeing these horses with road-nails which reduce the ability to twist on hard surfaces is likely to exacerbate hard surface discomfort and increase their tendency to favour the soft and verges. Again this action is acquired, is a sign of problems bothering the horse and can be addressed.

While feet grow preferentially according to how they are loaded in landing and overall growth is stimulated by work, hooves can also crush from excess, constant or uneaven loading.

An unsymmetrical foot is usually acquired, and signals changed loading caused by a problem bothering the horse which requires identification and effective treatment.

A loaded side of a foot will want to grow upright.

An unloaded side of a foot will want to grow into a flair if unattended.

A horse who flicks its toe and lands on it’s heel will crush its heel and is likely to have a rotated-back pedal bone. This rotation typically gives the horse an acutely bad back and the discomfort makes them dangerous.

Wedging the heel is effective in making these horses comfortable but is not without its associated problems. Typically these horses never return to a normal foot balance and comfort without the underlying myofascial and joint problems being effectively understood and addressed.

A horse who loads on the toe due to pain or myofascial restriction will grow a boxy foot with a high heel.

A horse with a sore lower joint it will typically favour one side of the foot which will grow more upright, and the other side may flair and spread. If such a foot is ‘text-book’ trimmed it can cripple the horse. Alternatively creating a bespoke asymmetric trim can make the horse comfortable to work.

Dr JOHN DUNSFORD MRCVS

SILVERBACK VETERINARY EQUINE
PIONEERING IN VETERINARY MYOFASCIAL.
Please contact us for treatment enquires by our email.
[email protected]

10/02/2026

MYOFASCIAL TRIGGER POINTS.

The way individual horses move, and how willingly and fluidly they do so is the product of how well their muscle bands absorb shocks and move their bones. And of the brain and spinal software which control them. Young adults and young horses generally move better than middle aged people or horses. So what changes and what can be done about it?

In most cases the muscle bands are tightened in response to trauma. This can be due to sprains or from overwork. Tightness takes the elasticity out of the band and puts the muscles of the band at more risk of injury, upsetting the biomechanics, stresses, and loading of everything else, including joints. Tight or injured muscles are prone to developing ‘Trigger- points’. These are little knots of dysfunctional injured muscle which are obstinately reluctant to heal, and force the muscle into permanent spasm. Trigger-points can also cause us a deeply unpleasant, nagging pain which often travels, although some are largely painless but still put the muscle into spasm.

Trigger points in horses are common around the neck and are often overlooked due to mane and the head pieces of head collars. But they also develop in many other locations including hamstrings, pectorals, around the shoulders and withers, and in the abdominal muscles. Abdominal trigger points can cause pain on girthing, grooming and riding. And in human medicine it is recognised that abdominal trigger points can also cause visceral problems within.

Tight myofascial muscle bands tend to seize to adjacent bands, and to the sheets of connective tissue which spread forces across and within the body. We can sometimes hear this as a crunching when we turn our heads. For successful treatment, tight bands, seized bands, and trigger points all need to be addressed at the same time, like taking three kids out together on a day out.

Trigger points take careful work to find, heal and finally resolve and can take several sessions of electro-acupuncture and laser. We are easy with the idea that tendon sprains may need a number of treatments. But this is equally true of trigger points and myofascial bands which have a profound effect on movement, behaviour, safety and an increased risk of serious orthopaedic injuries.

Successful therapy for seized connective tissues requires taut lines to have been freed off to their normal tension and trigger points need to have been resolved. Otherwise the patient will object and the treatment will be incomplete.

Currently with the coverage of the winter Olympics it is fascinating to watch the skiers and figure skaters. You can watch their myofascial lines in action absorbing shocks and kinetic energy, and re-using that energy in fabulous explosive fluid movement.

Dr JOHN DUNSFORD MRCVS
SILVERBACK VETERINARY EQUINE
PIONEERING IN VETERINARY MYOFASCIAL.
Please contact us for treatment enquires by our email.
[email protected]

03/02/2026

MYOFASCIAL ASTHMA THERAPY FOR HORSES

While we are waiting for the start of the catkin season heralding the beginning of summer asthma cases, it makes sense to think ahead. I have pinned a post which I wrote a couple of years ago on managing summer asthma which I think still holds good. But I have some further advice and exciting recent success which I would like to add.

