Any ideas what this might be?

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clairel

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My big horse has for about the last month been coming in from the field periodically with some swelling on his face.
It doesn't seem to cause him any discomfort and it seems to occur randomly on either side of his face or both.
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It is only ever on the flat of his cheek and is a sort of raised puffiness (unfortunately I can't take any pics as it doesn't show up in them!)Sorry for the rubbish description... it's a bit difficult!
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Anyone seen anything like this before, and should I worry?

ETA- He has had his teeth done lately so it isn't that!
 
Is it like he has rice crispies under his skin? Or one lump? If you had to guess that the lumps are a piece of fruit under his skin (stay with me!), what would you guess it is? (i.e is it the size of a plum, an orange, a melon?!)
 
My old YO used to call them grass glands, and said they were most common at this time of year as the new grass comes through. She had one mare who used to come in from the field closely resembling a chipmunk
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!

Have they gone by the next morning?

Fiona
 
It's not really like any fruit... more like a thick pancake to stay with the food analogy!
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Sometimes they take a day or two to go down, but as I say doesn't seem to cause any problems.
 
Curious! I would probably agree with grass glands but had a quicky google search and it came up with lots of suggestions of mushrooms causing inflammation in horse cheeks?! Do you have mushrooms in the field?
 
Yeah grass would be coming up... slowly but surely! and yes they are soft and squishy!

Don't think they are any mushrooms, so pretty sure it's not that.
Seems to be nothing out of the ordinary then, thanks!
 
Have you checked that your horse is not stuffing grass into his cheeks? One of mine does this as he previously had an abcess and would pack the grass to keep the cheeks away from it. Maybe he has slight discomfort after having his teeth done. It can be stuffed quite high so have a rummage about between his teeth and cheeks to rule that out. Sorry if you have already checked this. but that migtht explain why its there some days and not others.
 
I would have said grass glands also. But could it be a reaction to a type of grass of maybe a nettle rash type allergy? I suppose there is quite a lot of difference between the two though. Nice plaits by the way x
 
Is he out with others? Our often come in with riased bits in the flat of the cheek cos they've been playing and biting each other. In fact came in tonight with just that, one each side, where the colt has been nipping him. They'll be gone tomorrow or the day after.
 
Two of mine have the same thing- and the vet told me a few years ago that they are just from the spring grass coming up or from some sort of mild allergy- nothing majorly serious. My old mare was allergic to shavings and she came out a bit like it, but I have to agree with the "grass glands" idea.
 
i agree with NewydP...ive seen one horse that had a problem with its teeth that kind of "stuffed" its cheeks with food. maybe...not sure though..
hope its sorted soon
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