Nose bleeds

[MizElz]

just wondered if anyone else has a horse who suffers from them....a couple of years ago, i was on a school trip when my horse started showing blood in her left nostril. it wasnt a lot of blood, but enough that the vet came straight out to see her. they scoped her and couldnt find anything major (thank god, as the word 'tumour' was mentioned initially). vet didnt want her to go on medication, so we just try to give her as dust-free an environment as possible. she does still have small bleeds occasionally; the only thing i can narrow it down to is that she seems to bleed during winter when she hasnt been outside as much. does anybody else have experience of this?

 

[OrangeEmpire]

some horses just have week blood vessels in their noses which leak occaisionally. Cold weather can often exaserbate this (particularly going from from a cold environment to a warm one suddenly). If it isn't a lot of blood and she seems well in herself, I really wouldn't worry.

 

[4WhiteLegs]

My old girl used to get them just before she reached peak fitness, once fully 3DE fit they would stop.... The slower we built up fitness the less she got them, if we pushed her to soon she'd get lots....

Once we learnt how to control them they never caused her problems

 

[MizElz]

thanks! it doesnt seem serious really, there is never very much of it and she is bright as a button! i just got panicked wen the vet said that he has known of horses that have tumours, and when it gets to a certain size it erupts and 'paints the stable red'.....

 

[kerilli]

it can just be minor irritation of their nasal membranes, which can be delicate if they've had nosebleeds before, iirc. i think dust etc from being inside can set off the irritation etc.
my old eventer had about 10 small nosebleeds (just a light trickle/smear of blood in one nostril) total in the 18 years i had him. he'd never had one while competing, even at 2* level, so it was obv nothing to do with exertion. if your horse's are as minor as that, i wouldn't worry about them. a horse contains a LOT of blood, and when they bleed it always looks as if there's more than there is! if he's burst a blood vessel up there, you'll know, cos it looks much more major than a tiny smear.
scoping/stomach tubing can cause a little bit of damage up the nose which can mean they're more prone to the odd tiny bleed later as well, i think.
if in doubt, chat to your vet again, obviously.
if they scoped her and found nothing, i wouldn't worry.

 

[dianchi]

Yep my lil mare gets them alot. Esp in winter. Normally cos she has knocked her nose. I stopped her having a haynet and that helped alot too!
Always looks like loads of blood but isnt alot really!

 

[StaceyTanglewood]

My mare had one once when she got seriously stressed out on a hack when it was peeing down with rain - never had another problem till she had a trauma earlier this year and impaled herself on a gate post - the next day she had a nose bleed !!

 

[jennyb]

my mare had them randomly on and off,always out of the same nostril, and there was no pattern to if it were hot, cold, rainy, sunny, or if she was stressed, over worked, under worked, fit, unfit....she had ones from being lunged, and had them stood in the stable, to out jumping, the vets first thought it was an ethmoid haematoma (...spelling..?) but that calmed down after a few months, so they then filled her lungs with some fluid and then took samples of that to see if there was blood in that, and that was negative, then they thought it might be a weak vessel up in her sinus, so the advice was to leave it alone if it wasn't serious. I asked what if she had a nosebleed at a competition to which the reply was "wipe her nose and carry on". .....so if its only a bit and the horse is fine in itself, keep an eye on it but don't let it interrupt what you do with her!