I feel it important to stress the importance of floors and bedding. This holds good equally for patients who have asthma triggered by moulds on forage or in the environment, every bit as much as for summer asthmatics. Floors need to be flat and level. The surface wants to be hard and hard wearing. It must not have an appreciable slope on it in any direction and its surface must not have any defects which can pool liquid. This really means a nicely laid concrete floor, poured in a single pour of a suitable hard-wearing water and frost proof mix. The bedding wants to not be straw, and the bed wants to be cheap enough to replenish it continuously. Wood shavings are a good choice. All wet, and all droppings need to be skipped out every day and replaced with fresh shavings. Avoid deep beds, dirty beds and wet beds.

Floors which pool liquid in puddles or surface defects are a big problem. Urine reacts with the bacteria in droppings and produces ammonia which is a trigger for asthmatics. And a wet bed also encourages any amount of fungal growth and its associated spores. In my experience a great floor, and a shavings bed makes a huge difference to asthmatics. On the same environmental theme, keep asthmatics away from smoke, bonfires and smoking muck heaps. Even the smell of smoke on the air can trigger asthmatics. It really does needs to be zero smoke tolerance to avoid crises and welfare problems.

Many human asthmatics would expect to be using their inhaler several times a day, according to their symptoms and distress. In contrast horses tend to be treated twice or once a day at set times. This means that the patient’s distress may be insufficiently controlled, especially through the night. Effective management of equine asthma is unlikely to be achieved by medication alone. The Aservo Evohaler we had when I wrote my previous post has been discontinued. Although we can still obtain that drug, ciclesonide, as a human inhaler to use with an equine spacer device. Ciclesonide remains the best choice for equine inhalers if used pragmatically to relieve respiratory distress, even though the clicky Aservo inhaler device didn’t suit all patients.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, my daughter’s mare is a severe summer asthmatic. I have been challenged by her management through many summers, including some very serious crises where I have had to consider the welfare implications of her presentation. This last season however she needed no medication at all, compared to the previous summer when I visited and medicated her once or twice each day during bad weeks.

This astonishing change, which produced her most comfortable summer for years, was solely by addressing the myofascial lines of her respiratory muscles and airways.

I treated her respiratory lines while exploring the potential and useful applications of myofascial therapy. I was however truly astonished, and a little wrong footed by the success, as that is just not how things play out with veterinary challenges. Although, since then I have treated other asthmatics successfully using the same therapy.

It can not stop the patient being asthmatic, and my daughter’s mare will continue to live on a shavings bed. But I suspect that inadequately controlled asthmatics develop significant functional compromise of their respiratory muscles, which in turn contributes again to their asthmatic symptoms in a vicious circle.

I would like to stress that this therapy is not physiotherapy or Western or Chinese-traditional acupuncture. The term myofascial is trending, but therapies involving needling can only legally be done by veterinary surgeons, and to be effective needs to be done by an experienced and trained myofascial practitioner.

If anyone is interested in this therapy for their asthmatic horse and would like to know more, please contact us. Our email is often the most reliable place to make contact. We would be delighted if we can contribute to the welfare of horses or ponies showing asthmatic symptoms at any time of year.

Dr JOHN DUNSFORD MRCVS
SILVERBACK VETERINARY EQUINE
PIONEERING IN VETERINARY MYOFASCIAL.
Please contact us for treatment enquires by our email.
[email protected]

27/01/2026

WATER DROPWORT POISONING IN HORSES. A HIGHLY TOXIC NATIVE PLANT.

There are really only three plants which commonly kill horses in the UK, as distinct from other plant poisonings which with treatment may resolve.

They are Sycamore, Yew and Water Dropwort.

You could possibly add grass in as in some rare conditions the toxin which causes grass-sickness develops on some pasture. But this is believed to be due to the work of a bacteria or fungus rather than being due to poisons within the plant.

We recently discussed sycamore, as the danger times for poisoning are in the Autumn when most keys and leaves drop, and in Autumn gales. And then again in the spring when the seedlings emerge in the pasture.

Yew is similar although is also a risk from browsing throughout the year as it is an evergreen. We can look at yew in a future post, but the upcoming danger to our horses in the coming weeks is Water Dropwort.

