Bad Bleeder

Question
What have you found to work well in your years of experience with bad bleeders. We've done 10cc of lasix pre race,egstim and Kentucky red. The horse still bled. Do you recommend any supplements or changing bedding from straw to packaged shavings?

Answer
Susan

About the only other bleeder medication that you haven't tried is Premarin, but if he's bled through everything else, including 10cc of Lasix, then I can't imagine that adding Premarin would help.  Ten cc's is a major dose of Lasix.  If the horse is that bad a bleeder, supplements and bedding changes aren't likely to help.  Retire him, or give him a good bit of time off for the lungs to heal up a bit, and then bring him back slowly.  I don't know how much you are willing to spend to help clear his lungs up, but a nebulizer would probably do him a world of good, using either FloVent, Albuterol, or a combination of both as inhalents.  You have to give time off to get both drugs out of his system before he could run, but it really sounds like he needs a rest anyway.

Just a few things to think about, though:  Whenever a horse bleeds, the blood in the lungs leads to infection in the lungs, which in turn causes scar tissue to form in the air sacs that supply the lungs with oxygen.  This scar tissue is less elastic than the normal tissue, making the affected sacs less able to hold air, which leads to heavier bleeding, since even more sacs rupture due to stress.  It is very important to give the horse a few weeks off after a bleeding episode, and to give antibitoics to fight off any infection, so as to minimize the scar tissue formation.  You should also give Lasix any time that you breeze the horse, and not just when he runs in a race, since if he bleed when he runs, he'll be bleeding when he works, too.  True bleeders can be very difficult to manage at the races, but given time and care, it can be done.

Good luck,

Stephanie Frost
www.alchemybloodstock.com