[sirius-dressage]

Could be a number of things. My horse is a chornic bleeder. He will sometimes get nosebleeds for days at a time, and last year his nose bled so badly that we had the vet out, X-rayed his whole skull, scoped both nostrils, only to find nothing. The bleeding finally stopped after about two weeks and we never detirmined anything medically wrong with him to cause such a large amount of bleeding. He would stop bleeding only to have a clot break up and then have it come gushing out again. We think he got whacked in the head by a herd mate and that was why he initially started bleeding. He hasn't bled that badly since.

The first things that come to mind with a nose bleed are a scratch, a foreign object, a tumor, a fracture in the sinus cavity, or gutteral pouch disease.

What we detirmined on my guy was that it might be due to allergies. It doesn't affect him, I just clean him up and continue with training as usual until it stops. He generally gets them early and late summer when the human allergies begin to act up, and he gets hives and loses hair around the same time as the nosebleeds so...

Also, nosebleeds aren't necessarily correlated with exercise. My guy never begins bleeding after exercising, he usually start some time during the day, especially on dry days and it doesn't increase or decrease with exercise. So, there's no saying if it is just exercise induced bleeding.

Anyways, I wouldn't panic too much, but have the vet out if it persists and run some tests to try and rule out the more serious problems like the gutteral pouch or a mass in the sinus cavity. Let us know.

[xduckehx]

Thanks everyone for your input... Due to both occasions (one at beginning of summer, and one months later) not being a large, or dark bleed (not chunky, or thick.. a very light colored brief trickle), I have not had the vet out but have mentioned it to her when talking about my other horse with her in a call. She said she wouldn't think it to be anything of concern, but to watch for it happening again and if there is darker, or more blood, to call and we will do an exam.

The theory thus far is she thinks due to extreme and rapid humidity (for our area atleast.. temperatures rose 20 degrees within a couple days after freezing rain and frost). Said it may or may not have had anything to do with exercise -as sirius has mentioned-, but again.. to just keep an eye on it and the conditions if it presents itself