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Peer-reviewed veterinary case report

Horse with chronic cough after being near a donkey - what helped?

By George, L W et al.·Published in Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association·1981·View original on PubMed

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Original publication title: Chronic respiratory disease in a horse infected with Dictyocaulus arnfieldi.

Species:
horse

Plain-English summary

A 6-year-old Thoroughbred gelding developed a harsh, dry cough and had trouble breathing after being placed on pasture with a donkey. Tests showed he had an infection caused by a type of lungworm called Dictyocaulus arnfieldi. The cough didn't improve with common treatments like steroids or bronchodilators, but after receiving a high dose of thiabendazole (a deworming medication) for two days, the horse's symptoms completely went away.

People also search for: horse cough treatment · respiratory disease in horses · lungworm in horses · thiabendazole for horses

Abstract

A 6-year-old Thoroughbred gelding was examined because of respiratory disease that developed after it was placed on pasture occupied by a donkey. Clinical signs in the gelding included a harsh, dry paroxysmal cough and increased expiratory effort. Eosinophils were seen in smears of mucus aspirated from the trachea and the bronchi. Immature, 5th-stage Dictyocaulus arnfieldi was identified in the tracheal mucus. The cough and other clinical signs were not diminished by corticosteroid therapy or by the administration of bronchodilators. Treatment with 10-fold therapeutic dosages of thiabendazole (440 mg/kg) on each of 2 successive days resulted in permanent cessation of the clinical signs.

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Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6210648/