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Discussion on Possible Bloody Discharge During Cycle | |
Author | Message |
Member: canter |
Posted on Tuesday, Jun 7, 2011 - 7:20 am: DrO,On Sunday morning, I brought my mare in, and noticed here tail was filthy (she's a grey with a white tail). On closer inspection, the tail looked a rust color, as if it was dried blood, starting from about half way down to the very end. I looked her over carefully and there were no wounds anywhere on her. I lifted the tail and checked her rear end and there was no discharge on her vulva, underside of the dock or anywhere on the upper half of the tail. She had urinated in her stall before I brought her out for grooming and that smelled normal - almost no odor. I couldn't tell if there was any blood in it. She seemed bright eyed enough, normal pink gums, respiration normal, so I continued with grooming and proceeded with a lesson during which she worked beautifully. After, I checked her pasturemate for wounds - nothing. Walked the pasture looking for clues - nothing. I washed her tail and turned her out again, after discussing with the barn owner, who noticed nothing unusual on Saturday or Friday night since I last rode. Checked on my mare last night, and her tail was red again, although to a lesser extent. Again, she appeared physically fine and worked well, despite a very hot, muggy night. Sparkles is 21, possibly bred before she was imported (as a 3 or 4 year old), but to my knowledge, not bred since then - certainly not since I've owned her for the last 9 years. She has never shown anything but a minor discharge during her cycle except for once earlier this spring, when there was some discharge down the back of her legs that had to be scrubbed off. That didn't appear bloody, but that could be because it was mixed in with dirt from very muddy pastures. At that time, she acted more mareish than she ever has, but I attributed that to the fact that the BO had moved horses around to rotate the pastures (my mare did stay with her gelding pasturemate, though)and one of the other geldings became her neighbor over the fenceline - there was quite a bit of posturing over her by the geldings and she showed more interest than usual in her new neighbor (normally, she shows no interest in anyone across the fenceline, and in fact, could care less who is in her pasture with her as long as the other horse(s) don't bother her) Any ideas what's going on here? She's my first mare so I don't know if this is normal for an older girl, or something I should be concerned about and get the vet out to take a good look. |
Moderator: DrO |
Posted on Tuesday, Jun 7, 2011 - 11:09 am: Hello Fran,If your mare is having repeated episodes of bleeding from the reproductive or urinary tract she should be examined by your veterinarian as this is not normal. But there is another possibility. Some horses urine have phytochemicals that turn red when exposed to sunlight. If she is urinating into her tail and it happens while she is outside this is a possibility. The question is how to tell if that is blood... You might take some stained tail hairs to your vet and they could see if when dipped in a small amount of water it turns a urine test strip positive for blood. DrO |
Member: canter |
Posted on Tuesday, Jun 7, 2011 - 12:48 pm: Thanks, DrO. Another question - do those phytochemicals change over time? What I am getting at is, if this is the phytochemicals changing the tail to red, why now? Her turn out situation has not changed i.e. being stalled full time to now out in the sunny pastures, so I am assuming that something within her urine (hormones?)would have changed to cause such a reaction?Regardless, I will put in a call to my vet and ask him to test for blood per your reco. We'll take the next steps depending on the answer. Thanks do much. |
Member: lynnland |
Posted on Tuesday, Jun 7, 2011 - 1:00 pm: Hi Fran,I know this might sound a bit silly, and you likely would have noticed but....we had an older grey gelding come in one summer with blood all over his tail. I was sure him or one of the others was cut up badly. Turns out he was getting it from between his legs where the bugs were eating him. I was absolutely amazed as the tail looked like it was covered in blood, and although his owner let the bug bites get bad, I would have never thought it would look like that. I saw this horse daily for 2 years prior and never seen this. Anyhow...cleaned him up and added a ton of Swat and all was good. Also, given that horse pee looks real red in the snow...wondering if she managed to pee on her tail more than usual for some reason and you got that lovely color (as per Dr.O's suggestion). Good luck |
Member: mrose |
Posted on Tuesday, Jun 7, 2011 - 1:11 pm: I think strength of the sun and amount of time in the sun would affect the process also. We have a mare whose's tail is always red tinged in summer, but not winter. Maybe the grasses affect the urine color also? Cleaning good the a heavy coat of Show Sheen helps prevent urine stains, if that is what this is. |
Member: canter |
Posted on Tuesday, Jun 7, 2011 - 4:31 pm: Hi Lynn, your suggestion that the red tail is due to bug bites is not silly in the least. On Sunday, I didn't notice any bites, but last night, she definitely has blood spots on her legs, despite gobs of fly spray ( I did turn her out last night with a new set of leg wraps, so if it is bug bites, the tail should be fine when i go out tomorrow night). However, I'm not sure it's the cause as the red tail reached fairly high up (above the hocks), but the blood flecks from the bites were primarily on her fetlocks.Sara, nothing has changed about her turnout from this year to previous years. She's out 24/7 during the summer, just as she has always been, except in severe weather She is in a different pasture, so perhaps there is a different grass/weed in this larger pasture that is changing the chemical composition of her urine? The red color washes out easily with shampoo. I do appreciate the ideas...I'm waiting for a call back from my vet as I will definitely want to rule out a real problem |
Moderator: DrO |
Posted on Wednesday, Jun 8, 2011 - 1:50 pm: Fran, I would first find out what it is before conjecture of why it may have occurred.DrO |