He’s a typical Andy stallion with a big squishy sweet lovable personality. 
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Thank you so much for the update. I hope the meds do wonders.
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Handsome boy! Jingles and prayers for you and Reyo. 
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What a handsome, sweet boy! Do they do susceptibility tests on fungi like they do on bacteria to know that the fluconazole might work? Crossing all the things and hoping your sweet boy pulls through!
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I once had a cat that quit eating. Yet the entire time she remained bright eyed and happy looking. The vet looked at the x rays, and thought it was an obstruction or pancreatitis. After 4-5 days of refusing to eat, suddenly on the last day, she started eating again. We did treat for IBD with steroids and she made a full recovery. The vets were not at all optimistic but I kept looking at her expressions and thinking she doesn’t look like she feels that bad.
Prayers for your beautiful boy!
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Jingles for your handsome boy!
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I just treated a mare I rescued from auction for a fungal infection in her nasal passage. Her only symptom was gross discharge from her left nostril. She was also quite itchy and overall had a dull coat that wasn’t improving at the rate I expected it to. We scoped her and found a nasty fungal plaque in there. At first, my vet thought we’d have to do bone flap surgery to debulk the plaque and directly apply meds, but he found a couple of studies that showed oral fluconazole is pretty effective against nasal fungus. We did one round of meds and she rescoped clear.
A word of caution that fluconazole is apparently quite potent. Alopecia is a pretty common side effect. A couple of weeks into treatment my mare started losing hair on her face, neck, poll. It looked awful and raw and painful. 
Equiderma lotion twice a day helped a lot to give her some relief. It was rough, but once she was done with the fluconazole it reversed quickly and she looks better than ever now.
Good luck to you and your sweet boy! I hope the meds are as effective as they were for my girl. Nosebleeds are so scary, but it’s great that he is otherwise feeling good.
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Thank you for the info and suggestion! I’m glad you were able to successfully treat your mare
I’m not 100% sure if he cultured it but we did discuss it and the decision to go a head with the fluconazole was the end result. It’s a bit of a blur but I 1000% trust this vets judgment.
One of the Md’s I work with suggested Toltrazuril after treating his cat for San Joaquin Valley fever with it when his vet said there was no hope. I’ll run it past my vet although I know it is not approved here in the states. If the fluconazole doesn’t work it might be worth a shot. I need to do my research.
My brain is mush and my body hurts but I have a happy boy who doesn’t know he’s sick 
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I’m really glad I came across your post because it now has me rethinking my situation. We never did xray her lungs, but on exam - before we knew if what we were dealing with was bacterial, viral or fungal - my primary vet said she had a tiny hint of crackling in her lungs. The treating vet who scoped her never listened to her lungs as far as I know. We just went in, saw what we saw, and treated that. Now I’m paranoid it’s in her lungs as well and one round of fluconazole was not enough. I’ve only ever heard her cough twice in the 4.5 months I’ve had her - both first thing in the morning when she digs into her hay. She’s not in work, so no clue if she’s exercise intolerant, though I don’t see or hear anything concerning when she rips around her field. I don’t want to borrow trouble, but I do think a paranoid call back to my vet is in order and possible chest rads.
Anyway, I don’t mean to hijack your thread. I hope your treatment is thorough and uneventful and your boy continues to not realize he’s sick! Definitely update and I’ll do the same!
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It’s so difficult because his only symptom has been the stress induced nose bleeds. Honestly, the only reason it showed on an X-ray is because his is so advanced. Ultrasound showed nothing. He has had two previous vet exams and blood work and no one mentioned any abnormal lung sounds and all blood work was normal.
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We had one with EMPF which is autoimmune. We treated him with valycylover and he recovered well. I have no idea if that drug could/would be helpful, but thought I’d mention it. Fingers crossed for you!
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Jingles for your boy!!! Glad you have a diagnosis and are moving forward with treating him.
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Yikes. So scary. Good for you for getting to the bottom of it. It makes you wonder how many are walking around totally aymptomatic - until they’re not and it’s too late. I forgot to mention we tried to culture off of a nasal swab. The plaque was pretty high up there, so it ended up not growing anything. My vet diagnosed it visually. As I understand it, fungal cultures can certainly be helpful to identify exactly what it is, but it’s not nearly as important for susceptibility as it is for bacteria.
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We started treatment today 
He’s lost a little weight, he was very skinny when we started this journey, but he’s eating well and acting like a normal stallion. I think being at the hospital stressed him and caused the weight loss. Praying for a miracle 
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Jingling for you both
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Fingers crossed for you and Reyo. Not uncommon for them to drop weight when they are not feeding well and their routine is interrupted. I hope the treatment helps and Reyo is back to his normal self in no time.
This thread made me realize I have very little experience with fungal infections in horses. It’s been educational. Thank you for starting the thread, and I hope Reyo feels better soon.
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I have zero experience with this and not sure if it is even feasible at this point or would be too big of a thing for him at his age and this stage of his infection, but would gelding him and lowering the hormonal stress help with the bleeding episodes, stress level in general, and maybe calm him down to help with everything in his system staying static and his internal system put more into healing vs the instinct to mate while he heals from the fungal infection?
Just a crazy thought that popped into my head, I really hope he pulls thru for you he seems super sweet and you are just so awesome for taking him on and giving him such a great chance!! Hugest of jingles sent your way!
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Gelding has been discussed since even before I brought him home. We’ve considered a lot of factors and while it’s not off the table we are not planning on it currently. Firstly, the stress and risks of gelding an older stallion are definitely higher than gelding a younger colt. Thankfully he’s a very good, polite guy and doesn’t get upset/stressed about mares or other horses as long as he’s kept at an appropriate distance. Secondly, I think with his current health it would push him past the point of being able to recover. His prognosis is so poor, and looking at ladies is giving him purpose……if you know what I mean 
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I’ve never dealt with anything other than a skin fungal infection with horses, but I have with humans and I know how difficult they are to treat. I also know how destructive fluconazole is on the body 
As sad as it is we’ve also made the decision to keep him out in his paddock 24/7. If he passes in the barn it would be extremely difficult and undignified to get him out. Sad realities I have to think about.
On a good note, he knows my truck and keeps a keen eye on me and comes trotting to the gate to meet me . And that is what this is all about 
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This seems very encouraging!
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