Nose bleed - worrying

P

ponytrouble

Active Member
Joined
7 April 2021
Messages
38
Visit site
Hello, My ISH mare has now had three nosebleeds over the course of six weeks, each during the warm up at a competition in warm (but not always hot) weather. The blood has come from one nostril and has been a trickle only. I'm taking her to the vet tomorrow to be scoped but I made the mistake of reading Google and am now panicking that something's seriously wrong with her . . . that said, she's displaying zero other symptoms, is eating/drinking well and generally a very happy girl. Does anyone have any similar experiences?!
 
Yes a previous horse did and they scoped his guttural pouches but could only get in one side, apparently from what I read about it it is notoriously difficult to access guttural pouches a bit like how it's difficult to intubate humans sometimes I think.

I think they were looking at the possibilty of guttural pouch mycosis which is a relatively rare condition because it can also cause ataxia. He was ataxic but this was because he was later diagnosed with wobblers so was irrelevant anyway.

They didn't find anything in his guttural pouch. He had developed four or five nose bleeds, but like your horse only slight and from one nostril.
 
Thanks, this is what the vet has warned me about (she described it as 'devastating'. Glad to hear that they found nothing in your horse - hopefully we'll have the same results tomorrow!
 
Did the vet mention exercise induced pulmonary haemorrhage to you? My horse had this and his started with a random nosebleed when it was quite hot. It's what racehorses get and it's quite common, much more so than gutteral pouch mycosis. It's basically where tiny blood vessels burst in the lungs during exercise and some of the blood makes it up the airways and comes out of the nose. It can be associated with inflammatory airway disease (asthma etc) and if that's present you might get inhalers or similar for that. I just learnt to manage it with my horse in the end and I think the vet's view was that the odd bleed now and then wouldn't be the end of the world. He's retired now due to other issues and it doesn't bother him when he's not working.
 
She did but we both dismissed it as the vet was certain that was really only something she's seen in racehorses . . . and doesn't come on every time she undertakes heavy exercise. Happily she doesn't seem to be in any distress and isn't showing any signs of having difficulty breathing. Glad to hear it doesn't bother your horse - fingers crossed we have a similar outcome.
 
Just to say then that my horse isn't a racehorse - he's a Connemara! And he didn't have it every time he did heavy exercise either. He does like to be contrary and do the opposite to what all the books say though! Actually my local vet very much dismissed it and was more thinking of things like guttural pouch mycosis, which scared the cr*p out of me too. When we went in to hospital for the scope though the specialist reassured me pretty much straight away that it wouldn't be guttural pouch mycosis and I think he pretty much already knew what he was going to find.

Hopefully they'll find out tomorrow what's going on with your girl and it will be somethin easily treatable or manageable. I think if it was guttural pouch mycosis the bleeding incidents would be much more random whereas you seem to have a very specific circumstance. And it is a rare condition so hopefully it's not that.
 
My friend's horse went through a horrific time from gutteral pouch mycosis last year. Get a referral and get your horse scoped properly - it was horrible and he basically drowned to death in the end with a horrible lung infection even after the surgery which was touch and go. After watching that, I wouldn’t risk it.

Edit: He had two nosebleeds just in his stable, and one in a trailer, in the space of about ten days to a fortnight. My mate thought he’d knocked his head or something but the third one took a while to stop. He was bright and seemed totally healthy. And when they scoped him, they were shocked he hadn’t bled to death already it was so bad.
 
Last edited:
I do know a horse that survived guttural pouch mycosis! Long journey with the vets so you're right to get the scope.

My friend's cob gets irregular nosebleeds (scoped clear) & vets think its some sort of allergy.
 
I had a mare with fungal infection of the gutteral pouch

She had a big bleed but survived, s Canadian vet did something to the carotid artery to block it and form a clot i think, it was 20 years ago, she recovered and bred a foal,

Essential to scope the pouches, but it's probably not that hopefully, as mine had other symptoms such as dysphagia, trouble swallowing due to the infection affecting the nerves in the throat


Good luck tomorrow
 
My mare has lung scarring after pleural pneumonia and suffers from respiratory sensitivity issues. She had a couple of very small trickle type nosebleeds as we started to increase her work earlier in the year but I dropped the work down again for a couple of weeks then stepped it back up and she’s been fine. Hers was lack of conditioning in her lungs. Definitely get a scope/vets opinion if your horse has no history of this and has not had a recent change in work load that could have caused it
 
Thank you for the nudge - it's been such a busy couple of day. They found absolutely NOTHING and to say I was relieved is the understatement of the year (I cried, a lot). Vet couldn't see anything so can only suggest the nosebleeds are because of the heat. There's still investigation to do, but it's nothing serious which is brilliant.
 
ponytrouble said:
Thank you for the nudge - it's been such a busy couple of day. They found absolutely NOTHING and to say I was relieved is the understatement of the year (I cried, a lot). Vet couldn't see anything so can only suggest the nosebleeds are because of the heat. There's still investigation to do, but it's nothing serious which is brilliant.
Click to expand...
Glad to hear nothing sinister was found! Brilliant news!x
 
So glad it wasn't what you feared! Just a random thought - do you feed MSM? My lad has a bit of EIPH, but only if I feed MSM - and it only takes 10g / day for him, at 17hh. The other thoughts would be dust from arenas at competitions, along with the heat?
 
Don't wish to worry you, but I had one that was getting one sided nosebleeds.
Scoped clear & vet thought all was good & should sort itself out in time.
Couple of weeks later the bleeds started to get a little worse & long story short, she had a tumour that was pressing on something ( details are hazy as it was a while ago), she became a bit neurological & was pts.
vet did a pm free as he was interested to find out what was going on as it was unusual presentation.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top