What is this huge lump on her neck??

[katieB]

I brought Milly in last night and she had this huge lump of skin dangling down from the bottom of her neck. There are a lot of bites either side of the lump but the lump feels like a cyst or something. Its quite large and hangs down away from the rest of her neck. Ive called the vet but they cant come out till 2:30 this afternoon so I thought id see if you guys had any ideas. My first thought was a reaction to fly bites but it looks different to the bites that surround it. When I told the vet about it he said it sounds like a haematoma. The second pic looks worse than it is because its wet so the shiny areas look bad, the lump is right in the middle of her chest and then all down her left side is little lumps.
Anyone got any ideas???

[nutkin]

The little lumps which you say look different are probably just fly bites but I agree that the lump at the front looks like a haematoma. Generally speaking they are caused through something like a kick or trauma of some kind.Having said that a girl at my old yard had a lump identical to the one your horse has and his was caused by a reaction to a fly bite.

[katieB]

Thanks Nutkin, I feel better now I have an idea what it could be.

[Yann]

I'd go with haematoma too, Rio had something very similar a couple of years ago, it gradually drained away over a couple of weeks.

[eliza]

Haematoma sounds right - if only because I have them sometimes! I bruise very easily and basically that's what causes this, I think. Bit of bleeding caused by a knock that will eventually go down of its own accord.
Hope we're right.
Take care
Eliza

[Showjumper]

Dolly had something similar to that last year when she'd been in the blackberry bush. A thorn had gone into her chest and got infected. It drained pretty quickly and she's been fine since :)

[katieB]

The vet came out yesterday and said it is a nasty skin infection, the area of skin is where all the fluid from the infection has settled. All the bumps surrounding it were not bites they were part of the infection and on closer look the skin has a sort of surface of pus - yuck! :( and the hair comes out really easily. It looked worse when I got there to meet the vet too, he gave her a shot of antibiotics and she has to have some anti inflammatory cream applied twice a day and antibiotics in her feed twice a day.

[Yann]

That's interesting - Rio's had a load of supplementary bumps too like a rash, and as I recall came up after I'd clipped her, could have been a reaction rather than an injury then.