# COPD: My way of treatment



## Ne0n Zero (Dec 25, 2008)

Entire story can be found here: http://www.horseforum.com/horse-health/coughing-breathing-problems-40503/

Okay, so. He has not been officially diagnosed with COPD/heaves, however. At this point, I don't see what else it possibly could be. He has gone through two rounds of antibiotics, the latter being a month-long process. He's coughing worse than ever, so bad that I didn't feel riding him yesterday would be a good idea at all. I groomed him and grazed him on grass a bit, gave him some peppermints, and put him back in his field. 
He did have a few drops of transparent snot come out of his nose, though it was tinted almost olive green. He was breathing a little harder than normal yesterday as well. My trainer knows, and she called the vet and informed her. Since nothing else has worked so far, he is being put on a bronchiodialator, Albuterol, and if no improvement has been made by Monday, the vet is coming out to see him. 
He is, along with another boarder's pony who is also coughing pretty bad, being taken off round bales and the two of them are going to be fed clean, high quality sqaure-baled hay off the ground.

So now that I'm almost 100% positive that it is indeed COPD, I am going to go to a completely different method of treatment. (Along with the veterinary care, of course.)

First, however, I must say this. This is simply my way of telling my story. I am not pushing you all to try this or saying it is THE ONLY way to go. Different things work for different people, and I respect that. All I ask is that you will in turn respect my way of going about helping my horse, and do not make snide or disrespectful comments about it.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with alternative/holistic medicine, but I have been working with it for a while now, and am very, very optimistic that this will help my horse.
I myself am a Level 4 Healing Touch for Animals practitioner, which is basically a more in-depth form of Reiki. However, this works exclusively with the energy system of the animal.

So now, I will tell you about NAET. 
NAET stands for Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques. It was developed by Dr. Devi S. Nambudripad as a way to say goodbye to your allergies once and for all. Having gone through part of this process myself I testify to its abilities and methods. It is completely painless, with no medication/drugs involved, and I have not had to deal with my allergies really at all since I began treatment. (As a child, I was, you know, THE "kid with allergies" that was allergic to everything.)
How it works is, the practitioner has a set of small vials containing each particular substance (in liquid form) such as Vitamins, Minerals, even egg mix, meats, wheat, dust, mold, oils, caffeine, even such things as tobacco and nicotine. One by one, the patient is "desensitized" to each of these things, in a specific order. You hold the vial in one hand, and if you test weak to it, then you lay down on the table, with the vial in hand, and a handheld machine is run down either side of your spine, sending strong vibrations down the back. (I am not entirely sure how to properly explain how this part works.) After that, and after making sure you now test strong to the material, you have an avoidance period of approximately 25 hours, depending on each patient.

How will this help my horse?
Energy work can be applied using a surrogate patient, through intention. Therefore, the doctor does not have to physically be with my horse. I plan to use myself as the surrogate patient. 
I am going to call her office next week, as she is out of town at the moment, and see if using this surrogate method with the NAET techniques could work. 
I am very, very confident about this. I'm almost 110% certain it will help him. If not completely get rid of the COPD, it will at least alleviate the symptoms, and very possibly he will return to being a "normal" horse again.

I have read testimonials of people who have gone through the NAET treatments as a last resort, experiencing GREAT improvement, even sometimes completely eliminating the disease, with conditions including asthma, COPD, emphysema, and on a different note, even lupus.

Wish me luck, guys. I will be sure to keep this topic updated.

~Abby & Beau


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## Ne0n Zero (Dec 25, 2008)

For those of you (especially you who own or work with heaves horses) who have been reading my topics about Beau and his coughing/breathing problems, I have made a blog dedicated to my horse Beau. It will follow his progress/story of dealing with (unconfirmed) COPD/heaves and what treatments we find effective.

Beau's Story


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## Horselover7327 (Feb 10, 2010)

That is very interesting! I have also heard of a new prduct called HAYGAIN. It steams the hay therefore killing all the dust, mold spores, rehydrates the hay, and also makes it more palatable. We have one at our barn and our horses love it. And it is amazing for what it has done for me. I use to hate to have to feed the hay because I have really bad allergies. After I steam the hay, it doesn't bother me because it KILLS all the mold/dust. A lot of people who have COPD, heaves, older horses, ect. are swearing about it. You should take a look at it. The website is www.haygain.us.com


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## welshies rule (Feb 7, 2010)

I have to say that the horse in our family who had it from what I gather had a mild case and we found living turned out or with an open stable, rubber matting and shavings, and fed either dampend or soaked hay or haylege helped enormously as did a summer spent grazing by the coast. After changing the way he was kept he 'bounced back' quite quickly, I am aware once the damage is done it is done but he was certified as fit to ride, we did keep it to hacking/trails and just the odd few jumps tho and not a lot if any hill work


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## Mare in foal (Jan 27, 2010)

My older horse has it really bad, so bad that he has trouble breathing just standing there. Is it easy to find a Hollistic vet in most areas? How would I go about doing this?


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## Mercedes (Jun 29, 2009)

I've treated COPD horses with herbs, homeopathics and energy work for years. It's the only way, imo, unless the horse is experiencing a severe attack, in which case, nothing wrong with a couple of shots of Pred to get the attack under control.

Best of luck with your holistic approach! Please post back the results. I'd be interested.


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## tealamutt (Aug 21, 2009)

I think it is really awesome that you're taking an alternate route. I worked with an herbalist and homeopath in Seattle at a small animal practice and saw some amazing things there. We have several acupunturists here at the school and I really want to pursue a much more integrated form of medicine. I'm really looking forward to keeping up with your horse on your blog! Thanks for posting it!


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## Horselover7327 (Feb 10, 2010)

I hope everything goes well.


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## ConnieSB (Jan 9, 2012)

Reviving this thread, my mare has been diagnosed with heaves/early onset of COPD. I will be reading everything I can get my hands on about this. She is only 12. I've had her for going on 3 yrs. She was given to me by a friend who is getting out of horses. I noticed she breathed kinda "weird" when I went to pick her up, but in a few days she seemed normal, then periodically I'd notice her breathing was weird again, almost like a pant. Hubby thought it was my imagination (he doesn't spend time with the horses like I do) I called the vet, she told me it was early on set of COPD. Had her checked again a few weeks ago (riding season) vet says she hasn't gotten any worse, but she isn't improving and the vet thinks at some point Lady will need steriod packs. Some days Ladys breathing is fine, some days it's "off". Its not so bad that most people notice, but I check my horse over EVERY day. Some days she seems normal, some days not. I have noticed she is worse during dry, dusty weather.
She gets really winded climbing hills, once in a blue moon she coughs when riding (this terrifies me) but the vet assures me she is ok to ride, just keep an eye on her.


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