As I write this it has rained for days and a lot of pasture and farm land is under water. Soon cultivation and drilling will start, but first there will be ditch maintenance to do ahead of next winter’s rain. This is commonly done with an excavator and perforated bucket as soon as the ground is dry enough to get the machinery in. The ditch is dredged and the excavated debris is laid all along the edge of the stream, which can be unfenced from the pasture. This debris can include the tubers of the native but highly poisonous plant called Water Dropwort.

Water Dropwort (Oeanthe Crocata) is one of the large umbelliferyl family of native plants such as cow-parsley and hemlock. The name of the family comes from the large flat flowers called umbels which are a common sight along summer road sides. Water dropwort however is a plant of streams, ditches and wetlands.

Many of the umbelliferae are poisonous but water dropwort is especially toxic. The plant is tall and vigorous in the spring and summer, but dies back to its underwater tubers in the winter ready to regenerate in the spring. The tubers have high concentrations of the toxin and they appear to be palatable to horses. I have known two dead horses in a single field the morning after ditch clearing. Of course not all ditches have water dropwort, but it is not an uncommon plant, and is less known of, probably because it generally minds it’s own business in places unfrequented by people and grazing animals.

Water dropwort poisoning causes muscle spasm in the face and is I believe the origin of the phrase ‘Sardonic grin’.

I have included a photo of Water Dropwort seen growing happily in a public place a couple of summers ago.

Dr JOHN DUNSFORD MRCVS
SILVERBACK VETERINARY EQUINE
PIONEERING IN VETERINARY MYOFASCIAL.
Please contact us for treatment enquires by our email.
[email protected]

21/01/2026

EQUINE MYOFASCIAL LINES.

Myofascial lines is the equine term for ‘myofascial trains’ as used in human medicine. It is the mapping of how our muscles, joints, tendons and sheets of connective tissue link from one to another in functional units, and can be dissected out as distinct bands. These bands have been described and investigated by anatomists since the 1930’s.

The myofascial terms ‘bands’, ‘lines’, ‘chains’, 'trains' and ‘meridians’ are all interchangeable and mean the same thing.

When we, or our horses move it is not like robotic dancing with each muscle contracting just after the last. It is rather in fluid, curving and flexing movements in which the whole body moves at once in one single gesture. Each time we land, these bands also act like elastic and store the kinetic energy ready to go again. They are why cats can leap, gymnasts can do floor routines, and why horses can jump combinations.

Every movement we make involves several myofascial lines, and even if we move just one arm the other lines are bracing and balancing us. Myofascial lines are a feature of movement in all mammals, and their tautness and fluidity are under the control of our nervous systems. Our nervous systems make myofascial management decisions principally to guard against injury, or to protect injured tissues; but always with reference to the horse’s mental and physical health. These lines also run through our body cavities and have a profound impact on our breathing and digestive health. They dictate our posture, our gait, our athleticism, how quickly we tire, our body language, our attractiveness.

It is probable that it is tightened myofascial bands which we accumulate throughout the rough and tumble of life, starting in childhood, stiffen us up as we reach middle age, and makes us feel that we don’t bounce like we used to. You can see such posture and gait problems already commonly visible if you watch any secondary school turn out. The same applies to young horses. All incidents and accidents, gelding and dental issues typically have a price to pay in tightened bands. And the consequence is that the individual’s potential is compromised and troubles are set in train for the individual down the line.

Our myofascial lines represent our pasts, our presents and our futures:

They accumulate restrictions from historical pressures and traumas throughout our lives from when we are young. And if they do not reset themselves, they will persist in a dysfunctional state and compromise our genetic potential.

In the present, our line health and freedom, or accumulated restrictions determine what we are able to do, and are responsible for many discomforts we may suffer both in movement and internally.

In our futures, tight or dysfunctional lines cause further damage by throwing stresses onto other lines which were not designed to carry them. They predispose to tendon injuries and sore joint problems; back, neck, lumbar and pelvic problems. Breathing problems, lymphatic problems and nerve pain.

I have illustrated this post with an engraving of a naked horse. Images of horses covered with thin brightly coloured lines seem alien and are hard to identify with. If you look at this old engraving it is much easier to pick out routes through the muscles by which you could link a hind leg to a head in your imagination. And in your mind's eye you can animate them as the picture moves for you. Put the skin back on, and you understand how our lines work.

