Bleh! That was DISGUSTING! Up there on par with being hit in the face by an afterbirth when I worked at a dairy.
So the new freebie mare & foal we got, Raven the mare is near perfect - she's beautiful personality, friendly, compliant on lead. And bodywise, aside from being neglected in the... duck feet department and nutrition - her coat is a little washed out & frazzled - she is otherwise great, EXCEPT....
She has a small but significant lump in the skin at her lumbar spine, thinking it's a sarcoid. Looks like it's just behind where the saddle pad will go to so no biggie.
And she had a rather largish (golfball sized) lump on her neck, just behind where the halter strap sits behind her ear. Had a couple of small weepy spots on it. Woman said it wasn't there a week ago & she only just noticed it when she put the halter on her that morning. She said it must be an abscess. Checked it out, felt firm but also loose on her neck, not hot, not attached deeper in, didn't seem to bother the mare in the least with me touching & moving it. Thought it was either an abscess or a sarcoid, but given it didn't bother her, was thinking sarcoid more likely & the woman was fibbing saying it has just appeared.
Showed my vet some pics & she said it looked like sarcoids. Not bothering the horse, not urgent, so I thought no need to get vet out, I can wait until Bee the baby is halter trained & I can take them both to vets for a checkup/treatment. The lump didn't change in the last week, doesn't appear to bother her still, she let me feel it again yesterday & loves a scratch all around it...
So this morning I go call Raven up & the lump is tennis ball sized & half bald, skin shiny - because it had obviously swollen so quickly! I felt it & it wasn't hot, but it was hard as. Hardly put any pressure on it at all, and got shot by a huge spurt of pus! So then I started squeezing on purpose. She started out flicking her head away - obviously wasn't pleasant - but then just let me do it - must have felt so much better. I reckon I squeezed literally at least about 2/3 of a cup out, it was running down her face & blobbing at her feet. Bleh!
So... I got most but I'm sure not all of it, have no idea whether the abscess was from a grass seed or such still in there, so this is definitely a vet job & more urgent than first thought - she will need sedative & local anesthetic to explore it properly. And today was Miss Bee's first halter lesson(went well, with a bodyrope as well), so if I do at least a couple of sessions a day with the halter, hopefully she will be up for a trip to the vets in a few days(won't be tying her in trailer anyway), or else I'll have to get the vet out to us. Just that they have a proper horse hospital setup there, crush etc, so she can be restrained & operated on more safely, etc...
But thought I'd ask you mob, who's dealt with this before? Anyone dealt with it by yourself, without a vet? Whinny, my other mare did have an abscess on her eyelid last summer, but I was able to squeeze that & a grass seed came out with the pus & it healed fine - would have taken her to the vet if it persisted. This one is a LOT bigger... tho it's now back to about half golfball sized and soft, after all that gunk. You reckon my idea of watch & OK to wait a few more days is appropriate? And of course, I appreciate whatever opinions from you guys are only guesses, without enough info to say anything for sure.
So the new freebie mare & foal we got, Raven the mare is near perfect - she's beautiful personality, friendly, compliant on lead. And bodywise, aside from being neglected in the... duck feet department and nutrition - her coat is a little washed out & frazzled - she is otherwise great, EXCEPT....
She has a small but significant lump in the skin at her lumbar spine, thinking it's a sarcoid. Looks like it's just behind where the saddle pad will go to so no biggie.
And she had a rather largish (golfball sized) lump on her neck, just behind where the halter strap sits behind her ear. Had a couple of small weepy spots on it. Woman said it wasn't there a week ago & she only just noticed it when she put the halter on her that morning. She said it must be an abscess. Checked it out, felt firm but also loose on her neck, not hot, not attached deeper in, didn't seem to bother the mare in the least with me touching & moving it. Thought it was either an abscess or a sarcoid, but given it didn't bother her, was thinking sarcoid more likely & the woman was fibbing saying it has just appeared.
Showed my vet some pics & she said it looked like sarcoids. Not bothering the horse, not urgent, so I thought no need to get vet out, I can wait until Bee the baby is halter trained & I can take them both to vets for a checkup/treatment. The lump didn't change in the last week, doesn't appear to bother her still, she let me feel it again yesterday & loves a scratch all around it...
So this morning I go call Raven up & the lump is tennis ball sized & half bald, skin shiny - because it had obviously swollen so quickly! I felt it & it wasn't hot, but it was hard as. Hardly put any pressure on it at all, and got shot by a huge spurt of pus! So then I started squeezing on purpose. She started out flicking her head away - obviously wasn't pleasant - but then just let me do it - must have felt so much better. I reckon I squeezed literally at least about 2/3 of a cup out, it was running down her face & blobbing at her feet. Bleh!
So... I got most but I'm sure not all of it, have no idea whether the abscess was from a grass seed or such still in there, so this is definitely a vet job & more urgent than first thought - she will need sedative & local anesthetic to explore it properly. And today was Miss Bee's first halter lesson(went well, with a bodyrope as well), so if I do at least a couple of sessions a day with the halter, hopefully she will be up for a trip to the vets in a few days(won't be tying her in trailer anyway), or else I'll have to get the vet out to us. Just that they have a proper horse hospital setup there, crush etc, so she can be restrained & operated on more safely, etc...
But thought I'd ask you mob, who's dealt with this before? Anyone dealt with it by yourself, without a vet? Whinny, my other mare did have an abscess on her eyelid last summer, but I was able to squeeze that & a grass seed came out with the pus & it healed fine - would have taken her to the vet if it persisted. This one is a LOT bigger... tho it's now back to about half golfball sized and soft, after all that gunk. You reckon my idea of watch & OK to wait a few more days is appropriate? And of course, I appreciate whatever opinions from you guys are only guesses, without enough info to say anything for sure.