Food coming out of nose when sneezing

[CanteringCarrot]

I feel like my horse has something more sinister than a respiratory infection. He's had some clear and yellow discharge coming from his nose since Sunday (was very slight then). No other symptoms, but I did notice that when I fed him an apple on Monday he sneezed and small pieces of apple came out of his nostrils.

Fast forward to today, and the vet came. We tubed him and nothing was obstructed. Vet held the horses nostrils to block breathing, so that he'd take deep breaths. This allowed him to best hear the lungs and his lungs sounded fine, and horse got his wind back quickly. No cough either. I've never seen this method of getting a horse to breathe deeply, but apparently some horses tolerate it, and he didn't seem traumatized by the experience.

Horse has a slight fever. He was given banamine (Flunixin meglumine) and an antibiotic. Vet suspects an infection, but doesn't know why food comes out of his nose.

I have to see if there is a local vet that has scoping capabilities, I think. I'm worried about Strangles (the vaccination isn't 100%), some gutteral pouch thing, or an abcess elsewhere. I feel like he's likely to get pneumonia from this if food makes it's way into his nose somehow, but the antibiotics may help that.

The only time I've seen food come out of a horses nose is during choke, but he doesn't have choke. I am going to try to get further oral examination and a scope, but my odds of getting that done this week are slim, so I feel like a long trip to a clinic is in order.

Poor dude, he just settled into his new yard. I also feel like the ahole that brought a sick horse to the yard, even though he wasn't initially sick, and has never been sick before. He seems completely normal otherwise. Eating, drinking, peeing, pooing, interested in the usual things and alert.

I'm just not sure why a horse would sneeze and food would come out?

 

[Rowreach]

Did the vet check for a hole in the palate?

 

[CanteringCarrot]

Did the vet check for a hole in the palate?

Yes, nothing seen.

 

[CanteringCarrot]

I will probably be taking him to the clinic, which is causing further life complications. I have a certain pre-set amount that I'll spend at a clinic, so I'm hoping it doesn't get too costly, and in the US it gets costly quick.

 

[Birker2020]

Might be checking for gutteral pouch empyema which is similar to or caused by strangles I think.

I think they flush the pouch and give antibiotics. I would have thought they'd been feeling poorly with that though.

Yellow discharge can indicate both bacterial and fungal infection. Bacterial would tie in with empyema.

My previous horse had his gutteral pouches investigated with a camera but they could only see inside one, it apparently can sometimes be quite difficult to get access.

 

[SEL]

Did they take bloods? He probably picked something up at the new yard rather than bringing it in - young immune system etc. Many years ago I was on a livery yard where a few young horses got strangles like symptoms. Had to be cultured back then so took ages to show it wasn't strangles. Large yard, lot of horse movement led to "just" a bacterial infection.

Is he swallowing ok?

 

[ycbm]

As he's such a big hourse, and paralysis of the larynx is common, was he able to see if the larynx was collapsing on the left hand side?
.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

Have you checked his teeth? As I have just found out with my Connie an abscess under a perfectly good molar can cause a runny nose. Pony showed no other signs of being ill, was eating and drinking normally and had it not been for him reacting to the dentist I would never have known it was the tooth. He saved the vet a lot of time in identifying the cause, tooth has been extracted and the sinus is fine again.

 

[CanteringCarrot]

Did they take bloods? He probably picked something up at the new yard rather than bringing it in - young immune system etc. Many years ago I was on a livery yard where a few young horses got strangles like symptoms. Had to be cultured back then so took ages to show it wasn't strangles. Large yard, lot of horse movement led to "just" a bacterial infection.

Is he swallowing ok?

He swallows fine. I was really hoping that it'd be just an infection and maybe there is swelling in there just like we can get when we're ill, and it's causing things to be wonky, but I really don't think it's that. It would be too easy if it were!

He did go from a closed herd (no other horses left the property, ever) on the same field to being exposed to a lot more at the new place. It's a clean and well kept place, but still, lots more to be exposed to.

As he's such a big house, and paralysis of the larynx is common, was he able to see if the larynx was collapsing on the left hand side?
.

I don't know how big his house is but as a horse, he's not huge, but I am probably used to his size. We didn't talk about larynx collapsing, but I'll bring it up today. Trying to get an appointment somewhere.

