Horse with mystery facial injuries - what has caused it?

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Katewood8

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Hi,

We found one of our horses in the field yesterday with a horrible face injury - it looked to have numerous open wounds on one side of his face - a few 'hole' type ones, and a larger once more like a slice, and also a smaller slice type one. On the other side you could also spot that he had fractured his jaw (unfortunately I don't have a picture of this side of the face). The vets said there were several fractures (all of which they managed to fix without surgery thank god!)

Anyway - below are 3 links for photos of his face, I would be interested to hear people's ideas as to what they think has happened. There was one other horse in the field. We are beginning to think it may be some sort of animal attack? Don't look at the photos if you don't like blood, they're not too bad though.


IMAG2164.jpg

IMAG2167.jpg

IMAG2168.jpg


Please try below links if the above doesnt work

www.gdivy.co.uk/nev/IMAG2164.jpg
www.gdivy.co.uk/nev/IMAG2167.jpg
www.gdivy.co.uk/nev/IMAG2168.jpg
 
looking at that I would suspect another animal claw and puncture wound tears, had to be something with quite a powerful bite to of fractured the jaw as well. My large huskamute dog had incredible bite power (thankfully he was soft as muck) but he could disintegrate bones from the butcher in a matter of minutes not even my gsd/Alsatian guard dogs did this
 
a dog is a possibility until you take into the account fractures. I would initially be looking at a pony or donkey. I have a pony with one of my horses. They play fight all the time. The horse ends up with bites up the side of his face but gives as good as he gets. A nice kind horse low down in the pecking order could easily get bullied and badly bitten by a dominant pony in this way.
My arab stallion ended up lame for several weeks after being bitten by my donkey. (the vets thought it hilarious)

small ponies can be pretty sneaky. They go in low to bite.

hope he is OK, poor lad.
 
Poor horse. :( Looks like a dog bite to me.

A strong enough dog could easily break a horse's jaw. My old lurcher managed to eat half the skull of a full-grown pig (it was meant to be eaten!) without too much trouble, all that was left were the teeth.
 
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They look too "pointy" to be a horse bite. I assume you don't have barbed wire fencing or any other objects in the field that could do this? I not I would be thinking dog bite. A fox or badger could also inflict wounds like this but I think that less likely. Poor you, what a worry. Hope he is feeling better soon.
 
Thank you for your responses. It is strange. I guess we will never know. it is strange having puncture ttoe wounds, a slice and and fracture. Seems like an animal went for him and hung on. Horrible to think of the fear. Just happy that they think they are able to fix him. If ever you needed a reason to check on your horse a couple of times a day.....
 
Katewood8 said:
Hi,

We found one of our horses in the field yesterday with a horrible face injury - it looked to have numerous open wounds on one side of his face - a few 'hole' type ones, and a larger once more like a slice, and also a smaller slice type one. On the other side you could also spot that he had fractured his jaw (unfortunately I don't have a picture of this side of the face). The vets said there were several fractures (all of which they managed to fix without surgery thank god!)

Anyway - below are 3 links for photos of his face, I would be interested to hear people's ideas as to what they think has happened. There was one other horse in the field. We are beginning to think it may be some sort of animal attack? Don't look at the photos if you don't like blood, they're not too bad though.


IMAG2164.jpg

IMAG2167.jpg

IMAG2168.jpg


Please try below links if the above doesnt work

www.gdivy.co.uk/nev/IMAG2164.jpg
www.gdivy.co.uk/nev/IMAG2167.jpg
www.gdivy.co.uk/nev/IMAG2168.jpg
Click to expand...

They look nasty, is your horse up to date with it's tetanus??? make sure vet has a look and gives him antibiotic as if it is a dog infection can get into his jawline or other areas.
 
SpringArising said:
Me too :(

I don't think it was a dog - there's no way a horse would stand still for long enough for that to happen.
Click to expand...

Who said the horse stood still. Any breed with locking jaws would simply latch on and refuse to let go. Have you never seen footage of yobs training staffordshires and pit bulls by swinging them off tree branches and ropes? They can hang on in there for ages.
 
fatpiggy said:
Who said the horse stood still. Any breed with locking jaws would simply latch on and refuse to let go. Have you never seen footage of yobs training staffordshires and pit bulls by swinging them off tree branches and ropes? They can hang on in there for ages.
Click to expand...

The puncture wounds are too big to have come from a dog's tooth. If it was a dog the face would be ripped as opposed to having round, in-tact puncture wounds.

Any horse with half a flight instinct would have run away as soon as it saw the dog running towards it and probably given it a good boot anyway.
 
SpringArising said:
The puncture wounds are too big to have come from a dog's tooth. If it was a dog the face would be ripped as opposed to having round, in-tact puncture wounds.

Any horse with half a flight instinct would have run away as soon as it saw the dog running towards it and probably given it a good boot anyway.
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Mine didn't :( She liked dogs and had no fear of them until then.. Dog gave me £110 vet bill and £80 equipment bill (ripped her knee and brushing boots off in pieces). At no time did she attempt to run away or hurt the dog, it wasn't in her nature.
 
We had a similar looking wound on the back leg of a horse, it was decided in the end it was most likely to be a big cat attack. The horse in question had a neurological condition which made it quite weak and we have had confirmed sightings of big black cats in the local area.
 
springtime1331 said:
We had a similar looking wound on the back leg of a horse, it was decided in the end it was most likely to be a big cat attack. The horse in question had a neurological condition which made it quite weak and we have had confirmed sightings of big black cats in the local area.
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This is why I asked about the OP's location. A friend of mine had a horse with unusual injuries we suspected of being caused by a large cat. Also, big cats tend to grab hold of muzzles. Although, if that were the case, I'd expect to see injuries to the neck too.
 
We're near Saffron Walden (Essex). He is used to dogs, so may not have fled if i. Was a dog. We're going to do a walk around the field to see if there are any clues. we will never know for sure, but with others views, we're getting a better idea. Thank you everyone. And as an update, after being told last night that he may have to be put down, he has been looking for and eating food today, so the vets are now happy for him to come home tomorrow, but will be stabled for a long while- so good and bad news.
 
That looks like a dog bite to me, from a large bull breed I would think. They easily have enough power to break a horse's jaw and they don't let go in a hurry either. I've had a bite from a collie that left a hole in my arm not dissimilar, I would imagine a bull terrier/mastif would easily do that sort of damage.
 
Beausmate said:
This is why I asked about the OP's location. A friend of mine had a horse with unusual injuries we suspected of being caused by a large cat. Also, big cats tend to grab hold of muzzles. Although, if that were the case, I'd expect to see injuries to the neck too.
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I thought about the muzzle too, but dogs often go for any soft parts so if the horse was grazing, the face would be an easy target - look how many people, especially children, have facial injuries from dogs. I would have though a cat would leave raking scratches in addition to bites.
 
fatpiggy said:
I thought about the muzzle too, but dogs often go for any soft parts so if the horse was grazing, the face would be an easy target - look how many people, especially children, have facial injuries from dogs. I would have though a cat would leave raking scratches in addition to bites.
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I wouldn't have thought a cat would randomly attack like that it's usually in self defence.

I really hope he wasn't stabbed that goes beyond the pale. If he was mine I would prefer (if that's the right word) that it was another animal IYKWIM
 
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