Horse has gutteral pouch infection. What should I do?

Question

Horse has gutteral pouch infection. What should I do?
When I brought my horse (8 year old appendix-quarter-horse gelding) to South Florida (88 degrees) from Maryland (50 degrees) in January, I noticed clear/white discharge coming from his left nostril. The vet gave him a general anti-biotic and it seemed to clear up but it came back.

Then he got two more oral antibiotics. No big change. Then the vet placed the anti-biotic directly in the gutteral pouch on 4 separate occasions in the span of a couple of months. It's starting to subside now. But, still some discharge.

The vet says if it doesn't clear up, an x-ray is the next step to determine if my horse has an abscessed tooth that can't be seen with a spectrum (which he's already had by the equine dentist who floated his teeth

My horse was scoped already.  

So, I'm wondering if the temperature here in Florida is to blame. What do you think?

And, what course of action should I take going forward?

What do you think of the vet's advice?

***Posting this again because I accidently chose an answer as "best" but wanted more opinions. ***

gallop · Accepted Answer

HaHa...I guess I got lucky on the last one !!!!  Anyway, since the pouches have already been scoped and there is still question about the source of the infection, and since no cracked tooth or other sign was evident when the speculum was used to examine the teeth, xray would be the logical next step.
I'm not sure why you think the Florida temperature would be to blame?  If there is a dental abscess it would likely be from bacterial invasion through the tooth or gum.
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Add........ I'm posting an article on equine sinus infection and advances in treatment options.  The article was written in 2009 so by now hopefully the treatment is more extensively available.  This could turn out to be a primary sinus infection or sinus involvement that is secondary to dental abscess, so I think the article is worth your time since it gives you more information to consider and discuss with your vet.

http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=14465

Horse has gutteral pouch infection. What should I do?

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