Managing Asthma in Horses

Managing horses with asthma starts with controlling the horse’s exposure to airborne irritants, particularly dust and mold from hay and bedding. Modifying turnout schedules, improving barn ventilation, and adjusting feeding practices can improve affected horses’ clinical signs. If you suspect your horse might have asthma, work with your veterinarian to develop a management and treatment plan.

Two experts discuss the ins and outs of managing horses with asthma in this Ask TheHorse Live episode.

This episode is brought to you by Kentucky Performance Products.

About the Experts:

Kelsey A. Hart, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM (LAIM), is a professor of large animal internal medicine and Hodgson Chair of equine studies at the University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine, in Athens. She received her DVM from Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York, in 2004. She completed an internship and a residency in large animal internal medicine and a PhD in endocrinology at the University of Georgia. Hart’s research centers on immune-endocrine interactions during illness, and the diagnosis and treatment of equine sepsis and endocrine diseases.

Kate Hepworth-Warren, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM, grew up in Indiana and graduated from Purdue University, in West Lafayette, Indiana, in 2010 with her DVM. Following graduation, she did an internship in Florida and then moved back to the Midwest for an equine internal medicine residency at Iowa State University (ISU), in Ames. After achieving board-certification in large animal internal medicine, she stayed on for a year at ISU and then spent four years in private practice in New Jersey. In June of 2019, she accepted her current position as associate professor at North Carolina State University, in Raleigh, and moved south. Her favorite type of cases are neonatology, respiratory disease, and neurology.