July 2004

Strengthen Your Bleeder’s Lungs

While Lasix/Salix is your best bet, it’s no guarantee. We suggest targeting likely causes and building capillary strength.

While most people think of racehorses when they think of lung bleeding, it can occur in any horse under exertion.

Lung bleeding, technically known as EIPH—exercise induced pulmonary hemorrhage—is a potential problem for any horse that performs at high speeds.

Studies have repeatedly shown that at least low-level evidence of pulmonary bleeding can be found in over 95% of horses performing at speed. Some bleeders actually do show blood draining from the nostrils, but many horses are believed to bleed in the lungs and go virtually undetected until they’re scoped and diagnosed by a veterinarian.

Bleeding certainly does influence performance. At what point that begins to happen is difficult to quantify, especially since one commonly cited study found a high percentage of bleeders among racehorses that had won their races. …