Anyone who’s ever been inadvertently bumped by their horse’s head knows just how heavy and solid these structures are. But horses’ heads aren’t invincible: They can suffer injuries ranging from harmless scratches to severe bone fractures.

At the 2013 Western Veterinary Conference, held Feb. 17-21 in Las Vegas, Nev., Jim Schumacher, DVM, MS, Dipl. AVCS, MRCVS, a professor in the Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine, reviewed how to manage some specific head injuries in horses.

Schumacher explained that cutaneous head wounds (or those involving only the skin) generally heal rapidly. They’re less likely than limb wounds to become infected (simply due to the fact they’re located further away from contaminants on the ground), the head’s excellent blood supply contributes to healing, and many wounds can be sutured successfully days after they occur, he said.

But unfortunately, even seemingly innocuous head wounds can be accompanied by serious damage to important internal structures, Schumacher said, including facial nerves, the nasolacrimal (or tear) duct, the nasal septum, dental structures, and ocular structures. Complications associated with head wounds range from restricted breathing and ocular damage to neurologic deficits and hypovolemia (an abnormally low circulating blood volume) due to hemorrhage