11/07/2025
🚘 🚛 🐴 Travel sickness - what exactly is this life threatening condition and what can owners do to reduce its occurrence? 🚘 🚛🐴
🚛 Travel sickness is a severe pneumonia known as pleuropneumonia. It is an infectious respiratory disease, affecting both the lungs and the surrounding tissue. Horses often require intensive treatment in a hospital to save their lives, and can develop multiple secondary complications such as pleural fibrosis, laminitis and colitis.
🚘 Horses are designed to spend a large portion of their day with their head down. However, when horses spend large periods of time with their head elevated, bacteria, feed material and secretions are not expelled like normal and settle in the lungs, causing infection. In addition, horses who are stressed or otherwise unwell are at higher risk.
🚛 If you have recently travelled your horse, you should be looking out for: lethargy, not wanting to eat, an increased respiratory rate, a “snotty” nose, cough and elevated temperature (>38oC) . If you’re at all concerned about your horse in the hours and days following transport, it is important to contact a veterinarian IMMEDIATELY.
🚘 Awareness of travel sickness is probably the most important thing you can do to help your horse. Unfortunately, research has indicated that antibiotics prior to travelling, and short periods of allowing the head down (eg a short stop to graze for a few minutes) are not effective in preventing development of the disease. However, any effort to reduce stress is beneficial and travelling breaks can assist with this. As a rule, there should be at least 1-2 hours’ rest for after every 3-4 hours travelled and avoid travelling >8 hours per day. Feed and water must be provided on the ground during this time. Avoiding strenuous exercise immediately before or after travelling is recommended. You should monitor your horse’s re**al temperature twice daily for the days following travelling.
