Mare with a nose bleed....

[Rescue Pony]

Has anyone ever experienced a horse nose bleed?

I have a 6 year old Arabian Mare who had a nose bleed last night and a minor one this morning. The vet states as long as they are not as bad as the first one not to worry (she soaked one paper towel and it took 10 min to stop). Today it only dribbled and stopped after about 2 min. She is not getting worked hard.....she isn't really broke yet and we are working on ground work and some lunging....so they don't think it is from the lungs. We are only going to scope her if they get worse.

The vet's theory is because she came from a pretty bad enviroment with bad hay she is slightly animic and just has week capillaries in her nose...or it is an old injury with a bruised membrane up in her sinus cavity....either way not serious. She is on a multivitimin and round bales now and has gained 50 pounds in the last month.

I was just wondering if anyone has delt with this before? Any ideas on how to help her get through them would be great.

[Simkie]

Nose bleeds can either be nothing or life threatening. Guttural pouch mycosis and ethmoid hematomas can both cause nosebleeds and can both kill a horse in short order by causing a hemorrhage.

I would recommend getting the horse scoped ASAP and I find it concerning that your vet is so laid back about a nose bleed.

[Rescue Pony]

I trust our vet....he has been through a lot with us including bladder cancer and melanoma on a grey....to my TB trying to gut himself on a fence....

Basically he doesn't think it is that serious cause it did stop and it wasn't like a pool of blood...just a good nosebleed. He did say one more "bad" one and we would scope her....but to wait and see since she is so young and she did come from such a poor nutitional environment.

I am basically just looking for any cases out there that you know of that were not serious.....and how long it takes for the cappilary thing to stop. I need to know if I need to go shopping for glasses and a pocket protector for my horse! :D

[Buffyblue]

I was told Vitamin C strengthens the capillaries, if that is the problem. Good luck, hope she's better!

[TwistedBranchsc]

Cold weather can also bring it on... my friend's barrel horse will bleed after he runs.... but it really can depend... trust your vet on it

[Simkie]

There's someone on this board who lost a horse because she delayed scoping it by just a few days. I'm sure if you seach for nosebleed her posts will come up.

The next time your horse has a "bad" bleed, it very well may be her last.

Nose bleeds are really not something to screw around with. Two bleeds in two days is extremely concerning and not something to take lightly at all.

[purplnurpl]

Nose bleeds can either be nothing or life threatening. Guttural pouch mycosis and ethmoid hematomas can both cause nosebleeds and can both kill a horse in short order by causing a hemorrhage.

I would recommend getting the horse scoped ASAP and I find it concerning that your vet is so laid back about a nose bleed.

Yup. Get that horse in ASAP! If it is nothing then great. If it is something then you will have saved your horse's life. Guttural pouch mycosis often starts out as a little trickle here, a little trickle there.
Then a pool of blood in the pasture and that's the end of it.
Should be taken very very seriously.

[BeesyBee]

My horse just recently had a nose bleed in one nostril that dripped for over two weeks! It never pooled like yours, but his stall wall was speckled with blood. It looked awful. I had him scoped twice and they couldn't come to any conclusions really. I took x-rays of his sinus cavity to make sure that it was clear because one eye had a little swelling below it. It was all clear, though. One vet thought that it was from head trauma and the other said that he thought that he must have scratched his nose on something... a stick or a stalky piece of hay.

I started soaking his hay and tried to lower dust so that he didn't sneeze a lot to trigger more bleeding. They also told me to give him 1 cc of ace a day to lower his blood pressure so the dripping would stop. It stopped about 1 week later.

I'd have your horse scoped... it will tell you a lot. It's quick and you get a definite answer about what everyone is saying above about the gutteral pouch infection and ethmoid bleeding (mine had neither so that's why they told me to relax a little.

[Lola Ranger]

We have some race horses. This is a common problem with them.
I know there are natural products available to help with this
condition.

[Simkie]

We have some race horses. This is a common problem with them.
I know there are natural products available to help with this
condition.

EIPH is drastically different than a nosebleed out of the blue.

[Sansena]

Nose bleeds can either be nothing or life threatening. Guttural pouch mycosis and ethmoid hematomas can both cause nosebleeds and can both kill a horse in short order by causing a hemorrhage.

I would recommend getting the horse scoped ASAP and I find it concerning that your vet is so laid back about a nose bleed.


Agreed. You just have to have witnessed one die like this, and you suddenly realize how it can go from 'just a drip' to gushing, bleeding OUT in a matter of seconds.

OP: Please, scope your horse.

