Sinus Infection

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lily1

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I have a 16 month old gelding who started having symptoms of sinusitis in april he had xrays taken and had a hole made in his head to flush the sinus. After 6 weeks of flushing there were no signs of improvement so he was admitted for C flap surgery where they found a piece of the camera was lodged in his sinus! The sinus was cleaned and a drain was left in for flushing. His skull was wired & stitched and he came home with daily flushing and antibiotics 2 weeks later the flushing tube was removed and the wound healed. Last week he showed signs of a runny nose and watery eye so I called the vet who recommended more xrays, nothing significant showed up so the xrays have been refered to Newmarket vets for a 2nd opinion.
Has anyone else had any experience of reoccuring sinus problems especially in a young horse. I have been told he will probably have to have another op but what his future is I don't know.
 
well my horse isnt young but he got an infection in the sinus over the summer after having one of his molars removed which allowed food to collect in this region.
a couple of months later i noticed the runny nose and yellow coloured mucus again as well as a very unhappy pony, i called the vet and she percribed noridine (sp) to help with the infection it cleared up the infection but and 2months on from the second infection he seems ok.
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........just stupid insurance wont cover his mouth for injury now!!!
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good luck i dont know to much about the operation side even tho it was bought up in convo with the vet if it happens to my boy again
 
My international showjumping mare had this problem about two years ago, she had had an infection in the upper left ( above the eye ) section of her respiratory cavity, we flushed her head everyday with special fliud until all the horrid stuff had gone, the hole healed nicely and she started work again much, much happier. In Italy this year we thought that the infection had come back and re-xrayed her head - nothing of significance found but mare still grabbing the bit on the opposite side to the original problem - then got her teeth done which improved herself again. Have recently purchased a Centurion respiratory machine and we give her a good blast on this with a Karvol capsul which mare just loves and stands there as chilled as a cucumber - I think that the pressure builds up slightly and this relieves that. If you cannot consider this piece of equipment I would go for the old fashioned method of a bucket of hot water, some nice oils and a towel wrapped around your horse's nose - about 20 mins if he will let you every day will help.

Try to avoid a second op - its so traumatic for your horse and expensive. I am horrified that they left a piece of camera in its head - probably caused the ongoing problem.
 
My mare is having sinus problems currently!!!! She is not young - 11 years. Hers all started in July, she has had two lots of the drain treatment flushing and anbiotics, xrays and bone scan detected no identifiable cause e.g. no cyst or tumor or tooth problem. She had the bone flap surgery done 3 weeks ago, which has improved things but its just a wait and see game now, certainly not out of the clear yet! Interestingly when they opened the sinus up during surgery they found infected and rotten nasal bone, which they think had been there a lot longer than 6 months and they possibly think this could have been caused by trauma to the head, this may have caused the sinus problems.

Hope they get to the bottom of your youngsters problem - maybe CT scan would be appropriate, Can they still see fluid lines on xray and are they sure its coming from sinus and not from lower respiratory tract?
 
Yes prettybay the xray showed up a shadow I'm not sure if its fluid or if it has started to solidify? still not heard from the vets hopefully it will be ok. The smell coming from his right nostril is terrible but he is still eating & drinking. I put Vick up his nose and throat to give him some relief as I don't think he will tolerate having a bucket of hot water to steam him.
 
My 4 yr old had a snotty nose and thick yellow discharge in the summer. He did get kicked resulting in a fractured cheek bone as a 2 yr old but had no problems before, He had 5 days antibiotics and it cleared up for a short while then came back. it went on for a couple of months and he was well in himself.
We got another vet to look at him and he wanted to drill his sinuses. We asked to try a 2nd course of antibiotics for 10 days this time and touch wood has been OK for a couple of months now.
If it recurs then we may have to go down that route.
 
My mare has had a blocked sinus since June, had antibiotics for three weeks which helped but didn't get rid of it completely. I spoke to a friend who takes echinacea and also asked people on this forum what they thought about it. With positive feed back I tried it and at first she did get worse but we are now clear. I only bought it from health food shops ect to keep the cost down, but I have not had to go down the route of having a hole drilled in her face.

She is still taking them and I do monitor her, again while she had the problem she didn't go of her food ect and it was just her left sinus that was blocked.
 
We took him to the vets yesterday and he is being operated on today. The results back from Rossdales was a severe infection in a lower sinus.
 
Its now been a week since his op and he is still at the vets. The flushing tube wouldnt stay in as the sinus is so small it pops out everytime its flushed. One result is a bacterial infection still waiting for the culture of the 2nd op possibly a fungal infection.
 
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