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 IMA No Hair Style Gal
Posts: 2594
  
| About two weeks ago my horse had some very minor swelling in his left hind leg around his pastern. I was at a show and my horse had been tied to the trailer over night. There was no lameness...so I attributed it to some stocking up. To be on the safe side I had a good friend of mine who is a farrier tell me his thoughts on it. He said the horse should be fine. After riding around a bit the swelling went down and there were no issues...until...
Today. I go to ride and I look down and my horse has a huge elephant leg. But here is the weird thing...I have kept my horse up since Monday of last week. Rode Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. NO issues. Drove about six hours to an Ed Wright clinic....participated Saturday and Sunday...NO issues, no sign of lameness. I feel like SOMEONE even Ed would have let me know, plus I noticed no swelling or unsoundness all weekend or last week. I bandaged with standing wraps for the ride there and back...I go to remove the standing wraps no swelling....Monday morning I check legs...no issues.
And then today his leg is pretty swollen from the hock to the pastern. He has a very minor limp and little to no heat.
To be on the safe side I call my vet to get input and load my horses back up to meet him at my house because quite frankly I didn't want to risk waiting a day or two for anything to get worse.
We are thinking it is possibly cellulitis, or some minor soft tissue damage. Currently treating for cellulitis and bloodwork will confirm tomorrow or the next day. Any thoughts/experience?
There are two blemishes on the leg...but I am almost positive they are from when my horse went down in the trailer about three or four months ago, which if that is the case cellulitis would not be likely. So then I am trying to wrap my head around when the soft tissue damage could have occured. But then part of me wonders if being kept up in a stall and then spending so much time in the trailer may have played a roll too.
Thoughts/ideas/input?!?! |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
  
| It could be many things my guess is the horse kicked something.
Cellulitis is generally warm
I would be cold hosing and I like sore no more clay. My vet actually says the clay in sore no more has wonderful poulticing properties |
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Miss Southern Sunshine
Posts: 7427
Location: South Central Florida | I'm anxious to hear. We had a similar thing I posted on here a couple weeks ago, but no one ever answered. Horse was turned out for the summer on Sunday....everything was fine then Thursday back leg is swollen. Farrier comes to remove shoes, no heat, no limp, no sign of discomfort at all. Next day all 4 legs are swollen. I call the vet and posted on here....vet suggests cool water on legs, put her up and call the next day. We did the water for 3 days and it all went away....has not come back. It was so weird.
I hope you find something out. My vet did not do any blood work, we just talked on the phone because I'm so far from then and the horse seemed otherwise fine.
Please post if you find anything out!
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IMA No Hair Style Gal
Posts: 2594
| Will keep you guys posted! I did poultice with sore no more as soon as I could. This is what I didn't like...I lunged him at first because I thought he was really stocked up.
Lunging him brought down about half the swelling and he appeared to work out of being sore.
I put the poultice all over his leg and the swelling started to go back up rather quickly which I didn't like and was the reasoning behind having it vetted so quickly. Then he appeared to get pretty sore on it again. The entire time I was looking him over he had his leg cocked back. Otherwise I probably would have waited. I just wasn't sure how to proceed, because when a horse is stocked up you turn them out....but if there is soft tissue damage or a small fracture turn out would be the LAST thing I would want to do.
My husband thought maybe he had kicked the stall wall, and he does have a history of doing so, but with our set up it would have been the opposite rear leg that would be closest to the horses next to him that he kicks at therefore I feel like all of this would be going on with the other leg.
Stickin' horses always getting into something!!! I appreciate the feedback and will keep you all posted! |
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 Accident Prone
Posts: 22277
Location: 100 miles from Nowhere, AR | My gelding will blow up like that from an abscess. |
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IMA No Hair Style Gal
Posts: 2594
| Three 4 Luck - 2014-07-08 11:24 PM My gelding will blow up like that from an abscess.
I would be VERY HAPPY if that is what it is!!! |
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  Angel in a Sorrel Coat
Posts: 16030
Location: In a happy place | It sounds like cellulitis. I could be wrong though. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 330
| Literally just went through the SAME thing with my mare...
A few weeks ago, leg looked stocked up, no heat, wasn't lame, but got scratches from her wet field.
