Brigit is my 15 year old Westphalian mare. She's been fighting a sinus infection since August. At first we didn't realize that it wasn't just a cold. After a month of it not going away we decided it was time to get her looked at because there must have been something more going on. They xrayed and scoped her and thought that there was a "suspicious" looking tooth causin
g the sinusitis that would need surgery to be pulled. We scheduled the surgery and came back two weeks later. Only problem is that the drainage switched from the right side to the left side....which wouldn't happen if it was a tooth. Onto another round of xrays and scoping. Poor mare! This time they could definitely see a buildup of fluid in her sinus's but still weren't 100% sure what was causing it (tooth or just a sinus infection). We had two options, surgery to flush it all out and get rid of it for sure OR try a month of heavy duty antibiotics twice a day. I opted for the less invasive route first. We're at the halfway mark for the antibiotics and they seemed to be helping for the first bit but now the runny nose is coming back again! AARGH! The vet said that they *sometimes* work but a lot of the time they just mask the problem and as soon as you take them off the antibiotics the problem comes back. I'm hoping we can get it gone and stay gone but at the moment it's not looking so great! It's not as bad as it was though. I just can't figure out why it's coming back though.
g the sinusitis that would need surgery to be pulled. We scheduled the surgery and came back two weeks later. Only problem is that the drainage switched from the right side to the left side....which wouldn't happen if it was a tooth. Onto another round of xrays and scoping. Poor mare! This time they could definitely see a buildup of fluid in her sinus's but still weren't 100% sure what was causing it (tooth or just a sinus infection). We had two options, surgery to flush it all out and get rid of it for sure OR try a month of heavy duty antibiotics twice a day. I opted for the less invasive route first. We're at the halfway mark for the antibiotics and they seemed to be helping for the first bit but now the runny nose is coming back again! AARGH! The vet said that they *sometimes* work but a lot of the time they just mask the problem and as soon as you take them off the antibiotics the problem comes back. I'm hoping we can get it gone and stay gone but at the moment it's not looking so great! It's not as bad as it was though. I just can't figure out why it's coming back though. 
I had to laugh, I rode Brigit for the first time on Saturday and she was a wee bit....wild shall we say? I can't say I blame her though, she's been in a small paddock cooped up and getting all kinds of extra feed pushed to her to put some extra weight on. Fingers crossed she'll get better and stay better! I really don't want to have to do surgery on her!!The plan for tomorrow is to call the vet's office and see what they think. I might see if they'll send the xrays to another vet for a second opinion to see if they can come up with a collective opinion. I'd be ok with doing the surgery if they knew for sure what it was that was causing the problem. I'd hate to go in and do something and then find out that it didn't work and have to go in again.
The other possibility is getting an endoscope up there and flushing it out that way (if possible) another question to ask.
If we do have to do surgery, they're going to do a procedure called a "bone flap" where they cut a square hole in their skull and flip it back and go in and flush the sinus cavity out and possibly take the affected tooth out at the same time. I guess we'll see.
On a much more positive note! My sidesaddle should arrive tomorrow!! Yay! I sooo can't wait to try it out! Runny nose or no runny nose!
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