Hmm..any thoughts?

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SusieT

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Got a 21yr old, came diagnosed with COPD from old owners. Horses are kept on shavings anyway, and turned out a lot so not much management change. Currently fed on horse haylage, been on hay when out in the field over the winter.
Discharge (white/green) from one nostril a lot of the time. Now coughing a lot more. Was quidding, and has had a few teeth out and teeth regularly done. Exceptionally good doer.
My possibles were tooth abcess, foreign body or something else?
Doesn't seem typical COPD to me tbh, with it only being one nostril, no heaving etc.
 
Could it be choke? Not able to chew food properly so can't swallow and some is coming back through nostril. Just a thought, I've seen it before and wrongly thought the horse had a respiratory problem
 
Sounds like a tooth abcsess, may have sinusitis too. You need to get head xrays done to find out. COPD should be accompanied by coughing and heaving. It doesn't matter how often teeth have been checked, abscesses cannot be picked up from inside the mouth.
 
Yes, however strange that over the last year or so *symptoms are slightly on off, and vet has vacc pony twice in this period before you ask and otherwise healthy* it hasn't got drastically worse, which I would have thought a tooth abcess would do?
I'm thinking x-ray and scope are probably the way forward, well, actually, only way forward, but won't be arranging that until the week beginning.
 
On-off discharge would make me think sinusitis with a partially occluded drainage angle. As you horse has already had teeth removed it will have big changes with its jaw, perhaps making it less likely to present as you would expect. Do you know if they were upper or lower teeth?
 
SusieT said:
both I believe, think he's missing 2 or three, on either side.
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If he's missing 2 or 3 on each side? ie both? then I would say he's having trouble chewing anything other than grass will be difficult for him, this would also cause the quidding.

Good luck with finding out what's wrong as above poster says keep us posted will be interesting to know.
 
don't know if I ever update on this? But pony had guttural pouch infection, long standing, so had it flushed and operated on and is now 100% fit and healthy again.
 
SusieT said:
Got a 21yr old, came diagnosed with COPD from old owners. Horses are kept on shavings anyway, and turned out a lot so not much management change. Currently fed on horse haylage, been on hay when out in the field over the winter.
Discharge (white/green) from one nostril a lot of the time. Now coughing a lot more. Was quidding, and has had a few teeth out and teeth regularly done. Exceptionally good doer.
My possibles were tooth abcess, foreign body or something else?
Doesn't seem typical COPD to me tbh, with it only being one nostril, no heaving etc.
Click to expand...

Could it be an infection with his gutteral pouch? The vet will be able to insert a camera into the pouch to see if it is infected although sometimes they are a nightmare to gain access to. My horse had recurrent minor nosebleeds out of one nostril before and during exercise and a gutteral infection was suspected.

http://treatmentofdiseases.blogspot.com/2006/01/mysterious-guttural-pouch.html

It was this paragraph that made me think it could possibly be this although not necessary this disease : An affected horse will show a persistent, creamy discharge, usually from one nostril. When the horse lowers its head to graze, the discharge usually increases as gravity allows more pus to exit the pouch into the pharynx and flow out the nasal passage
 
Nope, it was thought it was highly likely he was, I was of the opinion he couldn't be due to not having passed it to any others in the last oh..5/6years. He was carrying a different strain of strep. , but hard to say if that was the original infection or secondary.
 
SusieT said:
Got a 21yr old, came diagnosed with COPD from old owners. Horses are kept on shavings anyway, and turned out a lot so not much management change. Currently fed on horse haylage, been on hay when out in the field over the winter.
Discharge (white/green) from one nostril a lot of the time. Now coughing a lot more. Was quidding, and has had a few teeth out and teeth regularly done. Exceptionally good doer.
My possibles were tooth abcess, foreign body or something else?
Doesn't seem typical COPD to me tbh, with it only being one nostril, no heaving etc.
Click to expand...

Hi Susie T
I have a similar problem with my horse. Can you give me an update on how yours is now? Mine was tested for strangles and came back negative twice but vet still insists there is a chance it could be because of the guttural pouch infection. They are flushing him twice a day for a week, so far all looks good but I would like to know what happened with your case.
Thanks
 
Back to normal totally. Does yours have chondroids or just gunk in guttural pouch? Ous had the twice a day flushing, followed by surgery as the chondroids were too big to get out.
Ours is not 100% normal and looks 10 years younger!
 
Because of the time frame, are you sure it's not summer pasture COPD/RAO, ie allergy to pollen rather than dust or hay spores? Pollen allergy is a pig to manage because (obviously) you can't remove the pollen from the air the horse breathes, unlike dust or hay spores. What tends to happen is that the lungs get more and more damaged every year, with partial remission towards the end of winter. The fact that it wasn't a problem when he was fed hay (ie not haylage) in the field over winter would make me think pollen allergy. It's now that horses with a pollen allergy start coughing, when the tree pollen goes into overdrive. Horrible sticky mucus gets coughed up from the lungs and whether it comes out of one nostril or two is immaterial. If you're still in touch with the previous owners, it would be helpful if they could advise when his COPD was at its worst and what (if anything) they did about it.
 
SusieT said:
Nope, it was thought it was highly likely he was, I was of the opinion he couldn't be due to not having passed it to any others in the last oh..5/6years. He was carrying a different strain of strep. , but hard to say if that was the original infection or secondary.
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I was told by an experienced vet from a large equine referal centre that Strangles can be carried in the gutteral pouch for 20 years without infecting another horse and then one day it will shed the bacteria and other horses can be infected.
 
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