Mystery lump on jaw....ideas?

[PNWjumper]

I just noticed a fairly sizeable lump on my 3yo’s jaw. It’s about the size of an egg and pretty hard and right in front of his cheek area on the bony part of his lower jaw. It’s hot and a little sensitive to the touch. Here’s a picture of it during one of my rides this week:

Webshots - Wallpaper / Screen Savers

You can see it in some of the other pics from the blue breeches pictures on in that album.

I have a guess that it’s related to teething activity (retained cap or just tooth growth) and that he perhaps bonked his jaw on the top of his stall door (he jousts over the door with my other gelding and I’ve seen him crack down pretty hard before), and if he had a small lump from teething I’m wondering if he hit it and that could have made it larger.

I had my vet out yesterday and she took a look at it and then did his teeth. He did have a cap on the tooth on the upper jaw directly above the lump, so she said it was possible that it was related to that, though it was worn partly through and so she said it wasn’t “retained,” and that it was getting ready to shed naturally. She suggested that I keep up his bute and put some DMSO (with steroids) on it daily.

I thought I’d put it out to the COTH world to see if anyone else has seen a similar sized lump and what it was. We haven’t x-rayed it yet. We figured we’d do his teeth and keep an eye on it for another week or so, with the expectation that it will shrink if it was related to the teeth. If it hasn’t gone down in that time we’ll move on to x-rays/biopsy or whatever else we need to do to figure out what it is.

[goeslikestink]

hes three dont rulle out strangles as they abcess come anywhere in the yaw and face# read this thread there a link to strangle care from thomas

http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=276700

[LauraKY]

Has the vet x-rayed it? Tried to drain it? Is is soft or hard? Could be a lot of things. Does he have a temp?

[TropicalStorm]

Haha, ok, sorry to laugh, but I’ll tell you my story. I originally purchased a horse (then 5) that mysteriously developed this same lump in the same location as your boy. Never saw anything like it Thinking it was an abcessed tooth or something weird, I had the vet out. Xrays revealed nothing. He wasn’t sick or anything, and the lump was hard (almost like bone) and looked like a thin line of calcification on the xrays. Put him on bute for a week, nothing changed, so the vet just said that he probably bumped his jaw on something and that everything would reabsorb. That was 3 years ago, lump is still there

BUT…6 months ago, my 3 year old came in with the same thing…just on the opposite side. Thinking that for sure it was a tooth problem (even though you could push on it and there wasn’t any swelling so much as it was a protrusion) I again xrayed, and found nothing. Teeth were all normal. Vet said that “he must have hit his jaw, and it should reabsorb in a few weeks”

Where have I heard that story before?

So I’m not holding my breath

So no answers for you. I just became the owner of 2 horses with mysterious lumps on their jaws It doesn’t interfere at all with their riding. But in all seriousness, I was told that if you could palpate and it didn’t cause any distress, and the lump wasn’t growing or swelling, it was fine

[PNWjumper]

Hmmm…interesting, TropicalStorm. When I was a kid several horses at the barn I was at suddenly came in with “unicorn lumps” in the middle of their foreheads. Some reabsorbed over the years (and it did take years) and others remained with the horses for life. The vets and trainers were stumped…especially since it happened to several in a relatively short time period, which seemed to indicate that it wasn’t an acute injury like a random kick to the head or a horse that whacked its head on the shed.

As for my guy, he’s not sick…no temp, no lethargy or change to his attitude at all and he’s eating/drinking/behaving normally. It doesn’t bother him to have the bridle or halter on (neither touch the lump, so I guess my only learning from that fact is that it’s not making his face sore elsewhere).

The lump is hard…feels kind of like a “handle” on his bone. It’s sensitive (he doesn’t want me to push on it a bunch), but not really sensitive (I can push on it some without too much of a reaction). My vet’s first thought was that it could be an abcess, and she hasn’t ruled it out since it is somewhat warm, but I think it feels awfully hard for that. Wouldn’t an abcess be at least a little squishy (or if not “squishy” somewhat moveable?)? This really feels like it’s part of the jaw bone. She also commented that strangles abcesses are typically in between the jawbones where it would be easy for an abcess to develop and come out. I’d also expect at least a slightly elevated temperature? Is that not always the case?

[sptraining]

My horse had something similar once. It was an abcess and opened before I had a chance to do anything about it. Just kept it clean and it healed and went away. There was a little lump there left over but it was just a scar.

[Chall]

For playful horses with half stall doors, you can buy swimming “noodles” (long foam tubes), split them and duct tape them on the exposed metal all around.
My horse bopped his nose on the metal upper half of his stall when he jerked his head up. Got a nose bleed from that. I only figured it out when he jerked his head up and hit it a second time when I was there.

[PNWjumper]

[QUOTE=Chall;5160793]
For playful horses with half stall doors, you can buy swimming “noodles” (long foam tubes), split them and duct tape them on the exposed metal all around.
My horse bopped his nose on the metal upper half of his stall when he jerked his head up. Got a nose bleed from that. I only figured it out when he jerked his head up and hit it a second time when I was there.[/QUOTE]

That’s a great idea! I don’t have any metal edges in my barn, but it would be easy enough to attach them to the wood edge of his stall door. Having said that, I swapped pastures today and now he’s in a big field with no edges to clonk his chin on at all.

The lump was a little smaller today, and not hot. So hopefully getting rid of the cap and/or the bute/DMSO+steroid is helping. I did talk to my vet this afternoon and she said “definitely not strangles.” He doesn’t have enlarged lymph nodes and she’s pretty certain that the tooth/chin whacking theory is our culprit.

Now I’m just hoping that I don’t have TropicalStorm’s luck with the non-disappearance of the lump!

[WishIWereRiding]

It looks like an eruption bump to me–he doesn’t have molars coming in?

[PNWjumper]

[QUOTE=WishIWereRiding;5160953]
It looks like an eruption bump to me–he doesn’t have molars coming in?[/QUOTE]

He very well may have molars coming in…he had caps coming off on the teeth in that exact spot on the teeth above the bump (over his 2nd premolar, if that’s the right name for the second molar back). Is it normal for a horse to get a lump that large when teething? He did have a smaller lump in the same place on the other side (and I’m pretty confident, as was my vet, that the smaller bump is due to his teeth), which is why I was wondering if he whacked that spot and it swelled up more than the other side.

I haven’t ever noticed sizeable lumps during teething on my other youngsters, so this is new to me.

[PNWjumper]

[QUOTE=WishIWereRiding;5160953]
It looks like an eruption bump to me–he doesn’t have molars coming in?[/QUOTE]

I should also say, thank you, WishIWereRiding!

I googled “eruption bump” and came up with plenty of similar stories of “lumps the size of a small egg.”

Sometimes all you need is the correct term to search for!

[Bluey]

Many horses at the race track get them, especially three year old and for practically all, it is related to teething and most go away eventually.

Maybe your horse’s bump will too.

[Ghazzu]

I’m betting on the tooth answer.

[WishIWereRiding]

[QUOTE=PNWjumper;5161006]
I should also say, thank you, WishIWereRiding!

I googled “eruption bump” and came up with plenty of similar stories of “lumps the size of a small egg.”

Sometimes all you need is the correct term to search for! :)[/QUOTE]

No problem! My 4 y/o OTTB has the same thing right now, but only on the left side. Looks ugly!