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Discussion on Bump across the face
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Member:
Keating
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Posted on Wednesday, Oct 22, 2003 - 2:45 pm:
Our 16-year-old Arab gelding has developed a symmetrical "bump" across his face, about 2 fingers' width below the eyes. He also has very weepy eyes (both of them).
The weepy eyes are a recurring problem - we clean them and treat them with Polysporin, but he is living out 24/7 and we only see him on weekends.
The bump is something new and I don't know if it's related. It's quite hard and doesn't seem to bother him. You don't notice it head-on, but in profile it looks like an exaggeration of an Arabian "dish" face. I would say that the bump protrudes a half inch above where his face should be. It was first noticed 2 weeks ago and seems not to have changed.
Because of where he's located, it's not a simple thing to get him to a vet, but of course we will if that's indicated.
Has anybody had experience with such a thing?
Kathleen
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Member:
Hwood
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Posted on Wednesday, Oct 22, 2003 - 5:56 pm:
Kathleen,
Any hope that you have a digital camera so you could post a pic?
I can't picture how a bump BELOW the horse's eyes could make him look Arabian. I can picture a bump on the forehead making a flat-faced horse look as if it has a jibbah (in fact my pony kicked and busted my Arabian mare's sinus bone several years ago, and her already characteristic jibbah was extremely exaggerated.
(never even fazed the mare . . . she never even flinched and never acted as if she had a headache or anything).
Does the bump seem like it could be a boney protrusion? Is there any mush to it at all?
Holly
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Member:
Keating
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Posted on Thursday, Oct 23, 2003 - 1:21 am:
Hi Holly
I was kicking myself that I didn't have my camera last weekend to take a photo - we'll do that this weekend.
What I meant about the "Arab face" was that it struck me when I first saw it that it looked like a cartoon of an Arab, or something a kid might draw.
It's not at all mushy and "bump" is probably not a good description: if you were to run your hand down his face from the forehead, down between his eyes, you probably wouldn't notice anything until an inch or so below the eyes, you would feel a sudden dip. There is no mark on the skin and no indication of trauma.
We have another older gelding who has his tear ducts flushed out each year - the weepy eyes made me wonder whether this could be a buildup of fluid from there?
Kathleen
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Oct 23, 2003 - 8:03 am:
I don't hink this is related to the eyes Katleen and as Holly indicates trauma is certainly most likely, though not the only cause. The skull is very superficial and a bump hard enough to cause a periosteal reaction without causing damage to the skin is possible.
DrO
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Member:
Keating
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Posted on Thursday, Oct 23, 2003 - 10:06 am:
Thanks for this: in that case, is there any treatment indicated?
Kathleen
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Member:
Westks
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Posted on Thursday, Oct 23, 2003 - 11:01 am:
My mare got kicked right below eyes in center of nose and had a huge hard bump for over a year now has gone down to barely noticeable. I suspect she bumped head or was kicked.
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Member:
Jjet
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Posted on Thursday, Oct 23, 2003 - 2:15 pm:
A friend's horse came out of the pasture one day with an indentation about 1/2 inch deep right across her face about where a halter nosepiece would go (they never wear halters in the pasture). She must have hit it on a tree or rock or something (maybe kicked) but she never showed any pain response whatsoever, even on the day it happened. A UC Davis vet told us that those facial bumps (depressions) are relatively common and (if I remember correctly) that the damaged bone or tissue can just be resorbed into the body. There was never any swelling at all.
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Member:
Amara
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Posted on Thursday, Oct 23, 2003 - 2:24 pm:
not that this has any bearing on the problem-but we used to tell novice horse people who would see the yearlings at the standardbred sale i helped to run that when they saw a horse with a
"protruding forehead" and the dished in muzzle that he got his head caught in a feed bucket when he was a baby...
(you'd be amazed at how many people would fall for that...)
good luck with the horse..
Dr.O
this doesnt sound like "bighead's" disease, but is that possible?..
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Friday, Oct 24, 2003 - 8:00 am:
Bran's disease or "Bighead" is primarily a disease of the growing horse.
DrO
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Tuesday, Oct 28, 2003 - 11:40 am:
Opps I missed the further treatment question, if trauma is the cause of the swelling, it will probably resolve over time. When it first happened a bit of bute may have sped the resolution but this far out it may not help.
DrO
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Member:
Keating
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Posted on Saturday, Nov 1, 2003 - 3:29 am:
I now have a photo of our Arab gelding with the bump on his face. I know my description wasn't very articulate: do these photographs make any difference to the advice I have received? (As I mentioned in my earlier post, the weepy eyes are a recurring problem; the bump appeared about 3 weeks ago and has not changed since we first noticed it.)
Thanks
Kathleen
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Saturday, Nov 1, 2003 - 9:15 am:
Kathleen, it does not look so much like a bump as it does a depression of the maxilla. Still trauma is at the top on my list and you need some good radiographs of the area to define the extent of the problem.
DrO
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Member:
Hwood
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Posted on Saturday, Nov 1, 2003 - 11:22 am:
Kathleen,
I agree with Dr. O that it looks like trauma . . . my mare's broken sinus was higher than your gelding's bump, so it blended in with her jibbah better, but it still looked like she had vertical DrOp from her jibbah to her dish . . . If people couldn't tell she was Arabian BEFORE the pony nailed her in the forehead, they definitely had no problem after the kick. You can kinda see the lump in the profile pic that is posted . . . as I said, it never gave her a second's pause or any discomfort afterwards . . . but she was always a little more careful of keeping her distance from the pony's back end whenever she got the yen to torment him . . . which was a way of life for her.
Holly
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