Are Nose Bleeds Normal?

After working my mare yesterday. I noticed she was bleeding out of one side of her nose. I did notice that she had a bit of a runny nose earlier but it was clear, not yellow or greenish. I did not see her hit her face on anything and am not sure why she would have one. It did stop without any treatment. Any ideas???

No. Nosebleeds are something that need to be checked ASAP.

Ok. So what can they be a symptom of? Do you know?

I take it back. I was always told that a nosebleed in a horse was VERY serious but I just surfed the web and from what I've seen it's not as huge a deal as I was thinking.

Usually if it's coming from one nostril only it's from the head or a cut inside the nostril. If it was coming out both nostrils it could be a sign that they were bleeding internally. If you worked her hard it could be exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage.

If it's a "one of" incident, out of one nostril, I wouldn't be going into panic mode, but if it happens again then it needs to be looked at. (this is just me, I don't call the vet for every little thing, you may feel better calling).

This has lots of good information:

Understanding nosebleeds - Horse&Hound online

Me too. Looks like I'm just going to have to keep an eye on her and see if this is happens again and such. Thanks tho : )

Nose bleeds after a workout usually mean that the lungs are bleeding, if a horse is pushed past its limit the lungs will usually bleed, to have it actually coming out of the nose means that it is pretty **serious. You have to look at how hard you are working her and if her endurance is up to par.

**serious meaning it can hurt as well as effect their health at that time. But it is not life threatening. If the blood is in the lungs it could take up 2 weeks for it to dry up and the horse should not be worked hard durning this time**

The best way to figure out what is going on is to get your vet out to scope her after you work her. Even if you do not see blood coming out of her nose there could still be traces in her lungs. You should wait about 45 min after you give her a good work out, then scope. In case you don't know, a scope is a tiny camera inserted up their nose into their lung. It is not as invassive(sp?) as it sounds and will help you find out what the cause is, it could just be allergies....

Overwork and/or dehydration

You could always call up your vet and see what your vet recommends. Talking is free

Nosebleeds are fairly uncomman in horses. Trauma to the nose si your first possibility- a hard blow to the nose or a laceration or irritation to the nasal canal. But these don't happen that often.
I do not think horses are prone to dry sinuses or allergies, so I would assume that is not the case.
The big worry I would have is Guttural Pouch disease, which is the most comman causes of heavy nosebleeds. Guttural pouch is a pouch at the base of the horse's skull. Occasionally horses can get infection or bacteria into these pouches which can cause chronic problems. Worst yet, if they get a fungus there the fungus can slowly irritate the main arteries, and the horse can begin to have repeated nosebleeds. If left untreated the arteries will burst and the horse will rapidly bleed to death(which does not sound like it would happen to your horse since the blood is out of one nostril, adn not both).
I don't think it is horribly comman, but they do suggest that horses with nosebleeds be investigted for this as it is one of the main causes of nosebleeds. If this was my horse I would keep a close eye on her(like you said) for now. I would not be hauling her off to the vet after one minor nosebleed. But if I found heavy bleeding in the snow after this, or repeated minor bleeding, I think I would be visiting a good equine vet soon.

I hope you wont be too paroniod with my comment about gluttal pouch mycosis. But I wanted you to know a worst case senario in case the nosebleeds continue. Hopefully this was a one time thing and it wont happen again!