05/28/2026
I’ve been getting asked A LOT lately what to do after an EIPH episode!! First, do not give the daily Breathe or Breathe Ultra. Give Breathe Recover immediately and the next morning. Then give Prime and Recover daily & follow this ⬇️
For people that don’t know what EIPH is-
During a hard run, pressure inside the tiny lung capillaries gets extremely high. Those vessels can rupture, and blood leaks into the air spaces and small airways.
After an EIPH episode, the lungs go through a healing sequence:
⏺️Days 0–7: Acute damage phase
▶️Broken capillaries
▶️Fresh blood in the airways
▶️Strong inflammation and irritation
⏺️Days 7–30: Repair and remodeling phase
▶️Macrophages are clearing blood and iron
▶️Capillary walls are trying to repair and remodel
▶️The tissue is fragile and easier to re‑injure
This is why horses are more likely to re‑bleed if they go right back to full work without a structured recovery phase. Or if you just continue riding/running them without any sort of protocol. Their lungs will continue bleeding and create SO much scar tissue it’s going to be hard to ever bring them back.
The first 30 days you DO NOT want to use the daily Breathe or Breathe Ultra. Here’s why⬇️
❌The focus is on blood vessels, not airways, for 30 days
EIPH is primarily a vascular problem, not an airway problem
❕The injury is in the pulmonary capillaries and veins
❗️The consequence is blood and inflammation in the airways
⭕️So in the first month, the priority is:
▶️Stabilize and repair the capillaries
▶️Calm inflammation
▶️Let the lung tissue remodel without extra “noise”
➖Airway herbs are great for
✖️Mucus management
✖️Bronchial tone
✖️General airway comfort
‼️But they do not directly repair capillary damage. In the first 30 days they can change airway tone, mucus movement, and inflammatory signaling in a lung that’s trying to heal. In other words, they can cause more harm than good.
🛑What Prime is doing in that first 30 day window
❕Supports healthy blood vessels in the lungs
❕Nutrients and botanicals that help keep capillary walls more resilient under pressure
❕Helps manage oxidative stress from a bleed
❕Bleeding and high‑intensity work create a lot of oxidative load, Prime helps buffer that
❕Promotes more stable blood flow during work
‼️Prime is there to support the tiny blood vessels in the lungs so they’re less likely to bleed again when your horse goes back to work
🛑What Recover is doing in that first 30 days
❕Supports capillary repair after they’ve already been stressed or ruptured
❕Helps calm inflammation triggered by blood and irritation in the lungs
❕Supports clearance of leftover blood byproducts (like iron/hemosiderin) through normal immune and lymphatic processes
‼️Recover is what we use after a run or EIPH episode to help the lungs settle down, repair, and clear the irritation from a bleed.
Together, Prime and Recover create a consistent, vascular focused environment
❗️Prime ➖ prepare and stabilize
❕Recover ➖ repair and settle
❌Why the daily airway herbs are stopped for 30 days
❔The injury is in the blood vessels, not the bronchi. So the first month is about healing vessels, not “opening airways.”
❔The lungs need a quiet, predictable environment. Even gentle airway herbs can change mucus movement, shift airway tone, slightly alter inflammatory signaling….That’s fine in a healthy lung, but when healing the lungs, you want as few moving parts as possible.
🫶🏻So in short-
For the first 30 days after a bleed, we focus only on the blood vessels in the lungs. That’s why we use Prime and Recover and temporarily pause the daily airway herbs. Once the vessels have had time to heal, we bring the airway support back in.
⁉️When the daily herbs come back in
After that 30 days of vascular healing
❗️You reintroduce Breathe/Ultra as the daily airway formula
❗️Prime goes back to pre-run use
❗️Recover goes back to post‑run or heavy work days support
Personally, I like to continue using Prime and Recover daily on a horse that has bled. I just go down to 1 scoop of each after the first month. I don’t think there’s anything more important than protecting their lungs. And I also will use it a few times a week on my “non-bleeders” as well, even if they are on the Breathe or Breathe Ultra daily. As well as of course using it pre and post run on race days.
Any questions?! Ask away!
