My Boy's Bump

I wasn't sure I was going to make it up to see My Boy on Sunday. I had a birthday outing on Saturday night and you know how your friends treat you on birthdays. Yes, they buy you drinks your body can't handle.

I woke up late but with just a minor headache that quickly subsided. The rain appeared to be holding off, so I threw on on my jeans and drove up to see my horse. I really wanted to check on his new shoe and the resurgence of a strange bump that I'd noticed Tuesday when the farrier came out.

My Boy was at the gate and very eager to come out. I haltered him and took him up to groom, and checked out his lump.

Last spring, My Boy had a tiny (size of a large nail head) bump on his upper cheek. It was a bit like a wart but it wasn't a wart. It appeared to have a harder and larger "base" underneath the skin. When the vet came out to do his strangles booster, I had her take a look at it. She poked it and such but didn't think it was anything, maybe a bug bite that had inflamed some tissue under the skin. She said to keep an eye on it.

It stuck around for a while but didn't change any or get worse, then it seemed to disappear. Well, on Tuesday when I brought My Boy out for the farrier, I noticed that it was back (or at least, something was back, in the same spot.) It looked like it had perhaps been scraped, it was a tiny wound. I put some antibiotic cream on it.

Yesterday, it looked even different still. It's about the size of a nickle and some hair had fallen off of it. It's no longer "fresh" like it was Tuesday.

It is not gushy, it is hard and does not smell like an abscess (according to Paint Girl who generously offered up her nose, thank you sis.) My Boy does not flinch when you touch it, it does not appear to be painful or bothering him in any way.

I decided to have the vet come out sometime this week to take a closer look. As Paint Girl said, we may overreact a bit about our horses, but we also aren't the kind of people to wait until something is the size of a grapefruit to get it tended to. It is a bizarre skin bump and my thoughts are leading towards some kind of skin infection or abscess, cancer, or cyst. From looking at the pictures (sorry the close-ups are a bit grotesque) do you have any ideas of what it could be?

I took My Boy up to the arena and longed him out. I did not work him hard today. Paint Girl wormed her mare Fritzy, then brought her up to the arena. After I cooled off My Boy we left and stood by the gate to watch Fritzy get free longed. She snorted and pranced and ran up a storm!

Afterward, we walked the horses around for a while and talked.

My Boy and Fritzy have been flirting buddies over the fence when they've been pastured next door to each other, and they were trying for some lovin' yesterday.

Or at least, My Boy was! I think Fritzy was too tired from her workout to partake in any romantic socializing!

I was glad I felt well enough to spend the afternoon with my horse. And thank you Mother Nature, for holding off on the rain until I put him back in his pasture!