Have you checked his teeth? As I have just found out with my Connie an abscess under a perfectly good molar can cause a runny nose. Pony showed no other signs of being ill, was eating and drinking normally and had it not been for him reacting to the dentist I would never have known it was the tooth. He saved the vet a lot of time in identifying the cause, tooth has been extracted and the sinus is fine again.

My last horse had a tooth root abscess, and while we didn't see anything tooth related with this one, I can certainly request another look. The discharge doesn't smell, but it was definitely on my mind. My last horse had facial swelling with his, but I know it could happen without the amount of swelling that he had.

 

[SEL]

He swallows fine. I was really hoping that it'd be just an infection and maybe there is swelling in there just like we can get when we're ill, and it's causing things to be wonky, but I really don't think it's that. It would be too easy if it were!

He did go from a closed herd (no other horses left the property, ever) on the same field to being exposed to a lot more at the new place. It's a clean and well kept place, but still, lots more to be exposed to.



I don't know how big his house is but as a horse, he's not huge, but I am probably used to his size. We didn't talk about larynx collapsing, but I'll bring it up today. Trying to get an appointment somewhere.



My last horse had a tooth root abscess, and while we didn't see anything tooth related with this one, I can certainly request another look. The discharge doesn't smell, but it was definitely on my mind. My last horse had facial swelling with his, but I know it could happen without the amount of swelling that he had.

I'm a big believer in 'if the owner thinks there's something wrong there usually is' - mainly because when my gut has said there's an issue I've always been right

Hopefully you can find someone with a scope to check that there is nothing stopping the food going down properly. I would be doing the same in your position.

I also think horses tend to study the "101 expensive ways to break" guide. My small pony who has had a tie back surgery must have been drinking from the water trough too fast this morning because she started coughing and choking. A painful 10 minutes watching and waiting to see if I needed a vet before she shook her head and wandered off as if nothing had happened. For all I know that could be a regular occurrence but today was the day I was there and saw it. So obviously I now get to panic about water on lungs etc.

Although my vet friend caused even me to raise my eyebrows when she told me about the cob she treated because he'd tried to eat a schooling whip. It got stuck.

 

[CanteringCarrot]

I'm a big believer in 'if the owner thinks there's something wrong there usually is' - mainly because when my gut has said there's an issue I've always been right

Hopefully you can find someone with a scope to check that there is nothing stopping the food going down properly. I would be doing the same in your position.

I also think horses tend to study the "101 expensive ways to break" guide. My small pony who has had a tie back surgery must have been drinking from the water trough too fast this morning because she started coughing and choking. A painful 10 minutes watching and waiting to see if I needed a vet before she shook her head and wandered off as if nothing had happened. For all I know that could be a regular occurrence but today was the day I was there and saw it. So obviously I now get to panic about water on lungs etc.

Although my vet friend caused even me to raise my eyebrows when she told me about the cob she treated because he'd tried to eat a schooling whip. It got stuck.

Horses, man. It's ridiculous.

Sometimes my gut instinct is right, but sometimes it's just my head getting all wound up. I've lived through many "worst case scenarios" and "worst things that could possibly happen" along with experiencing a lot of loss in my life. I've got PTSD from it, in a way. So hard to know if it's the gut, or the head sometimes! It gets tricky.

I know exactly why I get spun up about things, but it's still hard to sort between what is reasonable and what isn't, when it all seems reasonable because you've seen SHTF too many times. Not to turn this into a psychoanalysis discussion, but I think it plays a role.

I think pursuing a scope today is reasonable. I wish I didn't need to travel for it because OH just put a new steering box on the truck and it needs an alignment now (was scheduled for tomorrow, but there's been a conflict with that too!), but what's killing some tires at this point

Edit: I am not saying that other people don't experience terrible things. We can have different responses to trauma at times and there are a variety of factors that play into it.

 

[CanteringCarrot]

For the nearest clinic the soonest I can get in is Saturday. Which is better from a getting my shit together with the truck perspective, but I don't know if it's good for him to wait so long. He is on Excede, which is a good and powerful antibiotic, so that could keep things at bay a bit. I'm curious to see what he's like today (8:00am here).

I'm going to call the next furthest clinic and see what they've got. I feel bad because traveling will stress him more, and he's going to be like, "Wth woman, I just settled in here!"

 

[CanteringCarrot]

Positive update from the YM today. She said he seems much better than yesterday. Ate all of his feed and was happily munching hay.

