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  Discussion on Unilateral green discharge from nose
Author Message
Member:
Cmdawson

Posted on Monday, Nov 14, 2005 - 2:05 pm:

Hello, I have a 5 month pregnant broodmare that has had a unilateral greenish/whitish discharge from one nostril off and on for about a month. Her temperature is 99.8. At approximately 70 days of pregnancy, she went off of her feed and had hard dry stool. She went to the clinic, where she was diagnosed with a mild enteritis that was pulling water from the colon. While there, she started leaking fluid into her gut and her white cell count plummetted. They gave her fluids and lidocaine for gut motility but no antibiotics. They said the cause may have been a mild virus. They gave me some gastrogard to help with ulcers from the hard stool. Now she has this and does seem mildly depressed, but not completely off of her feed. I do not know if I should give her antibiotics since she has had problems with her gut before and they change gut flora or if it would be okay to start 10 days worth and see if it helps. The clinic cost wiped out my budget for this.
Member:
Cmdawson

Posted on Monday, Nov 14, 2005 - 2:19 pm:

Also, I would like to add that I did not give her a pneumabort shot because I would like to clear this up before hand. She has had somewhat soft stools, but has some bouts of diarrhea recently also. I gave her some probios to help with the diarrhea.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Nov 15, 2005 - 9:49 am:

First let's straighten out some of the assumptions made above. Colitis (enteritis of the colon) does not pull fluid from the bowel it secretes it. On top of that it interferes with the normal function of the colon, one of which is to remove water from the lumen. Both of these contribute to making a loose stools (diarrhea) when a horse has colitis. A dry hard stool may indicate an impaction. The following diarrhea and low WBC count suggest a secondary colitis, which is not uncommon following digestive upsets of all kinds. Also hard stools don't cause ulcers. The decision to give antibiotics in these cases are tough as they can contribute to the colitis. This decision is usually based on fever and toxic changes in the white blood cells. Banamine and Regumate are often given to pregnant mares with inflammatory diseases to preserve the pregnancy. For more on all this see:
  • Equine Diseases » Colic and GI Diseases » Diarrhea in Horses » Initial Evaluation of Colitis in Horses
  • Equine Medications and Nutriceuticals » Reproductive Drugs » Regumate® & Progesterone
DrO
Member:
Cmdawson

Posted on Tuesday, Nov 15, 2005 - 12:03 pm:

Hi, I think I am confusing things. She had what they thought was an impaction (dry, hard stool) approximately 3 months ago. That was when her wbc was going down and she was getting what I was told was a "leaky gut". What was the leaky gut from? The clinic said she had a mild enteritis and that instead of diarrhea, it was pulling water from the colon? does this sound plausible? They also suggested gastrogard incase the manure she hadn't passed was causing some ulcers in the intestine. That was 3 months ago.

Now, she has the unilateral snotty nose and diarrhea. I am concerned about giving the antibiotics in case her g.i. tract is still not up to snuff.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Nov 17, 2005 - 9:17 am:

It does not make sense to me Chris but you will have to ask them to be clear on what they meant by a leaky gut.

I would not give antibiotics in the face of a diarrhea unless there was a clear indication for there need and a acute unilateral nasal discharge does not indicate such but I can think of some instances, a bacterial sinusitis for instance, that should be treated. I am most worried about the fact that she does not seem to feel well Chris and think this problem needs to be addressed with a good physical exam.
DrO
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