Now that Elroy’s jaw in in position and the pokey bit of bone chip is gone, he is much less reactive. he doesn;t react to touches on his face like they are an electric shock. I’ve been trying to imagine what was going on in Elroy’s head to cause his symptoms.
When I came across this photo I could finally visualize how Elroy’s injury could affect his nerves. You can see where the jaw joint is on the right- way back up on the horse’s head behind their eye. You can see the white nerve fibers that exit it the skull near the joint of the jaw and fan out across the horse’s cheek and down to his muzzle.
If anyone recognizes it,please let me know so I can give proper credit!
My best guess is that Elroy’s jaw being out of place and the inflammation and pain from the bone chip put pressure on and irritated his superficial facial nerves. Irritability along that fan of white facial nerves would explain why he would react with eye-rolling debilitating pain when the side of his face was touched.
sara annon 