[Murphy's Mom]

Murphy had a nosebleed a few years ago. It was winter - I remember because there was blood in the snow. I waited until morning to call the vet and he wanted to come out asap to scope him. He found a minor scrape in Murphy's nose so thought that was the cause of the blood. Told me to keep an eye on him and call if it kept bleeding. Well, two days later it was still bleeding. I had just come home from work so called the vet after hours. My poor, exhausted vet wanted to know if the amount of blood was like a paper cut or an ax murderer. :D Since it was more the paper cut variety he had me wait until morning to bring Murphy to the clinic for a better look on the scope there (attached to the big tv). We took a look at his gutteral pouches looking for infection. It was really interesting! Took an hour and I remember we were all sitting on the floor by the end because it got really tiring holding Murphy's head up. We never did find what caused the bleeding but I know I was relieved to find it was NOT a gutteral pouch infection.

[chai]

Rescue, one of our mare had a nosebleed last summer that started quite abruptly. It wasn't a lot and the boarding barn where we kept her was immaculate and she was well cared for.
The vet did two scopes and when there was nothing definitive, we sent her to an equine hospital. The vets there showed me a small circle (about 3 cm) on the mucosa just inside the upper part of the nostril where blood was seeping through the membrane...like a small sponge.
They could not figure out what caused it, and they kept her for a few more days until it stopped.

The only thing I could think of was a type of pelleted feed through fly control that, when I looked more closely, carries a warning about skin irritability. My thought is that she inhaled one of the pellets and it stuck to the soft mucosa, causing a burn type injury.

A scope is worth every penny. Best of luck with your mare.

[Sudi's Girl]

I find it really strange how laid back some vets are about this! I would definitely have the horse scoped!

I had a friend come back from a trail ride, and his horse had a minor nose bleed. Same thing after he ate his dinner that night. Called the vet, and she said it could be from the dry/cold (how that made sense I'll never know as it won't quit raining here!).

At any rate, the horse is fine - but this nonchalance worries me!

[merrygoround]

Another person who has been around and seen gutteral pouch mycosis in a yearling. I have also known of horses who had severe uncontrollable epistaxis, and ended up dying. Neither was a racehorse.

Get it scoped!!!!!

[Rescue Pony]

Got her scooped today.......scope is clear.

Looks like she has a broken nose......her upper sinus cavity has a couple hairline fractures....

Antibiotics for 10 days and no working for at least 2 weeks....poor baby.

[Pippigirl]

Got her scooped today.......scope is clear.

Looks like she has a broken nose......her upper sinus cavity has a couple hairline fractures....

Antibiotics for 10 days and no working for at least 2 weeks....poor baby.

Wow, poor dear! So...time to go buy a pocket protector and glasses then?? ;)

[NMK]

Good on you for getting the answer. Actually, be glad that it is something that will heal fine in a rather short while. I had a horse survive gutteral pouch mycosis with surgery and extensive rehab (30 days at OSU). But I must say he's also the ONLY horse I've ever known to survive that infection.

Whew, I'm happy for you.

Nancy

[equineartworks]

Poor thing! But at least you got her scoped!

I have the vet coming tomorrow for Dumplin' He has had a tiny trickle (seriously, just one trickle...a spot about a 1/8" in size that never even hits the ground then nothing) twice now after severe weather changes and I just feel that it is better to be safe than sorry!

[Rescue Pony]

I'm thinking instead of a pocket protector maybe a helmet and a big white strip of tape over her nose!

The vet let me see in the scope and see all the brusing....she probably did this a month ago but her nutrition was so poor that it just started healing and thus the blood flow......

Thank goodness it wasn't something serious...the vet said the T word (tumor) and after what we had to go through with Hottie the horse we lost to cancer the beginning of the year I don't think I could go through it again!

[Milocalwinnings]

I'm really glad that it turned out to be not-so-serious and hope she has a speedy recovery!

I personally have had a horse with Guttural Pouch Mycosis and it is not a pretty experience. Multiple vets saw her over a period of a few days, and all said it was nothing serious- a tooth root infection, or a bee sting, etc... My vet was on vacation at the time and called me on the 4th day, explaining that it could be very serious and to have her scoped ASAP. I wish I could have talked to him sooner. She hemorrhaged on the trailer and was euthanized when we walked in the door:cry:

Your gut instinct is to trust your vet. In this case your vet was right and it was nothing serious (and hopefully if they thought something was more wrong they would have suggested it)... I pretty much trusted 3 vets, though deep down I really knew something was very wrong and expressed my concerns, only to be blown off. I trust my normal vet (the one who called us on the fourth day)- but if I ever feel something is not right, I've learned that you have to push for it.

Keep trusting your vet, but more importantly, also trust your instincts. Again, I'm very glad to hear she doesn't have GPM and is on the way to recovery.

[draftgirl01]

I had a friend whose gelding had a bloody nose. Started light and then just ran out of his nose all the time.

She scoped him scoped several times but her vetsaw nothing. A scope only goes so far. After finally telling her that this was not normal and she needed to go get another opinion, she finally she took him in for a head x-ray and behind the bone was a fairly large tumor. They removed it, bleeding stopped, and he is fine.