Equine Breathing
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equine breathing
Recovery from Sweet Itch using Equine Breathing
Equine Breathing enables you to help your horse in their recovery from even severe sweet itch. Please note Equine Breathing is not a substitute for veterinary care. |
| Sweet itch is a distressing condition which
spoils the summer for many horse owners. No-one likes to see their
horses rub themselves raw. If your horse suffers from sweet itch then
read on.
How could Equine Breathing help Sweet Itch? |
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| Horses with sweet itch have an excessive immune reaction to the saliva
of midges. It seems that Equine Breathing can help to reduce the inappropriate reaction of the immune system.
The cause of the over reaction of the immune system is believed to be the change in physiology (ie the stress) imposed on the horse's body when they are stressed by, for example, over breathing. Leading Buteyko practitioner, Dr Jill McGowan suggests;
"When carbon dioxide
is reduced (due to over breathing), known as hypocapnia , this leads
to the body being hypoxic, caused by altered pH and Bohr effect, the
immune system becomes active causing inflammation and this elevates
histamine levels. When these peak the body reacts to foreign proteins,
attacks them and the symptom presents as an allergic /sensitive
response.
When the cause is
reversed, that is carbon dioxide is raised (for example by Equine Breathing), the
hypocapnia and pH are reversed, the immune system is boosted,
the inflammatory cascade reaches resolution and histamine levels
return to normal.
Very briefly it is the raising of CO2 to normal levels that takes the stress out of the body i.e. reverses compensation, this in turn boosts the immune system and allows the body to heal".
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see How does it work? for more details | |
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flared nostril of horse over breathing at rest |
If you observe a horse that has sweet itch,
at rest, you will probably see that they over breathe. The nostrils will be
moving on each breath and their breathing may be audible. In normal
breathing there is no movement of the nostril and the breath is silent.
See issue 4 of Horse Breather for more details. See also 'Sweet itch' by Dr E De Beukelaer in Natural Horsemanship magazine issue 36
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email NHm@vowleyfarm.co.uk |
| What to do?
Start doing 1N ! - It costs nothing, its easy to do and horses enjoy it |
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To learn 1N...
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For more information on how to do 1N, what to expect, how long to continue and much more buy the Equine Breathing Starter Guide for only £4.95. For more details on the Starter Guide click here |
Equine Breathing Starter Guide
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If... |
buy an All Weather or Grazing Breather For more details on Breathers click here Most horses seem to gain significant relief fairly quickly but full recovery may take months or even years. With a Breather, Equine Breathing can easily become part of your daily routine. The All Weather and Grazing Breathers can be worn all day and continue to bring relief over long periods, as well as helping the horse to full recovery. Continue to use treatments and measures (such as Boett blanket) until the horse is comfortable and then use a step down program as advised by your vet, for veterinary treatments or gradually reduce other measures as the symptoms disappear.
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All Weather Breather training pack
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Meg's quarters at the start of the Equine Breather sweet itch trial |
Meg's recovery from sweet itch
Meg's sweet itch was causing her so much distress that she had become dangerous to handle. She was too agitated to stand still, barged off if she could, head butted, pawed the ground and had even started biting her owner. She had sores like this over 60% of her body. The sweet itch symptoms started to reduce after the first day of Equine Breathing (see the chart below) and continued to improve. Meg also regained her natural happy and friendly disposition much to owner Debbie's relief.
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Meg's quarters after 6 months of Equine Breather use |
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