One hell of a headache!

A call came through this morning to attend to a young filly with a wound to its forehead.

The owner was unsure how the wound occurred as she was found in the field with blood on its forehead.

With such wounds it is always advised that a thorough examination of the wound site is carried out. This enables the vet to determine the depth and nature of the wound, which structures are involved and investigate for foreign bodies or fragments of bone.

Damien, the attending vet, sedated the filly to assess the wound. To his amazement an 8cm piece of wood was retrieved! Quite amazing considering the wound didn’t look too big from the outside.

Thankfully the wood had only penetrated into the forehead muscle and not into its skull.
Confident that this was the only piece of wood in the wound, it was flushed and left open to heal. Tetanus prevention, a course of antibiotics and anti inflammatories were prescribed and we expect a full recovery.

That was one very lucky horse.