Neck Muscle Infections
Your horse might receive many injections in his neck during his lifetime. Whether it is a vaccination for the flu and tetanus, or treatment for pain and injuries. If performed correctly, they won’t cause anything more than a little bit of soreness… every now and again though, injection sites can become infected by bacteria that can even result in fatalities if left untreated.
Although bacteria such as Clostrudium are found everywhere naturally on your horse’s skin, it helps to disinfect the area well, use sterile needles and syringes and to also use medications as recommended and always administered by, or under the supervision of a veterinarian.
In this particular case, presented at the clinic this week, the horse had was suffering from an abscess. This caused an immense amount of pain and also an inability for the horse to eat and sleep comfortably.
We get a lot of cases that have been treated with home-made remedies before they come to the clinic. In my opinion, these are the most difficult cases to control and heal as by the time we see them the bacterium would have caused too much damage in the muscles.
In this case the infection spread to both sides of the neck in a very short time. This will result in a very long recovery and severe destruction of the neck muscles.
So, the team’s advise, is to always contact your vet as soon as you see a small swelling. The vet will ultrasound and assess the abscess which should then be monitored over the next 15 – 30 days.
Also, whenever possible, avoid injecting your horse, and administer an oral alternative. After all that’s how most human medications are administered!
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