Anyone live with a horse with chronic sinusitis?

[ladyearl]

Long story short my friend's horse (also the owner of my loan mare) has had a tooth removed, endless anti biotics and now two different procedures to have his sinuses flushed out. It's not working and there doesn't seem to be much more to do for him in terms of medical intervention. Vet has said some horses do live with this condition.

So does anyone on here have experience of this and how do you manage it. My friend is obviously quite upset at idea her horse will always feel a little unwell and possibly in pain

 

[ladyearl]

sorry but bump

 

[millimoo]

Don't have any experience myself, but does she feed him off the floor.
If not, this will help drain the sinus'.
May also be worth a second opinion - although to be honest, sounds like the vet is on the case.
Finally, maybe swap the infection, and target for whatever is causing it - i.e change in Antibiotics
Good luck, poor horsey

 

[showjump]

Yes my boy has had sinusitis, he started with runny and smelly nose. He had ab's and then it cleared up. Came back soon after and he had to have a hole drilled in his face (sinus really but at top of face) and had a drain put in, i had to flush pevodene (sp?) and warm water though drain twice a day. Seemed to be fine for nearly a year.. then snotty and smelly nose was back.. more ab's followed but didnt clear it up.
Upon xrays etc looked to have puss in his sinus. He had to have hole re-opened (although it has not healed properly due to it healing back on itself instead of across) They removed the puss in his sinus, and flushed it all out. Sent him home to me with drain in again, and i flushed it twice daily.. drain removed and hole healed really well this time.
However he still gets smelly/ snotty nose about 4 times a year, usually when it goes really cold or warms up for the first times in a year. My vets had a new vet come working for them recently with a interest in teeth/sinus probs, and they wanted her to look at him see if there was anything they had missed.
She xrayed him and confirmed there were still balls of puss in the sinus, but she could see no cause for this. Teeth were all fine etc. She suggested we do nothing, if he gets snotty/ smelly again to treat with ab's if its bad. But she said they could just keep opening him up and removing them, for them to form again.- so no point in doing so.

If your friend wants any more info, pm me. My lad doesnt seem to let it bother him tbh, he used to be raised across the sinus that affected him, but that seems to have settled down now. Also just to add, my insurance comp were rubbish, they would not cover cost of his operation because op was 2 days over the 12 months since the first claim, despite us starting treating him well under the 12 months, letters from vet didnt help either. So i took him home the day after the op to look after him myself.

Hope this helps your friend.

 

[showjump]

Sorry didnt realise how looong my reply was!!

 

[Zuzzie]

Yup. My horse had a smelly, snotty nose which eventually meant he had to have a tooth removed. He was fine after the op but still had the snotty nose which stunk. Tried antibiotics which didn't work, then they took a sample to examine to find out which bacteria were involved so that they could hit it with the right antibiotic. Still didn't work. Eventually was advised that they would have to drill a hole in his face under the eye socket to clean the sinus out. I held off with this because they said there was a danger that if he knocked it after the op then he might have a permanent dent in his face. So I turned him out 24/7 and, wonder of wonders, because he had his head down all day eating it drained and cleared up by itself.

 

[charlene88]

My horse currently has sinusitis he is the same as all above symptoms wise i tried ab's but after the course was finished it came back. I have him on Muco free by global herbs and airways plus also global herbs and he now has no running this is really just to help with his breathing. I dont know what to do about op havent been told how much is is going to cost.

 

[ladyearl]

He is back home again after another bit of time over at the Vets. He has had two different types of sinus drain and neither worked. He now has three open holes in his head two of which are direct to the sinuses and you can hear him breathing through these holes. He's got a patch over them as it would obv be a disaster if dirt got in. He's a poor soul and no better than the start of all of this. He is now to have a good few weeks of rest as these procedures have taken it out of him. Not sure what the next move is going to be. Once the holes have healed he can go back to the field and maybe just maybe nature will help!

 

[charlene88]

Have you considered immuplus. Global herbs recommended it to me to help boost their immune system so they can fight the infection to the best of their ability. These products really help the airways plus has taken my boys snot away

 

[ladyearl]

Thanks for that - the additional problem is that he has sweet itch which is going to kick in fairly soon. So don't normally go anywhere near immune boosting things. In fact he's about to start his supplement which works in the opposite way. Sounds a bit mad given what is going on but he will itch his head and the open wounds on his head will be the ones to get it if we don't stop the itch!

 

[charlene88]

You should contact global herbs and tell them all the issues they can make recommendations this is how i was told that immuplus has helped to get rid of sinusitis. I am totally confused by this problem my horse has no runny nose etc today seems to be different every night and when i change my mind about what to do then it changes again! Horses!!!

 

[MarcyL]

I have an older thoroughbred gelding with this issue. He has had a goopy sinus infection most of this past winter and we had the vet out, 3 rounds of anti - biotic, a tooth removed, a sinus drain sigh. Last year he had one that cleared after one course of antibiotic. The vet has finally gone to culturing the snot, finding the specific bacteria to treat and going with an antibiotic that will kill it specifically - I have also been arguing with her for a while because I have felt that she should have done 2 courses IN A ROW rather then take him off too soon and let the thing keep coming back. I finally won and we are doing it back to back and surprise it is going away - This guy is my pal and I am happy to see his regular face without the yellow goo in the morning. Thses things are a pain to treat - does anyone know of an herbal supplement that would work to help support this?

 

[Louby]

Yes My lovely horse had a fractured tooth removed via face flap removal under GA as a 4 yr old and loads of post op problems with recurrent sinusitus that no AB would remove, the pus was cultured and found to be something cows get???. We would clear it up and it would come back again weeks or months later. He had 2 different sinuses trephined and it worked short term but the dreaded smell kept coming back. Fortunately for him, it did eventually clear up, it did take about 3 years though and even then I would get the occasional waft of the smell with a bit of snot but I learnt to ignore it and he was finally clear. Sadly last October, he was rising 15 and after years of him being 'normal' one of his old trephine holes abcessed and pus came out. He was put on an intensive course of ABs again in the hope it would go away.... it did but then came back again and again. So Feb we xrayed and he had 2 further severe tooth root infections. I had already decided pre xrays there was no way he was having more holes drilled in his head as that was purely treating the symptom and not the cause. The xrays were much worse than I imagined and the vets said there was nothing humane we gould do as another GA wasnt feasible due to the possibility of a fracture jaw, his face caving in and poor general prognosis. My only option was to take part of his face away to scrape away the pus as the ABs wouldnt touch the balls of pocketed pus but that was only prolonging the inevitable and causing a lot of pain and distress in the meantime, so on the 5th Feb this year my gorgeous boy was PTS and all because of his teeth He looked amazing and it was heartbreaking.
Hugs to your friend.