Flyingsolo
Member
About 18 months ago, I discovered a small, hard lump on the front of my mares chest towards her left armpit which days later burst and had discharge. It went away but since then it has continually reoccurred on a 4-6 month basis. The same pattern happens.
Fast forward to now, it has been a really long time since the last one and I assumed the body had done what it needed to do and cleared it through. However, over the past few weeks, it started appearing again. It starts with the area becoming firm and then, painful and then it bursts. The swelling stage can last for a good few weeks. However, this time, it just grew and grew and grew. It was extremely painful for her and the size of half a melon, it burst was leaking pus and blood and the exit track out was quite big. This time, the vet decided to clip the area, and scan it and could see a huge amount of very thick pus. She confirmed it was behind the pectoral muscle and that the pus was spread out behind the muscle.
The track out that the abscess takes and breaks open each time is the same hole every time and the exit hole is high up, which obviously makes it really difficult for the pus to fully escape on its own. The vet decided to try open it up at the bottom of the abscess to give it somewhere more suitable to exit.
However, after two different incisions through the pectoral muscle, the vet just couldn't get deep enough to release the abscess lower down. She flushed it through with Iodine.
I'm really emotional about this - maybe unreasonably.
There was so much blood and because the incisions weren't successful, I feel like we have cut through the pectoral muscle and damaged her further for no reason, but I guess she had to be treated.
Was there another option? Her chest is in a right mess. I'm due to be flushing this twice a day with Iodine, but my mare absolutely will not tolerate me going anywhere near this lump, she wouldn't even before the vet came so now it's more painful, it's a total no-go. I even tried with sedation today but it absolutely did nothing and she continued trying to kill me.
The vet has advised that I just continue with the oral antibiotics and bute and keep any eye on her, if I can keep the exit holes open then great but I just can't get near this lump. So I can't do anything to it.
The vet discussed that whatever has caused it, due to the fact that it keeps reoccurring, it's likely that a cavity has formed in the chest which could potentially have a foreign body in it and that if this continues to reoccur, she will have to have a hospital stay and they will need to open it up investigate, clean it out and stitch the muscles back together to get rid of the cavity.
I feel terrible for her, that this could have been a much bigger and painful issue going on inside her than I realised and I only really ever noticed it when it bubbled to the surface. But I guess it could have been rumbling under the muscle for literally months.
Has anyone dealt with anything like this successfully please? I feel really down trodden over it.
Thanks for any replies.
Fast forward to now, it has been a really long time since the last one and I assumed the body had done what it needed to do and cleared it through. However, over the past few weeks, it started appearing again. It starts with the area becoming firm and then, painful and then it bursts. The swelling stage can last for a good few weeks. However, this time, it just grew and grew and grew. It was extremely painful for her and the size of half a melon, it burst was leaking pus and blood and the exit track out was quite big. This time, the vet decided to clip the area, and scan it and could see a huge amount of very thick pus. She confirmed it was behind the pectoral muscle and that the pus was spread out behind the muscle.
The track out that the abscess takes and breaks open each time is the same hole every time and the exit hole is high up, which obviously makes it really difficult for the pus to fully escape on its own. The vet decided to try open it up at the bottom of the abscess to give it somewhere more suitable to exit.
However, after two different incisions through the pectoral muscle, the vet just couldn't get deep enough to release the abscess lower down. She flushed it through with Iodine.
I'm really emotional about this - maybe unreasonably.
There was so much blood and because the incisions weren't successful, I feel like we have cut through the pectoral muscle and damaged her further for no reason, but I guess she had to be treated.
Was there another option? Her chest is in a right mess. I'm due to be flushing this twice a day with Iodine, but my mare absolutely will not tolerate me going anywhere near this lump, she wouldn't even before the vet came so now it's more painful, it's a total no-go. I even tried with sedation today but it absolutely did nothing and she continued trying to kill me.
The vet has advised that I just continue with the oral antibiotics and bute and keep any eye on her, if I can keep the exit holes open then great but I just can't get near this lump. So I can't do anything to it.
The vet discussed that whatever has caused it, due to the fact that it keeps reoccurring, it's likely that a cavity has formed in the chest which could potentially have a foreign body in it and that if this continues to reoccur, she will have to have a hospital stay and they will need to open it up investigate, clean it out and stitch the muscles back together to get rid of the cavity.
I feel terrible for her, that this could have been a much bigger and painful issue going on inside her than I realised and I only really ever noticed it when it bubbled to the surface. But I guess it could have been rumbling under the muscle for literally months.
Has anyone dealt with anything like this successfully please? I feel really down trodden over it.
Thanks for any replies.
get her into horsepital
