Page 71 - December 2015

in the center of the mouth) because the cheeks have lost muscle tone. The cheeks help hold the tongue in place. The tongue may be sticking out because of the loss of nerves to the cheek area and may become damaged in this situation because it can’t be protected,” he explains.
SIGNS OF TONGUE INJURY
Immediately after a severe injury, the tongue may bleed profusely. “Some of these injuries must not bleed very much, however, because I rarely find an owner who knows it’s been cut. Some horses may simply swallow the blood and it doesn’t come out the mouth. I’ve only seen a couple of tongue injuries that had to be dealt with. Most of them heal on their own. I was called to work on one horse that had licked the sharp edge of metal siding and cut the tongue about 2/3 of the way off and I had to cut the rest of that tongue off. By the time I was called to see it, the tongue was black and hanging out of the horse’s mouth. The owner had not noticed the injury earlier and it was too late to try to save the tongue,” says Connally.
“That owner never saw it bleeding. There was nothing noticeable until the tongue was black and protruding,” he says. The tis-
sue below the injury was dead by that time. Sometimes, an injury might not be noticed if the horse was not being handled or ridden.
TREATMENT AND PROGNOSIS
Treatment for a tongue problem will
depend on the cause and severity. If there’s a foreign object stuck into the tongue, it must
be removed. A tooth that keeps lacerating the tongue must be dealt with. If part of the tongue tissue has died, it must be removed.
Some fresh tongue wounds can be sutured. “The tongue can be challenging to stitch, but you can sew it back together. For this proce- dure, the horse generally needs to be sedated and a speculum put into the mouth to keep it
open. Since the tongue is always moving and external sutures would be annoying to the horse, the veterinarian would generally try
to put those stitches in with the knots buried under the surface. Otherwise, the horse would keep working the tongue trying to get rid of the annoyance and might get them untied,” says Connally.
“There’s a way to do those stitches inverted with the knots inside, but it’s a challenge! Absorbable suture materials are best because we have some really good ones now that will last a month or more before they dissolve. This is eas- ier than trying to take them out later. Also, you can’t bury nylon suture knots or they would act as a foreign body irritation,” he says.
“With a fresh injury, the veterinarian might try suturing it and giving it some time to heal, even though the literature says it doesn’t work very well,” says Nelson. “The ones I’ve done have responded nicely to suturing.”
A cut tongue may bleed alarmingly. “The reason I sutured the stallion’s tongue (that was bitten by the other horse) wasn’t so much to save the tongue, but to stop the bleeding. It did stop the bleeding and the sutures also created a natural bandage as it healed. He never had any problems and continued eating, drinking and behaving normally,” says Nelson.
“The owner saw the incident and the bleed- ing and called me, and I was out there within a few minutes. This wound was very fresh with no chance to get contaminated, so it was the perfect opportunity to suture it on the spot,” says Nelson.
“We’ve done several lacerations that were not as dramatic and awful as that stallion, and they all healed nicely. To work on this kind
of injury, we just sedate the horse and I have a helper hold the tongue out for me.” If the horse can stand there calmly, it’s not too difficult to work on the tongue, especially with a speculum to hold the mouth open.
Certain toxic plants, such as yellow starthistle, can cause paralysis of the tongue.
Using A Bit
Problems may occur when using a bit on a horse that has had a tongue injury if the bit irritates the deformed tongue or scar tissue on a healed tongue. If a horse has had a tongue injury and seems upset by use of a bit, the rider may have to change to a bit that won’t put pressure on the damaged area. Check the tongue if a horse reacts with uncommon or excessive displeasure to a bit, or won’t respond as expected. He may have an injury or old scar tissue and the bit is causing discom- fort. When purchasing a horse, it’s always wise to look in his mouth to check his teeth, and get a look at his tongue, as well.
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