Nox is home. After 24 very scary hours, we have a diagnosis: nothing. The radiographs yesterday morning were examined by several veterinarians and radiologists, including a sinus/nasal/throat specialist and they didn't find any masses, tumors, or anything suspicious. To be sure they weren't missing anything, Dr. Hill and her team scoped his nasal passage and throat again.
The good news is they can't find anything that would cause a nosebleed and there is nothing life threatening going on in Nox's head. The frustrating news is they can't find anything to fix. Dr. Hill said that the next step, if they had found something suspicious in the radiographs, would be to put Nox under general anesthesia and perform CT scans. However, since they haven't found anything worrisome, the risks of putting Nox under anesthesia are too high to warrant that step. I agree. Horses as a species are very risky to anesthetize - their huge body mass makes it difficult for them to lie on one side for too long without injuring organs, tissue, and bone; and the awakening process is fraught with hazards, as the sedated, confused horse attempts to stand up. Some horses develop colic days later and can become very sick. Sometimes anesthesia is unavoidable and the vets must weigh the risks with saving a horse's life. Since we have ruled out all life-threatening issues with Nox, Dr. Hill doesn't want to take these chances.
So, at this point, Dr. Hill has to guess that he might have bumped his head just right to rupture some blood vessels in his nose. It happens. My Dad theorized that maybe Agnes the Goat head-butted him while they were sharing grain. It's possible, Agnes does love to play the head-butt game. He also likes to play "nip the nose" with his neighbor Ellie over the stall doors. Maybe he got too excited and banged his nose. He is a klutz. Who knows?
I'm grateful that there is nothing seriously wrong with him. I can't express how terrified I was on Sunday, thinking he might have Guttural Pouch Mycosis and I was going to lose him. It brings tears to my eyes now, reliving that fear. I haven't had enough time with Nox; I'm not ready for him to go. But, a small part of me wishes I had a concrete explanation and something to fix, but... it is what it is. Dr. Hill told me that if he has another nosebleed in the near future, I can give her a call, but it won't need to be treated as an emergency (unless the bleeding won't stop after 20 minutes or so), since we've ruled out the fatal conditions. It takes months for horses to develop the damaging fungus that causes Guttural Pouch Mycosis, and we've seen that his guttural pouch is clean and clear. However, if he has another major nosebleed next year, we might have to do all this again. In the meantime, I can hold his head at shoulder height, wait for the bleeding to stop, and wipe his nose. There's not much that one can do for a horse nosebleed. Hopefully, he won't have another one.
The other positive outcome of this whole experience is the horse trailer. When Penny, Best Husband Ever, and I arrived at the hospital yesterday to pick up Nox, he nickered as soon as he saw us. He looked so happy that we were there. Dr. Hill gave the technician a syringe with a sedative in it, because he needed to be sedated to get on the trailer to come down. She asked me if I wanted to try to load him without the sedative first, and I said, "Sure, why not?", but I didn't have much hope that he would load. I hooked up his lead rope and walked him out of the hospital and into the parking lot. Penny opened the trailer door, I walked Nox up, and he just stepped into the trailer like it was no big deal!! We were all so shocked that nobody said a word for about 5 seconds. I could not believe he just did that! I patted his neck, told him what a good boy he was, and tied him up. My guess (and I realize that I anthropomorphize a little too much) is that he did not want to stay another minute at the place where they kept sticking things up his nose and when he saw me, he realized that he could go home to his paddock, grain, and sunshine - so he just stepped into the trailer because it was the easy path to freedom. No more pricks and prods, just get me home!
So, Nox loads into trailers now. That was an expensive trailer loading lesson. Silver linings.
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