Moved her to dry field, treated scratches successfully, no more swelling. All seemed fine.
Last week, leg very swollen, horse lame, some oozing on the skin just above the hoof/hairline on the back center of her foot, like above where the central sulcus is in the frog. I suspected cellulitis because of the scratches, and didn't want to let it progress at that point so I had the vet come out.
Abscess.
She got antibiotics and a poultice that stayed on for a week, stopped limping and swelling went down on day 2, removed poultice wrap on foot yesterday, all is well. |
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IMA No Hair Style Gal
Posts: 2594
| Just to give an update:
I cold hosed the leg for about twenty minutes last night.
This morning his leg was still fairly swollen, not like elephant leg swollen like it had been. I have a sweat on him currently and wrapped his other legs too and gave a dose of banamine per the vet. He started antibiotics yesterday just in case there is some infection.
Part of me wonders if while at the clinic I had back boots on and then I wrapped his legs for traveling if the sweat could have caused infection to fester. Perfect hot muggy environment all weekend long...
Then there is my turkey story. Husband and I have two domestic turkeys that are free range. When we got home one turkey was missing. The next morning the turkey is wandering around and looks like it got kicked in the head or hit by a car. While cleaning my horses stall I find a bunch of turkey feathers in the back corner...so not sure if the incidents are related and all of this is a result of Hollywood trying to kick the heck out of the turkey, or if the turkey was even hurt before we got home.
Good news is the turkey is going to live. I had the vet check her out too while he was looking over my horse...lol!! Should have the blood test results back some time later today in regards to the cellulitis.
ETA: Maybe I will go ahead and wrap his foot with animalintex tonight to be on the safe side if it is an abcess festering.
Edited by magic gunsmoke 2014-07-09 9:48 AM
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Hungarian Midget Woman
Location: Midwest | So one day, about a year ago, I came out to my barn and saw my horse with this:
He was three legged lame. We believe he slipped in his stall and hyperextended the hock. Two days of stall rest, then turnout in the indoor. Started sweating it, gave bute. He started to burn from the sweat and swell up worse, so I switched to poultice. Was cold hosing 2X per day.
After poulticing with SNM clay for a few days, this happened:
Started Uniprim. Kept poutlticing and cold hosing. It busted like that a few times. U/S was done at some point and showed no tears, just lots of swelling.
Stopped Uniprim, Then this
Ran another bucket through him. He was on and off lame throughout, but it was mostly stiffness.
Eventually the swelling went down, wound closed, whole process took about 8-10 weeks. The poultice definitely drew out the nastiness. Vet said it was the sprain and likely he had a small puncture in the skin that abcessed out (he stretched out to pee and slipped, banged his hock on the wall was our best guess).
Hopefully yours is something similar. My horse's hock is still a little tiny bit bigger on that side, likely from the swelling stretching the tissue, but he's been sound since he healed. I was very relieved the joint wasn't involved. |
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Hungarian Midget Woman
Location: Midwest | BTW, we weaned him off the max dose of bute after day 3...
and that pus was nasty- it would "shoot" out when he picked that leg up and flexed the hock. He also was not keen on my touching the leg and cold hosing him....to his credit I squeezed it to express some of the pus. I give him credit for not kicking my head in. lol |
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 Expert
Posts: 3815
Location: The best kept secret in TX | I had a hind leg swell up on an old gelding that was pasture bound about 6 years ago. I hauled him to the vet where the vet informed me after day THREE that He had found a bullet (.22) lodged in my horses leg. It was on the inside up near his buttock i don't know how he thought to look there. The vet drained about a gallon of liquid out of his leg and treated the wound accordingly. It was lodged in soft tissue and the vet said he was lucky it didn't hit any bones, ligaments, or tendons anywhere. I had to hose every night and wrap the entire leg for about 8 weeks. It was definitly an experience to say the least... |
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IMA No Hair Style Gal
Posts: 2594
| Update:
Bloodwork came back and there is no sign of infection.
Still on the antibiotics per the vet just in case we caught it so early it wasn't showing up on bloodwork.
Ultrasound is scheduled for next week.
When I sweat the leg looks pretty good. The crack in the hoof is from when my horse went down in the trailer about four months ago. He wedged his foot under the stud divider and damaged his hoof some among other things.
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