Help- swollen cheek/under jaw?

floradora09

floradora09

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Brought my 16yo TB up to ride last night, he usually lives out 24/7, and noticed there was a bit of swelling/fluid around the side of his cheeks, under his jaw etc- hadn't seen it earlier in the week but there is a chance I could have missed it as it'd dark when I go down and we just feed.

He is prone to 'grass glands' but this is in a different place, and quite wobbly and fluidy.. initial thoughts were he'd bashed himself but it's the same on both sides. He was normal to ride, and happy to eat, and not showing any other signs of being under the weather.

His feed hasn't changed recently, the only two possible ideas I had were that I did rug him up a lot a couple of days ago during the colder weather, perhaps he got a bit overly warm, and the water pipe has frozen in their field so the water in the trough was down to the dirtier stuff (although still plenty enough to drink I hasten to add!) so maybe he's not been drinking as much... although I don't see how either of these might mean his jaw has swollen? He is also a cribber.

The red on this pic sort of shows where it's swollen:


349931-1.gif


It's not really warm either, just wobbly and fluidy.. and he's happy in himself. Any ideas? He's up in the stable atm so I can keep an eye- YM looked at it this morning and having another look tonight.

Thanks

ETA- It did look a bit better after I'd ridden last night I think, but back up again by this morning. Also in Vets.
 
Oh yes sorry- normal temp (37.5) and no runny nose.

To add- It's not so much the little glands between the jaw bones underneath that are swollen, but more the cheek itself and the area where the head meets neck?
 
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Id say its still grass glands. All our horses get them at different degrees of severity and mine has them in all of those areas.
 
Mine had this thurs, got totally panicked and put him in and it went down over night - it was swollen over his cheeks and round his throatlash area too, he looked slightly froglike, but its perfectly fine now :)
 
I'd say I would probably keep him isolated to be on the safe side, and if no better by monday would be having the vet out for a look. No pain on palpation?
 
LiffWee93 said:
Mine had this thurs, got totally panicked and put him in and it went down over night - it was swollen over his cheeks and round his throatlash area too, he looked slightly froglike, but its perfectly fine now :)
Click to expand...

Sounds exactly the same! Weird... Maybe something weather related.

Thanks for all the ideas everyone, hoping it is just a weird form of grass glands as perhaps frozen grass is pretty sugary as it's been sunny but cold, so I could believe it to be grass glands.

No pain on palpation, and he's usually a bit of a flower. Will take him for a hack today and then YM looking again tonight. Might be inclined to keep him in incase it's something in field or whatever. :)
 
One of mine has been the same this week, it seems to be a more extreme type of grass gland probably due to the colder weather, it is only the one and he is also the only one of 10 that gets it in the summer too.
 
Mine gets grass glands (I call them hamster cheeks!) every Spring when the new grass comes through. But last year she came in one night and had a linear swelling approx the length of a toilet roll tube and same width in exactly the same place yours has the swelling. I phoned the vet and they said as long as she was ok in herself and no temp etc then not much to worry about. May be worth just giving your vet a ring though if they don't go by the morning?
 
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