Equine Sinus Problems Are Just Bad Luck

While these tumors may be rare, it’s important to recognize warning signs when they do occur.

If you’re a horse lover who listens to National Public Radio, you might have enjoyed a segment in the fall of 2006 about a race horse named Precisionist.

The 26-year-old American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred earned an Eclipse Award as a champion sprinter, was also a distance runner, and accumulated almost $3.5 million in winnings throughout his career. The focus on Precisionist in the NPR piece was part of a larger story about Old Friends, a non-profit retirement community for thoroughbreds near Georgetown, Ky., where champions are honored, loved and cared for until their deaths.

In the climax of the piece, a now 29-year-old veterinarian named Holly Aldinger administers the injections that end Precisionist’s life. The reporter of the story observes Aldinger tenderly kissing the animal after she pushes in the plunger, but the story behind the animal’s death, indeed, the very reason for Precisionist’s euthanization, is left unexplored.

Don’t blame NPR. After all, the normal listening audience couldn’t care less about equine sinus issues, much less the fact that Precisionist’s death was due to an inoperable tumor in his sinus cavities. (The reporter did report that fact later.)

And it’s not exactly a condition that affects an inordinate number of horses. Tumors in equines are thankfully rare, and most large veterinary practices may only see one or two horses a year with sinus tumors, though other conditions such as sinusitis and cysts in the sinus cavities occur with a bit more regularity.

“In the grand scheme of horse health issues, sinus problems are not high on the list,” said Shauna Spurlock of Spurlock Equine Associates in Lovettsville, Va.

The surgery practice she runs with her husband, Gary Spurlock, has about 3,000 equine patients in its database, and a good number of them are active cases.

“It’s an interesting topic that most people don’t want to deal with,” Spurlock added, “but, it’s a really big issue for anyone that’s had a problem with them.”

Though sinus problems may occur randomly and less commonly than say, joint issues, they’re still a big enough health concern to warrant attention, as many people are unfamiliar with symptoms of sinus disorders and potential treatments.

In Precisionist’s case, Aldinger wasn’t even sure what she was dealing with right away.

She was called to Old Friends because the elderly stallion had a foul odor coming from his mouth. An examination with a speculum revealed a pocket on one of his teeth that looked like it could be harboring infection, and a round of antibiotics took the smell away.

When the smell came back, Aldinger took a skull radiograph, which looked fairly normal. But bleeding from the horse’s nose made her suspect that Precisionist had guttural pouch mycosis, a fungal infection that occurs in part of the canal that connects the throat cavity to the inner ear. The infection can erode the nearby internal carotid artery, the main supplier of blood to a horse’s brain.

“I had difficulty getting the scope through his nasal canal,” Aldinger recalled. “It turned out there was a mass in there, and the nasal septum had deviated. We took a biopsy and it came back as squamous cell carcinoma.”