Foreign body under skin

frazzled

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Has anyone had a horse with a foreign body under the skin, and if so did it ever work it's way out?
Our horse has what we are pretty sure is a air gun pellet under the skin in his neck. It sits in the muscle but you can definitely feel the shape. Vet has scanned it to check it is not a migrating microchip. He too is of the opinion it is a pellet. It causes no discomfort and who knows how long it has been there. It wasn't visible when we bought him two years ago but has shifted and can now be seen as a little lump. I am intrigued to see what,if anything, happens next.
 
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Feebee-Friesian

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My mare had a penatrating chest wall injury before I bought her. She has a tiny wound tract in her girth line that sometimes oozes clear fluid. The vets have been in to try to remove all of the wood fragments but some are so small they would do more damage to the muscle than if just left. The vet said they may migrate out or they may not. It causes her no problems at all. I keep it clean and make sure it doesn't get any bigger. If I knew how to upload a photo I would show you!
 

frazzled

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No,vet said leave it. It causes absolutely no problems atm. More likely to cause a problem by fiddling with it.
 
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Polos Mum

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Not in a horse but I stood on a broken wine glass stem and xray clearly showed a piece of glass in my foot, drs said leave it and I did, it's never worked it's way out and causes no problem.
 

LittleBlackMule

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One of my horses bashed themselves on a fence, leaving a wound just below the hock. Vet came out, cleaned it up and said it should heal within a week or so.
After several weeks it still hadn't healed particularly well, and a few weeks later still it started developing proud flesh. Vet saw it again, didn't think there was anything they could do as there was no infection, and said to just keep the area clean and hopefully the proud flesh would sort itself. It was a very small area, only about the size of a 10 pence piece.

About 2 months later there was still a small lump like a little sarcoid, and one day I noticed the top looked a bit rough so I picked at it, and right then a sharp point started to rise up out of it. In just 30 seconds or so a two inch long shard of wood rose up out of the lump as though it was being pushed from underneath, really sinister to watch!

Once the mammoth splinter had been ejected, the wound cleared up in a few days and didn't even leave a scar.
 

gunnergundog

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Had one horse that six months after purchasing developed the most horrendous lump on its quarters; said lump finally burst and what came out was absolutely disgusting. It didn't heal well initially and I ended up getting a vet out; he dug around and found the end of a hypodermic needle in the muscle!
 

frazzled

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It is funny how the body deals with things. I keep a close eye on it but my guess is it is something he will carry for life causing him no problem. I just wonder if there was a wound when he got it in there. I hate to think of him being shot!! We will never know...
 

frazzled

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Had one horse that six months after purchasing developed the most horrendous lump on its quarters; said lump finally burst and what came out was absolutely disgusting. It didn't heal well initially and I ended up getting a vet out; he dug around and found the end of a hypodermic needle in the muscle!

Yuck, I hope that doesn't happen. What was in there?
 

Cobbytype

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My Dad had a piece of coal migrate out of his shoulder a couple of years back - he left the pit (where he worked as a collier) in 1963, so foreign bodies can take a while to work their way out of the system:)
 

Maesfen

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When working at Sainsburys back in the 60s, I used to cut and wrap cheese; one day a cheese wire snapped and stabbed my finger cue lots of blood and me fainting - yes, I did feel very embarrassed!! It cleared up with no problems, was just a bit stiff but then back working as a groom a year later, I caught the same finger and boy did it hurt, I saw stars again; a month later out popped an inch of cheese wire! There's still a dent in my finger where it was.
 
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