Successful cure for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Golden Breath and Copd

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized in horses by chronic cough, increased respiratory rate, forced abdominal breathing, and exercise intolerance.

The disease usually develops over a period of time. Affected horses do not have a temperature and they appear well in themselves, but they may have reduced exercise tolerance and not be able to perform to the best of their ability. The first clinical signs include:

• Reduced exercise tolerance
• Increased respiratory rate
• Increased expiratory effort (the abdominal muscles are used to force the air from the lungs)
• An occasional cough, usually at the start of exercise
• Milky white nasal discharge from both nostrils, especially first thing in the morning and after exercise
• In performance horses (especially racehorses and eventers) mild RAO may produce no overt clinical signs, and the only indication of airway disease may be a loss of exercise tolerance.

As the condition progresses, breathing out (expiration) requires even more effort and there is considerable movement of the abdominal muscles; this is known as ‘heaving’;

• The abdominal muscles become overdeveloped and a ‘heave line’ is seen
• The respiratory rate increased further
• The nostrils flare as the horse or pony struggles to breathe
• The horse’s anus moves in and out in time with the respirations
• The nasal discharge may become thick and yellow
• The horse coughs at rest in the stable
• Lumps of mucus are coughed up and can be seen outside the stable door and in water/feed buckets

Once a horse has become sensitised, it may suffer acute attacks of the disease and develop severe respiratory difficulties in a short period of time. The animal breathes with flared nostrils and heaving flanks, and has spells of continuous coughing. Wheezing and crackling sounds may be heard at the nostrils and the incidence of the disease increases with age.

Why do these signs develop?
The expiratory difficulty is caused by obstruction of airflow in both the large and, especially, small airways. This is due to spasm of the smooth muscle (bronchospasm) in the larger airways, and bronchospasm, inflammation and the accumulation of mucus in the small airways (bronchioles). Both lead to a reduction in airway diameter so breathing requires more effort. These changes occur within a few hours of a susceptible horse being placed in a stable or dusty environment.

If the disease is not controlled, structural changes occur in the lungs over a period of time. The chronic inflammation leads to thickening of the mucosal lining of the proliferation of the smooth muscle. In severe, long term disease, the alveoli (air sacs) become over-inflated and emphysema (i.e. structural destruction of the alveoli) can develop. This end stage lung disease is what is traditionally called “broken wind”.