Curious to learn if anyone has dealt with this unusual condition with an adult horse. It has a little more research when present in foals but less is known about it with adult horses.
Never heard of it, so I googled.
Sorry you are dealing with this.
How is the horse being treated?
Wow thank you for the link and the treatment for the donkey. Always interesting to see what has been tried and done.
A biopsy is the next step to confirm what appears on a clinical exam to point towards panniculitis. That will happen in the next week. At this point there is no treatment for the condition and the cause is undetermined. It’s the damndest thing that came out of the blue. There has been a separate issue with my mare for a few months so my regular vet suggested a chiro treatment. That DVM found the masses and said “I’ve never seen this before.” He’s been practicing since 1986. 
He bumped it back to my regular DVM who said “I’ve never seen this before either” and she did some baseline labs. I went to an equine specialist who thinks this could be what my mare is dealing with and this DVM is top tier. He treated a donkey for the condition about 5 years ago.
An OB/GYN who I rode with on Saturday told me how she sees it present in her human patients so that too was good to learn about as an equine owner and female. 
If it’s not panniculitis the other option is less promising so I guess I’m hoping it comes out the former.
Jingling that you have the best out come possible. Please let us know what happens!
Thank you and will keep you posted.
Update: the biopsy came back positive for fat necrosis. The veterinarian prescribed a two week course of prednisolone and within 4 days of taking the drugs there was a positive result in a behavior that had been missing for months in my mare. There is no cure for this condition and there is very little known about it; it is rare in adult horses. Time will tell if this is a one time flare up or if it will be an ongoing battle. The plaque that is present now will never go away- it presents as solid masses in two areas and hard lumps in other areas. There does remain a risk that the condition would happen internally on fat layers and cause a fatal issue instead of under the skin, as it is now. However, at this time it does not appear that at age 16 she is a pasture puff for which I am thankful. Her fox hunting days may be done but she is an awesome trail horse too.
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