Nosebleeds

[Safina]

I competed at a 3DE last weekend and when I finished phase D I noticed the boy (full TB) had a nosebleed. It was dripping a little from both nostrils and dried up very quickly.

I did a little research and it appears that these bleeds tend to come from the lungs where a blood vessels has burst during strenuous exercise.

He had a week off but it happened again when I hacked him out yesterday - he was a menance leaping and prancing around the whole time so whilst not intended to be a strenuous hack it turned into one.

I have the vet coming on Wednesday so obviously will seek and act upon all advice given by him/her but was after some words of reasssurance/advice from others who have also experienced this.

Thanks in advance

 

[RachelB]

My horse used to have nosebleeds, only ever out of one nostril though (although it happened alternately out of one or the other but never at the same time!). It was also only a very small amount, but not always after being worked. A bang on the head would always set one off. I had her endoscoped twice, once for each nostril, and the vet found literally nothing (a few small melanomas in one guttural pouch but nothing that could have caused the bleeding). We concluded that she had weak blood vessels and although my insurance have now excluded "anything relating to epistaxis" I'm not too worried as it caused her no distress and she never lost a lot of blood at all. I'm glad I had her 'scoped though as I now know for sure there is nothing wrong with her airways.
All I did to combat it was feed her from the floor (hard food in rubber bucket on floor instead of wall manger, hay in huge Tubtrug on floor) and kept her stable as dust-free as possible. I also fed her a supplement but I don't reckon it did anything! She's been turned away for the winter due to an un-related injury and she doesn't appear to have bled at all since I stopped riding her in February.
Best advice is talk to your vet, and to do as I did and feed everything from the floor and keep the stable clean and airy. As long as it's not a lot of blood it's nothing drastically worrying, although it's definately worth getting the vet's opinion because, as you said, bleeding from both nostrils usually indicates bleeding from the lungs rather than the head, which is the worse option. But honestly don't worry too much - my boss told me that I'd know it was time to worry when I got to the yard in the morning and the walls and horse were covered in blood! That never happened so I didn't worry too much!

 

[the watcher]

This is mostly seen in TBs for some reason, I know in USA you can buy products designed for the racing market to reduce the chances of this happening, not so sure if they are available here (bleed no more is one of them)

 

[Safina]

Thanks for your replies - its nice to know I am not alone. Articles I have found have indicated that TBs are prone to nosebleeds after fast work but I am wary of what I read on the net!

I'll def consider scoping or anything else the vet recommends as whilst I know I should not worry too much I cannot help it.

Its literally a dribble of blood and dries as soon as we stop fast work so thankfully no hammer house of horror scenes in the morning yet!

I really appreciate the advice re: feeding from floor/dust free stables. He is on rubber matting and fed haylage so hopefully that should help. He is fed in a net otherwise he pees and poos all over it so I think a haybar might be our next investment.

Thanks again for your replies. I'll keep you posted with the vets opinion.

 

[Blizzard]

My friends TB used to have nosebleeds sometimes too, afte hard work, but they were only small and stopped as he got older.

 

[kerilli]

if it's very slight, it's not really much to worry about. can be caused by dust irritating the airway, little polyps in the nose or windpipe that get irritated and bleed slightly. maybe have horse scoped by vet to find out cause.
if the horse burst a blood vessel, a phenomenal amount of blood is the result... no way of confusing the two!
i'd have a chat with your vet about it.
my old eventer had intermittent very slight nosebleeds all his life. cause (after scoping) = polyps. never caused him a problem, and never happened after strenuous work. very strange.

 

[loopylucifer]

mine had several nosebleeds a couple of years ago never had before (1st one after long gallop rest just gentle hacking or at rest) vet came and scooped her after the third one came back with suprising results. had a lower resp infection showed no other syptoms wot so ever after a course of antibs absolutly fine no nosebeeds since!

 

[Safina]

Thanks for the recent replies - I've not been able to get on the site so apologies for the late response.

I had the vet out last week for his jabs/annual MOT and we talked about the nosebleeds. She was of the opinion they were a one-off due to very strenuous exercise. She has recommended one month off hard work/anything that gets his flanks "heaving". I'm to take him for a good blast after 4 weeks and see if he has a bleed. If he does not then she is satisfied that it was a one-off, if he bleeds then scoping it is.

I really appreciate your responses - put my mind at rest