Guttural pouch swelling

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Wheels

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About 3 weeks ago my horse presented with a rather large guttural pouch swelling. The vet prescribed 7 days antibiotics, I gave him a week off work and the swelling reduced significantly but didn't go altogether. However as since the horse was eating, drinking, no temperature, no nasal discharge or coughing to start working again as these swellings can take a while to fully clear.

They continued to reduce although still not fully back to normal. This morning they are larger again and a little warm. Lymph nodes don't seem to be enlarged.

I noticed on Thursday evening a very small amount of blood in clear fluid in one nostril but it was so blinking tiny I thought he probably poked his nose when he was eating the hedge. Now I'm a bit more concerned

My local vet is not a specialised equine vet but I think I should maybe contact one of the proper equine places and go for a scope so really looking for people's experiences and see if there's any other tests I should be asking for?
 
They can get a scope into the guttural pouch under sedation which should show if there's any infection. Mine was done as part of strangles testing by the equine vet and wasn't particularly expensive. Might be worth it if the antibiotics haven't worked.
 
If you have a fungal infection in there you need to get on top of it ASAP I would discuss it with a specialist .
 
There is something called guttural pouch mycosis a symptom of which can be dark red blood which is found around the nostril. It is a very rare fungal disease which may require specialist treatment. In order to diagnose an endescope is passed through the nose into the guttural pouch and the vet rotates it to examine the pouch in more detail.

Sometimes xrays are used. If there is a mass or irregular shape visible in the xrays this can indicate disease.

I hope it isn't that for you and its something far simpler but maybe you should speak to a different vet again just to be on the safe side.
 
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Thanks all. He is so well in himself I don't think it's anything too serious but I will err on the side of caution.

I spoke with both practises yesterday and we have a plan in place. Usual local vet will do blood tests this evening, if infection is detected he will get a course of injectable antibiotics, if no improvement he will go to the equine specialist to be scoped after that. If no infection is detected he will go straight to the equine specialist for a scope.
 
Wheels said:
Thanks all. He is so well in himself I don't think it's anything too serious but I will err on the side of caution.

I spoke with both practises yesterday and we have a plan in place. Usual local vet will do blood tests this evening, if infection is detected he will get a course of injectable antibiotics, if no improvement he will go to the equine specialist to be scoped after that. If no infection is detected he will go straight to the equine specialist for a scope.
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Let us know how you get on. The 'advantage' of strangles being so widespread is a scope is a fairly common procedure these days. It was fascinating to watch because the entry into the pouch is tiny so there was a lot of 'left a bit, no right a bit - the other right' from the 2 vets who did my horse's scope. I just wish it wasn't MY horse who has the fascinating (aka expensive) stuff done on her - quite happy to watch it on other people's horses!

Hopefully a course of antibiotics will sort out whatever is going on and there will be no need for tubes up noses.
 
Well the swellings have gone down significantly now and I'm wondering whether it's actually his salivary glands instead.

My local vet did a haemotology blood test and all the different elements came back within normal range, no raised white blood cells = no infection or inflammation

He's booked in to see an equine specialist on Tuesday
 
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