Old Bat
Well-Known Member
I just thought this might be of interest to some of you...some pics are a bit gory, though...
Amy's young mare reacted badly to a fly bite last year with a hard lump on the side of her withers just where the point of the saddle tree sits. Vets advice was to leave well alone but monitor closely. It stayed calm for a couple of months then suddenly flared with soft oedema swelling around it so it was injected with steroid and calmed down again so the mare could be ridden for about a month over Christmas until it flared again mid January.We then trotted for a needle biopsy which came back largely ok but with a few inconclusive cells. Vet's advice was to remove by laser rather than cutting and stitching on the offchance that the inconclusive cells could possibly be nasty. The laser removal is much more reliable when dodgy cells are involved.
We had the surgery at the end of January, and the wound, which was about the size of a 50p piece, was covered with dressings which were removed and changed every two days for a week. At the end of the week the wound looked exactly the same as at the beginning!
We then decided to try Equaide as a healing agent as the wound could have been an excellent candidate for proud flesh. Horribly expensive but I wouldn't be without it in the medicine cupboard now.
After two days..
Two more days..
A week later after the first scab fell off...
Two weeks later after the next scab fell off..
The next two weeks later...
And twelve days later at the beginning of this week.
Once the lump was biopsied it proved to be quite harmless! Its a long haul and Amy is managing to keep the mare halfway fit by riding her bareback with me lunging her once or twice a week...hopefully we'll be able to saddle up within two to three weeks.
Amy's young mare reacted badly to a fly bite last year with a hard lump on the side of her withers just where the point of the saddle tree sits. Vets advice was to leave well alone but monitor closely. It stayed calm for a couple of months then suddenly flared with soft oedema swelling around it so it was injected with steroid and calmed down again so the mare could be ridden for about a month over Christmas until it flared again mid January.We then trotted for a needle biopsy which came back largely ok but with a few inconclusive cells. Vet's advice was to remove by laser rather than cutting and stitching on the offchance that the inconclusive cells could possibly be nasty. The laser removal is much more reliable when dodgy cells are involved.
We had the surgery at the end of January, and the wound, which was about the size of a 50p piece, was covered with dressings which were removed and changed every two days for a week. At the end of the week the wound looked exactly the same as at the beginning!
We then decided to try Equaide as a healing agent as the wound could have been an excellent candidate for proud flesh. Horribly expensive but I wouldn't be without it in the medicine cupboard now.
After two days..
Two more days..
A week later after the first scab fell off...
Two weeks later after the next scab fell off..
The next two weeks later...
And twelve days later at the beginning of this week.
Once the lump was biopsied it proved to be quite harmless! Its a long haul and Amy is managing to keep the mare halfway fit by riding her bareback with me lunging her once or twice a week...hopefully we'll be able to saddle up within two to three weeks.
xx