Respiratory Health in Horses: Support for “One Airway” Movement

When diagnosing respiratory conditions in horses, veterinarians traditionally divide the airways into upper and lower regions, treating the two regions separately. Recent evidence suggests, however, that disorders of the upper and lower airways occur concurrently and that treatment of one may improve the other.

To address this, veterinarians are starting to recognize the horse’s airway as one functional unit, borrowing the theory of “one airway” from human medicine. A Polish research team explored this theory by recruiting 46 client-owned horses with severe equine asthma (SEA). Those horses were diagnosed with SEA using a combination of a comprehensive respiratory tract exam, airway endoscopy, tracheal wash and bacterial culture, and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) analysis.^*

Those horses with confirmed SEA then underwent an endoscopic examination during exercise to determine whether a palatal disorder was also present. Results indicated that 67.4% of SEA horses had palatal disorders, including palatal instability and dorsal displacement of the soft palate.

To treat SEA, horses were given a steroidal anti-inflammatory and a bronchodilator for 21 days, as recommended by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine.^**

“These guidelines also suggest adding omega-3 fatty acids, such as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which can be found in ReSolvin EQ, a supplement that provides potent body-wide anti-inflammatory support,” said Kathleen Crandell, Ph.D., a nutritionist at Kentucky Equine Research.

In the study, after researchers treated SEA, no horses had palatal instability and only 8.7% had dorsal displacement of the soft palate.

“These results therefore support the ‘one airway’ theory in that even palatal disorders respond to treatment of SEA,” explained Crandell. “The findings observed in this study also suggest that conservative therapy with anti-inflammatory drugs may be warranted in horses with palatal disorders before considering surgical intervention.”

The research team noted that further research is needed to fully elucidate the relationship between SEA and palatal disorders.

^*Kozłowska, N., M. Wierzbicka, B. Pawliński, and M. Domino. 2023. Co-occurrence of severe equine asthma and palatal disorders in privately owned pleasure horses. Animals (Basel) 13(12):1962.

 ^**Couëtil, L.L., J.M. Cardwell, V. Gerber, J.-P. Lavoie, R. Leguillette, and E.A. Richard. 2016. Inflammatory airway disease of horses—Revised consensus statement. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 30(2):503-515.