Dr JOHN DUNSFORD MRCVS
SILVERBACK VETERINARY EQUINE
PIONEERING IN VETERINARY MYOFASCIAL.
Please contact us for treatment enquires by our email.
[email protected]

15/01/2026

FLOODED EQUINE PASTURES AND EQUINE PUDDLE GRAZING.

At the moment we have a lot of pasture under water. If your horse or pony is standing in a puddle grazing while there are also dryer areas, I think that we should be taking notice of this. It might mean nothing, but it also may be a sign of painful teeth or Insulin dysregulation.

Horses and ponies who insulin-dysregulate, meaning that their insulin is high due to EMS (Equine metabolic syndrome), or PPID (Pituatary pars-intermedia dysfunction) can crave sugars. The roots of grass contain the most sugar, and in the wet horses are able to pull up the grass root in the way that you can pull carrots in a sodden vegetable patch.

Another possibility is that the horse or pony has sore incisor teeth. This is common in middle aged and older horses. On a dry day watch to see if your horse snips the grass or eats like a cow by biting and tearing sideways. This incisor condition is known as EOTRH. Equine,- Odontoclastic (dissolving teeth),- Tooth,-Resorption,-And hypercementosis (an unusual increase in the production of a yellow dental tissue called ‘Cement’).

There are of course other possibilities, including a combination of these two. But I would be interested to know how common puddle-grazing is as a predictable behaviour for some horses or ponies. It must surely also come at the cost of enduring cold wet feet and pasterns and a cold wet muzzle?

Also how many puddle-grazers have worn incisor teeth?

Please feel free to leave a comment if you have noticed any of these things in your horses or ponies so we can get an idea of if we ought to be giving this behavior more attention.

I hope now to have the time to discuss these and many other things in detail over the coming months. And as such it is good to gauge interest in different topics by your feedback.

Best Wishes

Dr JOHN DUNSFORD MRCVS
SILVERBACK VETERINARY EQUINE
PIONEERING IN VETERINARY MYOFASCIAL.
Please contact us for treatment enquires by our email.
[email protected]

13/01/2026

SILVERBACK

Dear All

Welcome to Silverback which is the 2026 progression of John Dunsford & Associate's Midhurst practice.

After twenty-six years of running a first opinion practice which we hope has been both caring and innovative we are changing direction a little to concentrate on areas where we feel we can make the most use of our strengths and experience.

Those of you who have been clients over the years will know that we have always spent a lot of time looking at patients, how they move and things they do. We have we hope put great store on follow-ups and seeing what works and have followed that trail while also being restless about what remains unresolved. We have I hope also attached great value to patient attitude and interactivity. And that we have sought to pioneer the acknowledgement of equine mental health as a dominant force in all of equine health, welfare, performance and in safety. We have looked at housing and management, asthma, insulin dysregulation, microbiome and pain in our patients, and sought to join up observations in these and many other presentations.

Above all I hope that we have encouraged people to see what is hidden in plain sight when it comes to equine troubles, health and welfare. We ourselves have found it a life-changing revelation.

Over the last two years we have concentrated on developing our understanding and skills around connective and myofascial tissues. There have been two seismic changes in my thirty years as an equine vet. One has been in the new understanding of dental pathology, it’s significance and it’s proper treatment. And the second one has been in the understanding, the significance, and proper treatment of connective tissues and myofascial lines. A horse's teeth and their myofascial lines are coincidentally also intimately and inextricably interrelated.

Equine connective tissue and myofascial-line understanding was pioneered by three Danish vets over the last ten years and is spreading internationally. I have been able to train with these original vets in Denmark and am returning this year for further study. I am also ABVA trained and certified for Acupuncture and Electro-acupuncture.

The recent myofascial connective tissue advances have provided the answers to many unexplained contradictions and unknowns in equine health and disease as connective tissue unites all aspects of the body. In coming posts I will talk about how we can help with many unresolved and nascent problems in both young and middle aged horses.

Dr. John Dunsford MRCVS

08/01/2026

Ahead of the storms this weekend and after the good Autumn we had for seeds and nuts, I thought I should repost this article from 2016 about sycamore. All parts of sycamore are poisonous and are often fatal. Please do not allow your horse access to any fallen sycamore keys and pick them up off pasture as they will germinate into invisible poisonous seedlings in the spring.

