Blood vessel popping out under horse's neck?

[Chickerdoodle13]

I have a question that I can't seem to find an answer to anywhere on the internet.

My two year old horse has a little bulging vein on the underside of her neck. Apparently my dad noticed she had it when we bought her, but I did not. (Unfortunately we bought her during my spring break and I had to leave for school the day after!) This swelling is located right on the underside of her neck, about halfway between her head and chest. It runs perpendicular to her jugular veins. I notice it gets a little larger after she is stressed (ex. after I work with her on the lead trying to teach something new or when I expose her to some new stimulus) She has a lot of veins that tend to pop out, but this one on her neck is the most noticeable. It doesn't seem to cause any pain and is squishy to the touch, like a hematoma. However, she has not suffered any injury that I know about, and I imagine a hemotoma would be gone by now. Its not warm or any different from the rest of her skin, just sticks out. The only thing I found on the internet is a varicose vein, but couldn't find much info on that either.

She's been wormed since we bought her and has had her feet trimmed. Other than that, she was supposed to have gotten her first shots before we bought her, but there was no paperwork on that. She is healthy otherwise, albeit perhaps a little underweight. Its more noticeable since she lost her winter coat, so we are working on getting her to a healthy weight (She was a bit thin when we bought her in March) She has quite the appetite for hay and eats a pelleted food, although she does eat slowly. I don't think that's due to discomfort though. She has not seen a horse dentist yet, but her teeth look fine.

I'm just worried because this bulging vessel has not gotten any smaller and I would hate for it to turn out to be something serious. (Its maybe about two inches across, much smaller than the palm of my hand...and I have small palms!) I can't seem to find any info what so ever though...except for things like strangles and anuerysms...both of which do not fit her at all. The vet has to come out soon for our other guys' shots so he can check her out then. However, I figured I'd ask here first just to see if I can't figure it out on my own or research more. If I saw she was in pain or her health was questionable, the vet would be called right away. She's quite healthy at the moment though...other than needing to gain a bit of weight!

 

[SpringChickens]

I have no idea what it might be... do you have pictures of it??
(yes, I know it's hard to get pictures of something like that!

)

It doesn't sound like too big of a deal to me, but definitely something to mention to your vet. Keep us posted!!

 

[chickenwhisperer123]

Well I would say if you arent completely broke that the safe thing to do would be to get it checked out.
Its probably nothing, but its worth a check just in case.
Good Luck!!! (and some pictures might help us as well.)

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I thought I had a picture showing her neck area, but it doesn't really show the vessel too well. Its definitely a vessel though...its sort of squiggly and puffy almost. However, like I said, its not painful or hard. It looks just like a varicose vein on a human's leg or hand. I just don't know if horses can get them on their necks!

I will tell my dad to bring it up to the vet when he comes by in the next couple weeks. Otherwise I'll just have to keep an eye on her I guess. I searched my entire horse health handbook and couldn't find anything with a bulging vessel/vein as a symptom!

 

[katrinag]

I would have the vet look at the vein. If she is just standing does the vein stick out? Is the mussle behind the vein hard or oddly tight?
Also what concerns me it you say she eats the pellet feed slowly, but do not think it is from discomfort. her teeth "Look" good. Teeth can look good and be in crap shape. Please have someone look at her teeth.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

The muscle behind the vein is nothing out of the ordinary. The vein does pop out when she stands still, but swells when she is moving or doing something that may be stressful to her.

She just turned two on saturday, so her teeth aren't a huge concern. They will be done when we have the dentist out for the other guys, which occurs sometime during the summer, if not fairly soon. Actually, this is our first two year old, so I'm not even sure if you float the teeth at this young an age. I've had horses for years, but I am still learning when it comes to this new horse. Our other horses have their teeth floated yearly.

 

[CountryMom]

At 2 yrs of age she is just about ready to loose those baby teeth if she hadn't started already. One of our 3 yr olds has had a very hard time with teeth. She unfortunately seemed to loose the back ones all together and couldn't chew for nothing. So many people said to get her off to an equine dentist. However, there wasn't anything there for a dentist to work with! LOL Now some have come in and she is beginning to eat normally finally.

I have seen vein issues in horses that have been injected in the neck numerous times. They seem to get a lumpy apearance to the site all over really. One of our older gents is like that and we even have to pull blood for coggins on his right side because there is just too much damage from all the years the previous owner hit him with drugs.

On a young horse I would be concerned with something happening to them previously. All veins will pop out more and show blood flow more when the horse is stressed or worked. Activity gets the blood rushing even on us. If you look at other areas of the horse after a work out and they are still breathing hard you will find numerous veins popping out. And vein site you are seeing could be just the way she is made up. Either way I would double check with your vet to see what they have to say. He/She can tell you more about it and determine if it is normal or something to be concerned with. Honestly a picture isn't very easy to get on something like this.

 

[mekasmom]

Could it be thread worms? They cause neck swelling in horses.