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 Night Watchman
Posts: 5516
 
Location: Central Montana | My friend called me Wed. afternoon to tell me she had gone to the barn that morning check on her filly and the 27 yr old gelding that was babysitting her. She said there was blood all over......the barn walls, the panels outside, the snow. everywhere........she couldn't find a mark on either horse, the older one is white, and the filly was sorrel. She found a bucket in the barn with about 1/2 inch of blood in it and figured out the filly had been bleeding from her nose.
She loaded her up and took her to the vet. They drew blood, put her on antibiotics and vitamin K and sent her home. She was fine Thursday and Friday and when my friend went out to check on her yesterday morning she found her dead. She had bled out through her nose.
We are all stumped on what could have possibly happened to her. My friend and her husband chose not to do a necropsy. I may not have it exactly right as this what my friend told me over the phone but she said the vet thinks possibly a gutteral pouch infection that ate through the cartilage and carotid artery. The weird thing is the filly had not been sick, not one little bit. The other idea they had talked about was some type of hemotoma. It has been icy and then snow over the ice but it seems almost impossible that a hemotma could bleed that much. They checked her over and she had no sore spots or swelling where she may have slipped and fell on the ice causing an injury and a hemotoma.
Does anyone have any thoughts on what could have happened? My friend is in shock, she had just lost another older gelding to heart problems a few weeks ago (most of her herd is geriatric.) Being that she is about 40 miles from the vet doing the necropsy in the dead of a very cold spell of Montana winter just wasn't feasible.
Wanted to add.....they haven't gotten the blood results back from the lab yet.
Edited by GoinJettin 2014-02-23 9:09 PM
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 You get what you give
Posts: 13030
  
Location: Texas | they can have infections in their guttural pouch and not really show much. how awful :(.
I wonder if she had an aneurism that ruptured. So sorry about your friends horse :( |
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 Hog Tie My Mojo
Posts: 4847
Location: Opelousas, LA | Sounds like gutteral pouch to me also, could have been a fungal infection sometimes those don't show much at all.
I freak whenever I have unexplained bleeding from the nose. I saw a filly bleed out in her stall from a fungal infection of her gutteral pouch. Not sure what her symptoms were prior, wasn't my horse. Very scary, she freaked out and was spinning around with blood flying everywhere, couldn't even catch her til it was too late.
Sorry for your friends loss.
Edited by Barnmom 2014-02-23 9:31 PM
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Veteran
Posts: 160
| I'd also say gutteral pouch infection. There can beno signs prior. Sometimes a horse will bleed a little from one nostril with a gutteral pounch infx but not always. I've seen more that one found dead because they bled out their nose. |
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Night Watchman
Posts: 5516
Location: Central Montana | Wow, thank you all for your thoughts and experience. I've never had one with a gutteral pouch infection, I do not know anyone personally who has, I've just read about other people's experience with them here.
Very scary to say the least, especially when there are no signs.
Edited by GoinJettin 2014-02-23 9:40 PM
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 Swiffer PIcker Upper
Posts: 4015
Location: Four Corners Colorado | I lost one that way. Never acted sick a day in his life. I went out and saw blood all over my feeder and found him dead in the bottom pasture.
Edited by equussynergy 2014-02-23 9:58 PM
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  Angel in a Sorrel Coat
Posts: 16030
Location: In a happy place | This was one of the symptoms my stud horse had before he died. Maybe this is the answer for mine too. |
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Veteran
Posts: 129
| Is there a cause for a gutteral pouch infection or is just a freak deal?
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Had a friend loose hers due to guttural pouch infection, horse bled out, it was actually a fungus that decayed the bone and the artery |
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Veteran
Posts: 196
| Lost a young stud like that many years ago. He had a breeding accident, reared up and fell sideways banging his head on the ground. He seemed OK, but had a slight clear discharge from the nostril on that side. He was ridden regularly and displayed no other symptoms. About two months later we found him dead one morning, lying very peaceful, but entire pen covered in blood. You could see he had eaten and began to bleed when he put his head down to drink. He had a guttural pouch infection that must have started with the injury. |
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 Night Chat Leader
Posts: 13150
Location: Home....Smiling M Farms | Kind of sounds like this filly had gutteral pouch mycosis :( I had a mare that bled out her nost on me once and the first thing I did was have her pouch's scoped. Thankfully they were all clear. She had other issues but it was such a relief to find out it was not that. |
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 Can You Hear Me Now?
Location: When you hit the middle of nowhere .. Keep driving | Lots of hugs for your friend. This is one of my nightmares |
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She's a Tough One
Posts: 3199
| No thoughts or advice just So sorry for your friends loss. Never easy. |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | I went through that with my horse that had cancer in his sinuses. The tumor got into a major blood vessel and my barn looked like a murder scene. He was going into shock when the vet euthanized him and we almost didn't get it done. |
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