# Horse with nasal discharge.



## Rob30

What antibiotics do use for your horses. I have an older mare hat has a nasal discharge. She is also losing condition.


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## kscowboy

Horses may have nasal discharge from a single nostril that is very putrid smelling when they have an abscessed tooth or a sinus infection. Horses may also have nasal discharge that may or may not smell bad when they have an infection involving their guttural pouch. The guttural pouch is a diverticulum in the small tube that connects your throat and your ears (why your ears pop when you yawn). In horses it is quite large. Horses may have a less significant and clearer discharge when they have problems with their arytenoids (roarer) or epiglottis in the back of their throat as well. Any of the above may cause the horse to make an abnormal noise when they breath. Horses can also have nasal discharge from mild respiratory infections (like colds in us) or from pneumonia. Horses with COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (aka Heaves) may or may not have nasal discharge, a cough (can be moist or dry) and a heave line (pronounced abdominal musculature associated with chronic difficulty in breathing) .

little more info on your horse would help , age , diet , vet history , losing condition could indicate a teeth issue if not able to eat efficiently.


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## wr

Is her discharge clear, yellow or green and is she new to you? My concern would be that if she's new to you or running yellow or greenish snot, she could very likely have strangles. If she does, it's not advised to give any meds because you can end up with b2st2rd strangles. Current thinking is to wait till you find the lump on or under the jaw and start applying very warm compresses 3+ times a day till you get a dry scab that shows no sign of infection. I've never seen a horse yet that didn't lose condition with strangles. 

Once in a very rare while, a horse will get a gutteral pouch infection which presents itself early on as greenish snot, huge fever and very rapid loss of condition.


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## kscowboy

Strangles info

http://www.horses-and-horse-information.com/articles/0196stran.shtml


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## Jay27

If it is clear discharge, I don't worry too much. Look for other reasons for the weight loss, like bad teeth.

If it is green/yellow discharge, look for abcesses and take note of any coughs or other things. If green/yellow snot doesn't clear in a day or two, I use 3 - 5 days of SMZs. 

Then you have the gutteral pouch infections, strangles, heaves, all the other stuff people mentioned. Less common but serious. If you suspect any of these, do your horse right and call a vet. You will need a vet to get oral antibiotics anyway.


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## 2horses

Since she's up there in age, she may have done what my older gentleman did and developed a polyp in her nasal passage. It caused him to have a very vile. smelly discharge, but from one nostril only. Up until he had his, I had never heard of them before, but apparently it's fairly common in older horses. Then if they get irritated or inflamed for any reason, they can produce this discharge and be very painful. You didn't say if just one or both of your mare's nostrils were involved?


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## Stonybrook

Sounds to me like call the vet since she is also losing weight. I've seen on another board that someone(s?) has recently lost a horse to strangles and had another who had a nightmarish mess caused by strangles. I wouldn't even want to take a chance on messing with that. It sounded horrible.


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## Rob30

I doubt it is stragles. Our horses are never even close to another horse. They have all been living here for over a year. The sick one has been here for 4 years.
The discharge is coming out of both nostrils. The colour is yellowish. I have not seen actual discharge. But I do see the stains on her nostrils. She has no noticable breathing issues. I will look at here teeth and check for any lumps in her throat and jaw. Her condition may be due to the poorer quality hay. The vet doesn't come out here for another week.


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## Jay27

Rob30 said:


> I doubt it is stragles. Our horses are never even close to another horse. They have all been living here for over a year. The sick one has been here for 4 years.
> The discharge is coming out of both nostrils. The colour is yellowish. I have not seen actual discharge. But I do see the stains on her nostrils. She has no noticable breathing issues. I will look at here teeth and check for any lumps in her throat and jaw. Her condition may be due to the poorer quality hay. The vet doesn't come out here for another week.


I would wait and see what the vet has to say... she doesn't sound to be in dire condition. Have the vet float her teeth if it hasn't been done in the last year. You won't be able to feel the back teeth without a speculum.


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## wr

You may want to supplement if her hay isn't the best and maybe enhance the trace minerals. If the feed lacks, you can always add a bit of beet pulp to her diet. The snots amy be the result of dusty hay. Don't forget to increase her rations if the quality is reduced. Please watch her carefully because the yellowish discharge makes me think infection. I can't speak for polyps but I do know that if she has a gutteral pouch infection, they go downhill very fast and based on that, if you see hint of green, call the vet asap. Don't resort to drugs till you know what you're treating. 

I don't remember if you noted your location or not but the elements can affect a horse's nasal discharge. I find in the winter, when it's very cold out, my horses run a clear discharge but in summer, when we're affected by dust, they can run a semi transparent yellow snot. 

If I were deciding to call the vet or not, I'd look at general overall condition. Is she eating and drinking normally (excess water consumption will indicate an infection)? Is she bright or become dull? 

Have you observed her eating grain (in my part of the world that means oats or sweet feed)? If she's spilling as she's eating, she needs her teeth floated very soon.

stonybrook, I've dealt with strangles fairly often and the only time I've had any problems is when somebody decided to take the drug route. I find the old fashioned solution works verry well, hot compresses several times a day. Traditionally, we don't deal with strangles in the winter but I ended up with 15 infected TB's who were not up to speed on that rule. To this day, if someone mentions them, I turn rabid. There's just now words to describe to keep pails of water warm and compresses from freezing when it's -35C and the horses came in thin and couldn't afford to lose any weight so between reheating water, supplemental feedings and trying to keep all my fingers, I think I was passing myself on trips between the kitchen and the barn.


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