Can haematomas make horses ill? Long sorry but desperately worried :(

neddynesbitt

neddynesbitt

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Strange one I know but I am at a loss to know what is wrong with my lad NOW :(

This horse is running his way through the veterinary dictionary....no kidding!!

I found him last week injured in the field which the vet has confirmed he has reinjured his sacroiliac joint :(

He had a mark on his neck where it meets his chest/shoulder. The hair was scuffed & I initially thought it was a horse bite. I have since found out he had been going ballistic in the field & think there is a strong possibility he ran into the post & rail fencing. The skin is not broken.

This mark has been swelling more & more every day so now I can hold my hand outstretched & it just about covers the swelling & it's now noticeable from some distance away. Within 24 hours of this, he has developed the most horrendous diahorrea which has been ongoing for 1 week now.

It has not responded to probiotics prescribed by the vet & I am convinced this swelling could either be a haematoma or an infected haematoma (don't know if they can be infected??)

He is not stressed in anyway & no changes in diet at all. Vet is coming again tomorrow & I am worried in case it is to do with this lump. Maybe something from it leaking into his system causing the diahorrea.

He is happy & eating well and doesn't seem unwell at all BUT, he had perotinitis in January & I am really worried that if we can't sort the diahorrea, it could develop into perotinitis again.

When he had perotinitis, he did not have diahorrea (quite the opposite, fairly dry droppings when tested also had blood in them although not visible to the naked eye) his blood results were horrific (I think it was proteins but can't remember exactly) the levels were meant to be below 4 but they were 850!! He was VERY ill & the vets told me I would have found him dead if we hadn't got him to horsepital as quickly as we did.

Sorry to ramble & the vet has been great but I just wondered if anyone elses horse had developed diahorrea after getting a haematoma?
 
Is there any possibility that he has a splinter in the lump, maybe from the fence? It sounds a little as if he could have an abscess on his neck. Worth checking with the vet, bts has he a raised temperature.
 
I only know that they can get infected (the haematomas). In my research over the last couple of days I heard of one where the infection spread to the bone & the outcome was fatal. They usually only become infected if the skin's broken or if it's lanced.

HOWEVER, it was a very unusual case. Not saying your horse has this. I had a horse who got an infection in his bone & he didn't get diahorrea. Most haematomas resolve on their own I think.
 
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It is possible for an infection - whether from the haematoma (which is a posh word for bruise by the way) or somewhere else - to cause the diahorrea. But it is just as possible the two are not connected. I know my lad is scouring (I can spell that without having to look it up!) at the moment because of new hay.

Do check with your vet first but we use dry bran in the feed to help solidify loose droppings. My lad is very prone to the squits and dry bran does the trick. But with you lad's history I'd check first.

Have you considered using something like propell or redcell? They are both echinacea based immune boosts. If there is a bit of an infection there somewhere it might give him the edge to fight it himself.

They are a worry aren't they. Big Hugs and best wishes for you both!
 
like someone else has said they can get infected..one of my horses had one a few years back, it was massive! We were advised to use warm water then coldish water on it(using a sponge of course lol), then massage gently with arnica and witch-hazel gel once a day. Worked a treat :) i hope your horse is better soon :)

xxx
 
Ari's cherry blossom said:
like someone else has said they can get infected..one of my horses had one a few years back, it was massive! We were advised to use warm water then coldish water on it(using a sponge of course lol), then massage gently with arnica and witch-hazel gel once a day. Worked a treat :) i hope your horse is better soon :)

xxx
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My mare got a large haematoma on her bum from a horse kick and this was exactly how the vet advised me to deal with it by putting warm towels on it then hosing. It was quite bizarre watching the bruise move and change shape but it worked :)

Apart from the discomfort of being kicked, it didn't make her ill or give her diahorrea............
 
Thank you all so much for your replies. Vet had a major emergency this afternoon so is coming 1st thing in the morning. I won't rule anything out & yes there is a possibility of abcess but he doesn't object to me poking it. I don't know if he has a temperature as he is such a git that he has to be sedated to have his temp taken!! When he had temp before he was very dull & listless & isn't now so, fingers crossed he not got temp.

He still has diahorrea but has not gone off of his food at all. Someone else has also suggested bran so I will speak to the vet about that.

I took him off the bute (diahorrea started before he had bute) and he also seems to be in some discomfort with his back end lameness. I can't wait for the vet to come out as I am so worried about him suffering.

