Pulmonary haemorrhage in standardbred horses after racing

Endoscopic examinations of the upper respiratory tract were done on 92 of 314 Standardbred horses that raced one or more times at 4 consecutive, weekly race meetings. Although participation was voluntary, the characteristics of the population of horses examined were not statistically different from those of all horses that raced. No horse showed epistaxis, but 34 (32.4%) examinations of the trachea revealed blood that ranged from a trace in the tracheal mucus to large amounts scattered over the tracheal walls. Forty-four horses exhibited minor degrees of pharyngeal lymphoid hyperplasia, 2 had asynchronous movement of the left arytenoid cartilage and 15 had grains of sand in the respiratory tract. There was no association between bleeding and age, sex, distance of race, place in race or date of race. Mucus and mucopurulent material occurred less often after longer races and more often on the last 3 race nights.