Spontaneous bilateral epistaxis associated with the administration of phenylbutazone in a horse

MUÑOZ A, TRIGO P, RIBER C, CASTEJÓN F.

REVUE DE MEDECINE VETERINAIRE

ECOLE NATIONALE VETERINAIRE TOULOUSE

Año: 2011 vol. 162 p. 421 - 424

0035-1555

A 15-year-old male Selle Français horse was presented because of some episodes of spontaneous mild bilateral epistaxis lasting for 7 days. No history of recent trauma was reported, and decrease in exercise performance and respiratory symptoms both at rest and during exercise was not observed. Nasal discharge between episodes of epistaxis was neither seen. The horse had received phenylbutazone at therapeutic doses for three weeks in order to be treated for chronic lameness (osteoarthritis). Physical examination was quite normal but blood analysis revealed a mild anaemia, hypoproteinemia, hypoalbuminemia and increased prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time. Endoscopy of the respiratory airways evidenced ulcers in the nasal cavity and in the pharynx. Clinical signs disappeared after removing phenylbutazone therapy and epistaxis was not longer observed. This case indicates that although gastrointestinal ulceration and renal papillary necrosis are the most common clinical alterations due to the toxicity of the non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs in horses, other symptoms associated with coagulopathies such as ulcers in the respiratory airways might appear.