Sycamore poisoning is a horrible, horrible thing.

John Dunsford.

30/03/2024

Easter, Spring, and Asthmatic horses

Today, finally, things have started to look like Spring is arriving, and with Spring comes the changing priorities for how we manage our horses. Now that the driving rain has eased enough for us to raise our heads and take a look there are new leaves forming on the trees as well as blackthorn blossom and catkins on the willows. Catkins always mean airborne pollen, and for some horses airborne pollen means asthma.

Where we are, here in Midhurst, there were some long yellow hazel catkins to be seen in the hedges a month ago, but today there are willow catkins out all around us. Usually the weeping willows are among the first trees to come into leaf and the last to lose their leaves in Autumn. But there are many willows, and a lot of them like the Goat willow and the White and Grey willows are easily overlooked as they are often scrub and a bit shapeless, and as such are hidden in plain sight.

I have noticed over this last week a little flurry of asthmatic horses. Two of whom have had no history of asthma before although they are both older patients and as such are in a higher risk group for developing asthma. My daughter’s mare and another horse on the same yard as her are also asthmatic, and as such I keep an eye on the trees around them throughout the year. In general, neither of them suffer breathing troubles in the winter. And although there are many oak and some poplar trees around them I suspect that it is the willows which really set them off. On examining the horses this morning they are just starting to breathe a little faster, and a little more laboured while at rest. And on squelching across the field there are indeed willow catkins starting to appear in the hedge.

Summer pollen-associated asthma in horses is difficult to manage as the pollen is everywhere in the air. In the UK the native trees which are anemophilous, that is wind pollinated, are the Oaks, the Birches, the Hazels, the Alders, the Willows and the Poplars. They can easily pollenate between trees a kilometer apart and often further just by the amount of pollen in the air, so there is nowhere to hide. Also as with human hay fever, which is also an allergy to pollen, atmospheric conditions play a significant role in the degree of horse's exposure to airborne pollens each day. And patients may also be allergic to several different tree pollens as well as grasses and pollen from other anemophilous plants too. Some horses’ reactions to pollens are very distressing and in human terms would be termed as very severe attacks. For horses who suffer like this, inhaled steroids are the only really effective treatment apart from moving to somewhere free of the pollen or pollens which trigger the attacks. Unfortunately, inhaled steroids come with a price tag, whether that is with human type single-use asthma inhalers or the excellent veterinary ones which are now available. The best investment is probably to buy a Flexineb nebuliser. These recharge on a USB charger and use relatively cheap steroid which we can supply to clients. However they cost the best part of £1000 on-line although we may be able to better this price a little for patients. If you are thinking of buying one second-hand there are a couple of things to watch. One is that they come in three sizes and you need the correct fit for your horse. Also the heating element needs replacing every couple of years and it may be cheaper to buy it new all things considered.

It is in the nature of allergies to worsen over time, and an uncontrolled allergy may progress sooner than a controlled one does, as well as causing distress for the patient. Pollen-related asthma patients will always have an unexpected severe attack sooner or later, usually on a bank holiday or the day before you go on holiday. So it makes sense to have some inhaled steroid therapy to hand for your horse even if you do not need it on a day-to-day basis. Steroid tablets are a possibility for emergency use or where there is no other choice but there is a theoretical risk of laminitis and side effects with prolonged use. Other drugs like clenbuterol syrup or powder in the feed are useful but they are not enough to combat significant ongoing asthma or a severe asthma attack, and as such you do always need to have a steroid treatment to hand.

I would be very interested to see any comments from owners who have just started to see asthma again after a winter remission, and to know what if anything is bearing catkins within a kilometer or so of their horse. Look up Hazel, Alder, Birch, Oak, Poplar, and the several native Willow catkins so you can identify them and then see what you can find. Getting a handle on what sets our horses off reduces our own stress, as it stops it all being so frustratingly unpredictable and random. And it also allows us to plan ahead with effective strategies and treatments.

Below are two photographs of a Grey willow (I think!) seen on this morning’s dog walk, and two of the White willow behind my daughter’s horse’s stable, growing alongside a golden variant of the White willow.

Happy Easter to all.

John.

Address

Silverback Veterinary Equine. The Equine Veterinary Clinic
Stedham
GU290PS

Telephone

+441730810742

Website

http://www.johndunsford.co.uk/

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