Current options for managing horses with severe asthma include making changes to the horse’s environment and treating with bronchodilators and corticosteroids. | Photo: iStock

Current options for managing horses with severe asthma include making changes to the horse’s environment and treating with bronchodilators and corticosteroids—the latter of which are the most effective drugs but often come with negative side effects such as cortisol suppression (cortisol is a hormone that regulates important body processes). So researchers recently evaluated a potentially safer corticosteroid—ciclesonide—and saw promising results.

Mathilde Leclere, DVM, PhD, Dipl. ACVIM, associate professor in equine internal medicine at the University of Montreal, presented data from a series of studies conducted by Jean-Pierre Lavoie, DVM, Dipl. ACVIM, of the university’s Equine Asthma Research Lab, at the 65th Annual American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Dec. 7-11 in Denver, Colorado.

Ciclesonide has unique pharmacological properties that make it active in the lungs, with little absorption into the bloodstream and few effects on other organs