Large fluid filled swelling - Seroma? *Update: Post 17

[3chestnuts]

Hi all,

Last week, my horse had a swelling about the size of my hand just below the point of his buttock - it was slightly firm and very sensitive to the touch. Although there was no obvious bite mark, I assumed this was a sting of some sort, as he is turned out alone. It went down shortly thereafter.

Today I went to see him and he has a grapefruit sized swelling in the same spot. It is very soft and liquid-filled, but not hot or sensitive. My horse is not lame. The vet recommends stall rest for the next week to reduce any further disturbance, along with Bute and SMZs. I’ll also be cold hosing for 20 minutes a day for the next few days.

Has anyone dealt with anything like this before? My vet says she doesn’t typically lance these unless they become infected/an abscess. I’m hoping this gradually just resorbs into the body but am wondering what other’s experiences have been like.

Thanks!

[2tempe]

Keep on top of this. Horse where I board had something similar, about 1/2 way down his rump above the hock. After it going away and coming back, vet lanced on site. Appeared to go away again, then came back. Horse had to go to equine clinic and have it cut out as there was necrotic tissue way down in there. All this transpired over about 7 months…

He is fine now.

[Mosey_2003]

My first horse had one of those in that exact spot. His was the size of a basketball, though. Took him into the clinic and vet cut three slits and drained it. I had to flush it daily with lactated ringers. Healed up fine.

[merrygoround]

Seromas are usually caused by trauma that causes oozing of fluid into the area. The last one I saw was years ago, on horse that had a sliding fall on a very hard surface. It was months healing, and they had hauled it to a major clinic For draining because the vet wanted a second opinion. The horse was eventually fine ,but the owner’s fingernails may never recover.

[Mosey_2003]

I guess I got lucky that mine healed so quickly. We figured he slammed his butt into the wall on the way into his stall as he had a paddock attached that he could run in/out of at will.

We literally drained it, and then I flushed it for about a week, and it was fine. I had to soak a washcloth in hot water and hold it onto the drains to open them in the morning, but otherwise had no trouble.

The skin stayed wrinkled for about a year, but eventually all evened out.

But, we treated it within a day of it happening, that may have helped.

[Highflyer]

Yes. My vet also doesn’t lance them as a rule (we had one that had to be lanced as it was so big the horse couldn’t walk normally). All have healed great.

[pony_powered]

I had the same thing on my horse’s butt, kind of in the same area as yours. It swelled up and the fluid inside rippled when you touched it. Kind of freaked me out. It turned out to be a seroma (the vet drained it but it came back again). He probably got kicked. The bump is still there but about half the size now (about a month and a half later). It doesn’t bother him, he’s fine.

[3chestnuts]

Thanks for the replies! He’s feeling fine, and it doesn’t seem to bother him. It’s still slightly warm so I’ve been continuing to cold hose daily for 20 minutes. It hasn’t really gone down since Thursday - it’s still about the same size, although starting to feel more “gel-like”.

There was another vet at the barn on Friday and she took a look at it. She agreed with the protocol I’ve been following, and like my vet, she would be very hesitant to have it lanced. I’m letting him out for a couple hours a day at lunch time so he doesn’t totally lose his mind being in the stall.

I noticed yesterday that I could feel a ridge along the perimeter of the swelling. I was nervous about that building up to be quite the scar, but my vet said it is normal.

It’s always something with horses, isn’t it? I’m thankful it’s something that will heal with time, but what a bummer.

[SaratogaTB]

My OTTB had this on his stifle after he “slid to home base” playing and tripped. It was cantaloupe sized. Vets consulted all agreed that it shouldn’t be lanced unless it became infected. Goal is for the body to reabsorb. I am trying to remember the name of the terrific anti-inflammatory cream I had to apply twice daily. We had him an antibiotic as a precaution. Then he got cold wave therapy from vet three days a week. The therapy encouraged the gel to dissipate and avoid a build up of scar tissue. After two-three months his stifle looked normal and he has no movement issues from it. It’s frustrating but time is your friend here. The location of yours is a little less risky than the stifle long term.

[Action42]

I’ll have to page COTHer drmgincolor to share her experience with a hematoma on her horse! She has pictures and everything

[drmgncolor]

[QUOTE=Action42;8245863]
I’ll have to page COTHer drmgincolor to share her experience with a hematoma on her horse! She has pictures and everything :)[/QUOTE]

Thought I heard someone calling my name… Although you totally could have told the story, 42. I mean you ARE one of the main stars in the lancing video.

OP, I chronicled my hematoma story in 2 threads here on COTH:

http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?168707-Draining-a-(rather-large)-hematoma-Another-Update-Post-45&highlight=hematoma

http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?171335-The-Hematoma-has-been-drained-NOW-WITH-VIDEO!&highlight=hematoma

These are from 2008. None of the links will work anymore. In fact, I guess too many people flagged my (IMHO extremely educational draining video) as inappropriate and Youtube removed it for me after close to 100,000 views. And then they issued me a nasty warning. I still have all the pics and the video. Which of course, I shared with my awesome vet.

