The Nose Knows

Does your horse have nasal discharge? Learn what could be causing it and the steps to

take to get him back on the road to health.

You arrive at the barn to find your horse with a snotty nose. Do you clean him up and ride him anyway? Call your veterinarian for an emergency visit? Or do you decide to take the day off and see what your horse looks like the next morning?

The answer isn’t simple. The cause of your horse’s nasal discharge can range from something as simple as a little dust irritation to as serious as a life-threatening pneumonia.

Here, I’ll give you the tools you need to determine what to do when you find your horse with a nasal discharge. First, I’ll tell exactly what mucous is. Next,

I’ll explain how to evaluate your horse’s discharge by giving you five questions to answer about its nature. I’ll describe what each answer likely means about your horse’s condition and recommend an action step.

Finally, I’ll outline five common snotty-nose scenarios. For each scenario,

I’ll give you the most likely cause of the discharge, whether it’s an emergency, and a recommended action plan. Along the way, I’ll tell you about a different reason for nasal discharge that looks alarming but is usually easily resolved (see page 64).

Mucous, Defined

Mucous in your horse’s nose is composed of water, salt, and a group of proteins called mucins that give it its sticky, stretchy character. Mucous acts as a blanket that protects the sensitive tissues of your horse’s nasal passages and prevents them from drying out.

Because mucous is sticky and thick, it also acts a bit like flypaper, trapping bacteria, viruses, and other foreign substances to prevent them from moving farther down into your horse’s respiratory tract. Finally, mucous contains antibodies that recognize and attack foreign invaders.

When your horse has a cold or allergy that affects his respiratory tract, his tissues produce excessive mucous so it can better perform its important job of flushing out unwanted invaders. If something causes inflammation, a type of white blood cells called neutrophils rush to the area. And if there’s an actual infection, neutrophils gobble up bacteria or viruses, then release enzymes to destroy them.

Five Questions

When your horse has a snotty nose, answering the following five questions will help you determine your best course of action.

1. One nostril or two?

One nostril: If the nasal discharge is coming from only from one nostril, you can usually localize your horse’s problem to somewhere in front of his pharynx where the nasal passages meet. Problems that typically cause a one-sided discharge include sinusitis (sometimes related to a tooth-root issue), a nasal-passage abnormality (such as a foreign body, cyst, or abscess), or a problem in a guttural pouch. (Guttural pouches are a pair of blind sacs at the back of the nasal passages.)

Action step: Call your vet. If a onesided nasal discharge is persistent, your vet will recommend radiographs of your horse’s skull and/or