Jim's Vet Appt and Prognosis

After we got back from vacation, I noticed that Jim had a lump under his eye. I wasn't sure if it was a tooth abscess or what it was. It wasn't hot to the touch, it didnt' seem to bother him too much, and there was no terrible smell that meant anything was overly wrong. I let it go for a week thinking that maybe he just bumped into something and the swelling would go down.

Well, after a week, it still looked the same, so I called the vet. Unfortunately they were out of town that week so that made me push it out another week. I wasn't overly concerned because, again, no terrible smell, no undue pain, etc. Jim seemed to be himself but I wanted to get it taken care of as soon as possible.

I loaded Jim up this morning (after spending time convincing him that we SHOULD go to the vet). I was worried about him traveling (open stock trailer) because we'd had a heavy rainstorm pass through just an hour before and I didnt' want him to get chilled. I dug out a blanket (apparently this spring, I put them all in one spot and that is where they've been sitting ever since). I DESPERATLY  need to get them cleaned. Anyone want to help me?

We got to the vets on time and they tranquilized him to get a better look into his teeth. I forgot that Jim is a lightweight so he was pretty dopy. The vet asked me a couple of times how old Jim was. Based on his teeth, the vet didn't believe me that he is 27 years old. Well, the coggins that came with him in 2009 said he was 21. And I'm just going off of what the previous owner said his age was. Although I find it odd that some owners keep the same age of the horse when they sell it  as when they originally bought the horse. But that's for another story.

But the vet was very impressed with Jim's teeth and said his teeth wont' be the cause of any health issues. I've had to bring in some horses with terrible teeth and Jim has pristine teeth! YAY. Now if I could only figure out why he loses weight in the winter (because it's not his teeth). I do believe we had his teeth power floated two years ago so apparently the power float is holding so we wont' have to deal with floating his teeth any time soon.

But the vet immediately ruled out an abscess because there was no foul smell, no puss, no nothing to that effect. He took a couple of x-rays at different angles and none of the x-rays showed any decay. He thought that perhaps the root of the tooth had died and was decaying but the x-rays proved otherwise. I'm afraid Jim's condition was a bit of a stumper for him.

We've concluded that Jim was probably messing around and whacked his head on something and he now has a major bone bruise. There's nothing else that the vet could come up with. There's no heat, no puss, no major discomfort, no nothing. Jim is a pretty tough horse. But the vet HAS seen bone bruises before and they take months to go down. So we'll see.

Jim is now on antibiotics for the next ten days and then I'm to call the vet and give him an update. But I expect that if it is a bone bruise, that there wont' be much more that we can do for Jim. Just give him time and make sure he doesn't bang his head again. I'm sure that if it truly is a bone bruise, that he and Maverick were playing and got a little too rough. That's what you get for having a 10 year old as your best friend when you are 27 years old.