Broken forehead

pipmax

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Help!!

My horse has broken his forehead and now large lumps have appeared!!

Has anyone else had this?? How long till they disapeared??

He has had x rays!!
 
i knew a horse years ago who did this, had a star fracture of the area which didn't move, iirc she was v badly concussed as well, was x-ray'd at Cambridge and vet's instructions were 1 year of box rest in a darkened stable to allow everything to heal, afaik she made a full recovery. there weren't lumps though, the whole area was dented in a little, and the x-rays showed the fractures.
 
Not forehead but 2 eye orbit and cheek bone fracture. The fractures to the eye orbit resulted in 2 pieces of bone being chipped away.

At Leahurst, they spent a fair amount of time trying to locate the bone chips. The worry was they that as the face isn't very fleashy, the bone could attach to another part of the skull and start to ofisicate (?). The vet was worried that if blood vessels ran over the top of of this ossification it could affect the blood supply.

Could the lumps be bone chips that have settled?

Initially, the injury looked superficial but he was seen by the vet. We were most surprised when 2 weeks later his whole head swelled up in an alarming manner.
 
Is it a bit like this?

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Mikey got kicked in the head and fractured the frontal bones. It started coming up in a lump which got bigger and bigger. Eventually it did start settling down and remodelled to a smaller size, but he was left with a lump.
 
Yes that is very simular?? But mine is bigger!!

How long did it take to go down??

Did u rest him or work him??

Any treatment suggestions??
 
I've seen quite a few horses with similar bumps, in a few cases I've also seen the original injury.

You may have to wait a very long time for it to start to go down as, in order to heal the break, the body lays down a massive amount of bone and then, over time, the "extra" gets reabsorbed. This happens more efficiently in younger horses so your horse's age will affect the end result. The same thing happens with humans and I'd say in my own experience it can take years for a bump to become markedly less noticeable.

The old horseman's remedy for splints and other bony lumps was to roll a another bone over the area, after it stops hurting and they bone is stable, obviously, a couple of times a day. (I've also heard using a bottle to do the same thing.) There might be some validity in this as it might help the extra bone break down faster. Can't hurt, I guess.
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The good side is, if it's an uncomplicated fracture (no bits floating about, infection etc.) it should heal up functionally very well and not give him any trouble.
 
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