He seems very bright & happy in himself and constantly neighing whenever he sees me (probably for food rather than to tell me he loves me ;) )

I will update tomorrow once the vet has been & hopefully I have been worrying for nothing :)
 
Ooh best of luck , do hope it is something relatively insignificant, make sure you let us know - hugs and fingers crossed x
 
neddynesbitt said:
Thank you all so much for your replies. Vet had a major emergency this afternoon so is coming 1st thing in the morning. I won't rule anything out & yes there is a possibility of abcess but he doesn't object to me poking it. I don't know if he has a temperature as he is such a git that he has to be sedated to have his temp taken!! When he had temp before he was very dull & listless & isn't now so, fingers crossed he not got temp.

He still has diahorrea but has not gone off of his food at all. Someone else has also suggested bran so I will speak to the vet about that.

I took him off the bute (diahorrea started before he had bute) and he also seems to be in some discomfort with his back end lameness. I can't wait for the vet to come out as I am so worried about him suffering.

He seems very bright & happy in himself and constantly neighing whenever he sees me (probably for food rather than to tell me he loves me ;) )

I will update tomorrow once the vet has been & hopefully I have been worrying for nothing :)
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Any news?
 
Hi Greymare thanks so much for thinking of us. Well this morning I found he still had diahorrea. I let him wander round the yard whilst I mucked out & he did a poo on the yard which looked as if it had blood in it. The vet hadn't come out at this stage so I rang immediately & arranged to drop a sample into them.

They are getting it analysed asap & also the vet has also taken bloods. The odd thing is that he is still eating & seems happy. She said his guts sound as if they are churning but is very confused as nothing has changed in his diet.

I felt really sorry for him this afternoon as he seemed a little down so stupidly I decided that I could trust him to take him for a little walk....wrong!!

He decided that it would be great fun to see how fast Mum can run, so off we went at a very fast canter across the field :-0. I held on for as long as I could but then he got away (was on a lunge line). I huffed & puffed to the top of the field to get him & he then went on strike & wouldn't move. I eventually got him back to the yard & decided to put him in the school to mooch around....again bad idea.

He charged around & twice threatened to jump out, so back to the stable he went!!

When I told the vet of his antics, she suggested we trot him up to see how much worse the lameness now was. Can you believe it, she said he doesn't look lame just very stiff?

He can't be feeling too bad if he can do this & is being very cheeky.

Not sure how long it will be to get the results back but I just want to make sure nothing is going on in his gut.

She also thinks the lump (I can just about get my hand round it outstretched) could be a massive reaction to a fly bite. I'm just not sure as he definitely had a scuff mark on it as if he had either hit the fence rail or possibly caused by horses teeth. Surely if it was a fly bite, it wouldn't still be this huge after 10 days? Luckily she doesn't think it is a haematoma. If his guts were ok she would have said give him bute to get the swelling down but it is too much of a risk with his history.

I will update as soon as I get the blood & droppings results.
 
Another suggestion to float around is that this lump is an allergic reaction. Certainly if it is there is the potential for the digestive system to be upset although blood in droppings is different altogether as i would only expect the system to leak plasma, not red cells
 
Oh dear, how frustrating and confusing. Naughty boy obviously not feeling too sorry for himself or in pain which is a comfort at least. What a worry, hopefully will end up nothing two serious and very interesting to see if there is any connection or not. chin up x
 
Thanks, I am eagerly awaiting the results as I'm not conviced they are not connected. The lump is still huge, surely if it was a fly bite it would have gone down by now? It's no smaller at all but his droppings are slowly improving but still got a long way to go yet. I will update as soon as I have heard from the vet.
 
Yes would imagine fly bite would have gone down by now, very puzzling. Look forward to hearing some positive news soon :-)
 
Hi Greymare thanks for thinking of us. Well it's all still a mystery his bloods & droppings were normal. He was getting to be very troublesome staying in on box rest so, I had to make the decision to turn him out before he hurt himself even more with his shenanigans :)

On the very first day out, his diahorrea started to ease instantly and within the 2nd day his droppings were normal. We are all confused including the vet, if anything you would think grass would make it worse!!

He is sound *******touching wood****** :) He still has the lump but it has shrunk quite a bit. If it really was a fly bite then I'm amazed that it stayed big for as long as it did.

More importantly, no wonder the poor chap went ballistic in the field in the first place & made himself lame again.

He is now the proud owner of a fly rug with matching mask....he was seriously not impressed when all his mates took one look, snorted & legged it!! He was chasing after them as if to say "wait up it's me". That was the last thing I wanted him to do after his lameness but so far so good :) xx
 
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