She says it’s still one of her most favorite days on the job.

[Mosey_2003]

I literally came THIS close to full-on passing out when doc lanced my boy’s… I had to go sit on the trailer :lol:

[drmgncolor]

[QUOTE=Mosey_2003;8246068]
I literally came THIS close to full-on passing out when doc lanced my boy’s… I had to go sit on the trailer :lol:[/QUOTE]

Haha. Yeah, my mare’s opened up like a fire hydrant. I tried to catch most of it in a bucket, but by the end, the wash stall looked like a war zone. I think there was blood on the ceiling. Thankfully it was painted cement and very easy to disinfect.

[3chestnuts]

LOL! drmgncolor, I did come across your threads when I did a search - although I didn’t watch your video, I did YouTube a lancing video and showed my husband. He, not a horse person, thought it was the most horrific thing.

I really don’t want to go through that :no: Last winter, I spent two weeks flushing out an infected wound when this horse impaled himself. Not fun (and my hands go numb just thinking about it - it was COLD!). Fingers crossed it works itself out naturally. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted

[drmgncolor]

[QUOTE=3chestnuts;8246161]
LOL! drmgncolor, I did come across your threads when I did a search - although I didn’t watch your video, I did YouTube a lancing video and showed my husband. He, not a horse person, thought it was the most horrific thing.

I really don’t want to go through that :no: Last winter, I spent two weeks flushing out an infected wound when this horse impaled himself. Not fun (and my hands go numb just thinking about it - it was COLD!). Fingers crossed it works itself out naturally. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted ;)[/QUOTE]

See, that’s what I don’t understand about them removing my video off Youtube… There are so many on there, why me? But whatever. Every non horse person who has seen my video is disgusted. Every horse person is intrigued.

I hope you don’t have to go through what I did. It was pretty gory. But in the end it turned out really well. She’s healed nicely and now 7 years later has 3 small scars… only one of which is even remotely noticeable.

Good luck and keep us posted!

[costco_muffins]

My horse had a huge seroma on his stifle. We figured he probably got it from horsing around since we got him as an unhandled 2 y/o colt who was living out with a herd of other colts.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=673748670599&l=39b241f1a2

We initially had it lanced and drained and we thought it was reabsorbing.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=677242179579&l=0cb60ce88c

It grew back within a few days.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=689725108689&l=e8b2d493c2

Since the horse had to go in for hernia surgery and gelding, we also had the vets drain the seroma.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=689099387639&l=c3be61bc32

When we came back after surgery, we saw that they had REALLY opened the site.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=689099352709&l=e97bd1ad3a

It was terrifying.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=689099232949&l=0a484a6545

Even more terrifying a few weeks later.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=689702474049&l=d853af9d03

But surprisingly it started to get better (maybe the vets actually know what they are doing?). This photo is about 7 weeks after the initial surgery.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=696953542849&l=5326ca939a

And eventually it got to where you can’t even see the site any more unless you look on the inside of the stifle and see his itty bitty scar. The scar will “sweat” when he works and you can see that, but nothing major.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=811300046539&l=5e75c4306d

[3chestnuts]

Hi everyone, thanks for all the responses. These horses are something else, aren’t they?

Anyway, it’s been three weeks since the initial swelling, and I’m very disappointed to report that any size reduction has been very minimal. Here’s a picture taken at the end of weeks 1, 2 and 3
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=3ActHDJs5cP5g

After week 1 the vet said he could be turned out and ridden (he has 24/ turnout). I’ve been taking it easy under saddle - not trotting/cantering for more than 5 minutes at a time - because although it doesn’t seem to bother him, I can’t imagine it would be comfortable and I really don’t want to hinder any healing process.

When the vet cleared him for riding and turnout, she said the activity may help it reabsorb. However, if it didn’t seem to be getting better, she could aspirate it to help the process along. What would you do? The major con is potentially introducing infection. The benefit would be a reduction in size and faster healing.

Basically, since aspirating it would be for mostly aesthetic purposes, would you do it? We didn’t have any shows planned (although I was hoping to go to one/go off property again before the end of the year).

[merrygoround]

The trouble with aspirating is that they sometimes happily refill.

[2tempe]

See my early post (#2)- when it was opened at the vet clinic, and necrotic tissue removed, a drain was put in. So that it wouldn’t “happily refill” as it did when it was aspirated at home. (see merrygoround above)
The problem you have, in part, is not knowing what caused it. It could be a splinter or stinger in there, for example, that could created a problem. Did vet say how long it could take to reabsorb if all else is OK?

I’d have a hard time not doing SOMETHING, but if your vet says to wait, I guess I’d listen…Ugh, that thing looks sizeable.

[Mosey_2003]

Shutterfly won’t really let me see it without signing up, but it doesn’t actually look that big (compared to mine, anyway). I dunno, draining mine went fine, I’m not sure what I’d advise, honestly…