Chronic inflammation is a long term response to an inflammatory stimulus that can last months or years.
Chronic inflammation in humans may increase the risk of various diseases, including some cancers, arthritis, atherosclerosis, periodontitis, hay fever, thyroid issues, retinal disease, ulcers, and a hyper-reactive immune system.
For some reason it doesn’t occur to us that horses can have chronic inflammation also.
There are many causative factors leading a horse to suffer with inflammation over a long period of time.
Obesity is considered to be the primary culprit for equines.
On-going stress is another one.
Imbalances in a feeding program can be a big contributor, such as when your horse is short on Vitamin E or zinc.
Exposure to chemicals can turn into a chronic inflammatory state.
Sometimes horses suffer with an undetected, low grade infection.
Guttural pouch infection is one that is often missed.
Chronic inflammation has some recognizable symptoms. Some of these are:
*Over reaction to insect bites
*Poor wound healing
*Weeping eyes with no injury present
*Arthritis at an early age
*A cresty neck
*Stretched white line and/or hoof abscessing
*persistent diarrhea
*Frequent small colic episodes
*Grouchiness or sluggishness
*Presence of lice or mites
*More frequent illnesses/viruses
Your horse can be in a constant state of inflammation and not have all of these things. If you just cannot get your horse to stay on an even keel for long stretches of time consider whether his or her body might be out of balance somewhere.
If this is the case you will find yourself treating an issue over and over again, and it will keep resurfacing.
