Foreign body under jaw

[ALO]

At the end of June my horse came in from the field with a small round lump under his jaw. I assumed it was a bite. By the following day it had swollen massively and extended from his jugular groove to his chin. Vet came out and gave an anti inflammatory and a course if antibiotics. This brought the big swelling down but we were left with the small lump still.
A week later it developed a small head and pus came out, at this point I assumed we were over the worst. But since then it has gone up and burst again and then shrunk about three times.
Vet has been out several times and last time scanned it, he can see a tract leading to a foreign body, he thinks it's a thorn. He said the only way to get rid of it would be to excise the whole lump and hope the fb was in it. However, the lump is very very close to a big blood vessel and nerves. This is also a 4 year old horse who at times can be reasonably difficult to deal with from the ground which would make after care difficult. The other option is to wait and see if it comes out on its own, and has time goes by I'm feeling more doubtful.
Sorry for the essay, does anyone have any similar experiences or suggestions??thanks

 

[Gloi]

I had a pony which got a what turned out to be a foreign body in her neck which caused an abscess which kept nearly healing and then reforming creating a tract from where it was about 3" below her crest up to the crest where it broke out. After a few courses of antibiotics hadn't sorted it she went into the vets and was sedated and the abscess around the thorn cut out along with the area which had tracted up to her crest. it left a wound about 4" by 1" which the vet filled with gel and which healed quite quickly to leave a scar on her neck but no further problems.

 

[Goldenstar]

Some X-rays and a ct scan of the head might be necessary .
J's jaw issue presented very similarily at first to what you describe .

 

[Heather D]

Had the same problem a few years back. Abscess and foreign body removed under general anaesthetic, can't remember re after care but was minimal and horse back in work within approx. week.