Mysterious Nasal Drainage..any ideas?

Ive owned Isabella since December 2010 but leased her for a few months before that and am close with her past owner. For at least a year and we arent sure how long before that, Isabella has had unilateral discharge from her right nostril. The discharge is usually somewhat thick and whitish in color. No odor. Only the right side. Havent seen a pattern to it and we've been watching. Teeth have been checked twice and floated once. No dental issues.

This week I had her sinus cavities and nasal area scoped on both sides, xrays of her head, attempts of slides made to see what might be growing or going on and we flushed out her sinus cavities. She was put on antibiotics. So far nothing that would explain the discharge has been found even though my wallet is smaller During the three hrs we spent at the vets this weekend, we didnt see one iota of "snot" anywhere we looked. Of course it was back when we returned to the barn and I have gotten a sample to the vet.

Any ideas??

She is a 6yr old OTTB, outside more then in, and does not seem to have any exercise intolerance. She has had the discharge at two different barns. No coughing or other symptoms.

Thanks for any insight.

I would immediately jump to gutteral pouch mycosis and it sounds like that's where the vet went too. The sample should tell you.

Oooh thanks LHP...I have been doing google searches and what mostly comes back is sinus infection. I did the search of gutteral pouch mycosis and thought at first.."hey this isnt it, she doesn't have bloody discharge" but I kept reading new articles and found one on Gutteral Pouch Empyema which describes what she has and could very well be it based on symptoms. Hopefully the culture will tell us more...thanks for the idea..I'm interested in learning about what she may be dealing with. Thanks again!

If you can save up the money, a CT scan might also catch something. Horses' heads are made up of mostly empty cavities, and there could easily be an infection or tumor hiding somewhere in there. Unfortunately, not many vets have a CT and it is extremely expensive. We considered doing one on my mare, Mira, but she was already too sick, so it would have just been a waste of money. I hope that you can find the source, at least her work ethic and personality aren't affected (I wasn't so lucky).

I had a horse last year that had discharge from one nostril....had her xrayed, scoped the whole 9 yards........she was on antibiotics for a month.....diagnosis was a sinus infection.........as nothing else was found....no broken teeth, no cysts etc.

Super Nova

So did it clear up after the antibiotics??

Yes it did eventually clear up....she was on antibiotics for probably 6 weeks total.......and then she still had a bit of a discharge and a snuffling noise when she breathed......she was scoped after her antibiotics and said that she still had debris up in her sinus cavity but felt it would clear on its on.......which it did .....she came down with the infection in Feb of 2010 and so far so good.

Super Nova