Swollen lympnodes?

It might be strangles (Streptococcus equi)...or lead poisoning, botulism, or severe small airway disease. My first bet would be strangles. The symptoms are nasal discharge, difficulty breathing and swallowing, and/or elevated temperature. Definitely talk to a vet and maybe get a second opinion.

Like the other poster mentioned, my first guess would be strangles. When they get a bad case, they get huge abscess like lumps in their lymphnodes, and in some cases, have to be lanced and drained. Lymph is a byproduct whenever your horse is fighting a bad infection, so its possible that he has allergies, or a cold, and its just pus and stuff draining (like when people get allergies and have discharge, swollen glands, etc). Does he have any other symptoms to suggest he's got seasonal allergies (that might explain why they come and go on certain days?). If so, you might want to try putting him on an antihistamine for awhile (Ani-Hist is good, and like $15 and you add it to the feed). Otherwise, you might just have something like a cold, I've had horses have small amounts of swelling from that, and it typically went away on its own in time.

I hope something I said helps! Good luck, I hope your horsey gets better!

my mare was diagnosed with cancer a year ago and her lymph nodes are always really swollen. i really hope its not the same thing but i would definately have a biopsy done. i'm sure there are a lot of things out there that can cause swollen lymph nodes though so just do what you can and and don't worry too much. good luck

You should have them do a biopsy on it...I don't know about cancer in horses but I know leukemia in humans causes swollen lymph nodes. Hopefully it isn't this bad. Maybe try a different vet also? They all have different opinions and ideas.

Best of luck

Well swollen lympnodes and the first assumption would be pigeon fever. Also known in the Los Angeles area as dryland distemper.

http://www.novickdvm.com/pigeon.htm

Horse distemper is:

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ansci/horse/v541w.htm

I hope these help...