side of face swollen

[Yankee Mom]

I Monday we had some very high winds which in the mid afternoon broke my barn door eye hook and my door was banging with force. When I went out to fix it I noticed my little 28" geldings side of his face was swollen about the size of a baseball, and I immediately thought,Oh No, the barn door must of hit him, since it was not swollen at morning feeding. I called my vet, and he told me to ice it and give him a dose of Bute. The next morning {yesterday}, it was still pretty swollen and hot to the touch, kept iceing it and kept close eye on him. He was eating normally, called vet and gave update, he said just to monitor him. This afternoon I went back out to check him and their was an abscess about the size of a very large grape I quickly called the vet and he said to put warm water on it, so I barely touched it with the halter and that thing exploded! I applied gentle pressure and the pus just kept shooting out. I kept that up till just blood colored fluid came out. I wipe it off and applied neosporin to it like the vet said, but it was just oozing a mixture of fluid and blood and continued to drain. Called vet back told him the update, and he said to just watch it but now since it let the infection out it should heal up in a few days and to keep it clean and use the neosporin. Now, I do not think the door hit him but still do not know what happened. I just had his teeth floated four weeks ago, could that be an infected tooth or sinus? or maybe the door DID hit him. The abcess and swelling was located on the left side of his face in between the nostril and eye socket. It still looks like it still has swelling around this puncture hole where it exploded, and still has fluid in the actually pocket itself, still drainig slighty. Calling vet tomorrow but was looking for YOUR feedback, you all are so knowledgeable and have helped so many people in sooo many ways, including me! Thank you!!!

 

[kaykay]

be sure to take his temp and see if he has a fever

 

[lilhorseladie]

The problem with letting it heal on it's own is that what ever caused the abscess is still in there. It could be a bone chip, a sliver, a chunk of weed, but it is probably still in there. I would want to get the irritant out before allowing it to heal over it or your asking for a repeat.

 

[Sanny]

We went through pretty much exactly what you described. I thought at first our little gelding had been kicked though his abcess didn't burst on its own like that. One thing that threw me was even though his face was swelled up like a football he didn't have a temp. We took him to the vet who examined him and x-rayed his face and found that basically he had a tooth that didn't come out like it should have and was infected and caused the abcess in the same place you described. He pulled the tooth, lanced and drained the abcess and put him on a serious course of antibiotics because if the infection didn't completely clear up we'd need to take him in to the equine hospital basically for a root canal at an estimated cost of $2,000. He got a penicillin shot every morning for two weeks and Tribrissen (sp?) paste antibiotic at night. I put hot compresses on it every day to keep everything draining and I put a topical ointment on it. I think bacitracen (sp?)