Hi guys! On Saturday I found a big grapefruit sized fluid mass on my horses girth line, just behind the right front leg. Almost sure she got kicked and it’s a hematoma. No experience with these so I just rubbed it with DMSO and gave her some bute. Over the past few days it’s gone down a lot but is still quite a large lump. She now lets me massage it (was sensitive at first) and I’ve just been riding bareback and lunging. Heard these things can take months to resorb fully so wondering when it might be safe to put a girth and saddle on and actually ride/jump. Hoping to show on the 4th. Any advice?
You’ll have to talk to a vet if you want it evaluate and maybe drained.
You can try putting a girth and longing first…
I wouldn’t jump as there might be greater risk that the hematoma gets squeezed or pinched or hit by a front hoof while in the air…
If the horse is in pain and react to it, you might run into some behavioral problems down the road. What if she stops in front of jump? Will you correct her? but what if it’s because she’s in pain? That wouldn’t be fair… You don’t want to create fear.
Make sure it doesn’t hurt first. Consult with a vet.
I would have my vet take a look at it and go by their advice, you don’t want to exacerbate the problem or draw the healing process out longer
Get a vet to look at it. One of our schoolies had to end up having one surgically removed (previous draining didn’t help). Ended up benign but it still takes a few months to heal as it’s in an awful spot.
This happened to my horse several years ago. Got nailed by a field mate who had shoes on and had a nasty baseball sized lump on his shoulder. We Buted for several days and caked his shoulder, down his leg with poultice, cold hosed, dried, repeat. The offender was moved to solitary and Bear was put in his own turnout (actually the backyard…a coveted spot :lol:) to make sure there were no more scuffles while he was healing. If I didn’t see any improvement within a few days, I would be calling the vet. We were very lucky that he was barely unsound and the lump dissipated quickly. Good luck!!
Thank you! It’s been going down pretty well! Didn’t poultice it or cold hose but maybe I will try that 