 

[PinkvSantaboots]

He could have had a mild choke and now it's cleared as food can sometimes come down the nose then.

Louis had a few choke episodes and I saw chaff in the liquid that came out of his nose a few times, luckily it would pass on it's own apart from one time when it was all really blocked so was a vet tube job.

 

[CanteringCarrot]

Would it come out of the nose for a few days following the choke though? And only when he sneezes?

I could soak his small amount of pelleted balancer. He does get it with oil now though as of this week. I added it for the vitamin E, really.

He's got a lot of tooth stuff in his mouth with the front caps falling out and adult teeth coming in, and at least one molar erupting. It's going as it should, but I wonder if he doesn't chew as well if his mouth is sore from teething?

Or it will just be a totally unexplainable event because horses

 

[Glitterandrainbows]

My friends kid gave her pony an apple she choked and I’m sure she said it came out in clumps from her nose before the vet could get there and was fine once vets there

 

[CanteringCarrot]

My main question is that if it were choke, he would've choked sometime around last Saturday. Would food still come out of his nose almost one week later, and only when he sneezes?

No one witnessed anything else that would lead them to believe that he choked. Would he also have some yellow snot and a slight fever from a choke?

I am hesitant to think that it all started with choke.

Yesterday his fever had gone down .5 degrees Fahrenheit. His temp was 39°C. The thing is, I don't know his normal late afternoon/evening body temp. He was in a sunny field all day, and I have no baseline because I don't know his normal this time of day temp. Which is bad on me!

I didn't notice any yellow snot yesterday, but I think he still has some conjestion. I hand grazed him to watch the amount consumed vs amount out of his nose if he sneezed. When he sneezed the discharge was green like his saliva would be from eating grass, and there were a few tiny pieces, but not as much as the day before. When I watched him eat his balancer pellets, nothing came out of his nose. I wiped his nose after the hand grazing and it stayed pretty clean the whole time that I was there.

He's not quite as forward as he'd normally be at the walk/while leading, and he was rather chill, if not a bit tired last night. However, hard to say if that's due to illness, because that can be normal for him after being on the field all day. I was plaiting his mane and he normally stands still for that anyway. He was still interactive and enjoyed his grooming as usual. He was also interested in his food and water. He greeted me with a whinny when he saw me come toward his field and walked up to me at the gate, as usual.

He seems to be "stable" if not very slightly improved, and the YM thinks so too. We're still hauling over to my regular vet tomorrow morning.

 

[gryff]

It's how my horse presented as choke, but it was snot streaming out of his nose a few days after what must have been a very mild choke episode. I initially thought strangles, so immediately called the vet. They do their strangles calls at the very end of the day. When the vet turned up, the first words were "bloody hell, this horse has choke not strangles". Needed intubated to clear blockage and serious antibiotics to try to reduce chance of pneumonia developing.

 

[CanteringCarrot]

Hm. Interesting. I guess it could've been choke and he cleared it himself.

He's on a powerful antibiotic, so that box is checked. Lungs were clear as of Wednesday.

 

[IrishMilo]

As he's such a big hourse, and paralysis of the larynx is common, was he able to see if the larynx was collapsing on the left hand side?
.

This is a good shout, what I was going to say to look for too. One of my TBs suffered with paralysis of the larynx and frequently had food coming out the nose and back out with coughing.

 

[CanteringCarrot]

This is a good shout, what I was going to say to look for too. One of my TBs suffered with paralysis of the larynx and frequently had food coming out the nose and back out with coughing.

No coughing, and no food just coming out. Only in the event that he sneezes. Yesterday he ate his balancer and some hay while I was there. No sneezing or food coming out then, so it doesn't seem to be everytime he eats, which confuses me more. It's still something we'll investigate though!

 

[CanteringCarrot]

This morning his nose was clean, and stayed clean. The vet pulled blood and the white blood cell count was high, which indicates an infection. So we are continuing antibiotics and banamine for a bit.

So onto the food sneezing...spoke about and looked for paralysis in the larynx, same with anything in the mouth and nothing was found. The vet hypothesized that perhaps a lymph node was swollen and pressed on a nerve or something which caused the food out of nose thing because even with investigation, nothing was abnormal. So will likely go away with the infection, as it seems to be doing.

So, I dunno, really. Just going to finish the meds and see what happens because what else can one do? The food sneezing and mucus has lessened or isn't even there as of this morning so...horses