GinaMarie - 2021-09-06 11:37 AM
My 2 yo filly sustained a small wound on the outside of her hock area. I didn't think much of it, because we have lots of rocks where we live, shes out in pasture, and it looked like a scrape.
Well her whole lower leg ended up swelling the next day. I hosed it off, treated the "SMALL" wound/cut and gave her 3 days of bute. No big deal.
Her leg swelling has resolved. But after a week there is still swelling on the lateral (outside) hock/joint area.
Took her to the vet to look at the wound. Vet said she sustained a puncture wound and gave her a week of antibiotics, said the filly will be fine. (Yes, shes UTD on vaccinations including tetanus)
Filly is NOT lame at all. Almost done with antibiotics. I keep cold hosing her leg every day.
There is still some swelling around the hock area. Just wondering if this is normal for joints to take longer for swelling to go down?? If anyone has input or experience, it would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks everyone!
I would say not normal. Just about 2 years ago to the day, I sent all 3 of my horses to my parents place for the winter. About a week goes by, my mom calls to say one is limping a little bit. We figured one of hers kicked one of mine or who knows what. I'm not there to look at him, my mom can't really see much of anything wrong, so we give it a few days, and it resolves and he's absolutely fine. ...... until a few days later, he is non-weight bearing on that hind leg. Super small insignicant wound on top of the hock. I swing by the vet on my way down there with antibiotics and we try that first. No improvement so my mom hauls him in. Turns out he punctured his hock on something (from the top down) and he has a joint infection. We took the middle road in terms of treatment and expense and vet flushed joint that day, put in a drain, and my mom hauled him back two more times for a flush, and continued to pump antibiotics into him. He lost so much weight; he was bones. He quite literally almost died. I thought for sure I would have to put him down. This summer, I had the pleasure to make a couple barrel runs on him again. That hind legs feels absolutely fine (it's his front feet that he has an issue with). Fortunetly he's a sweetheart, and he's got my 5-year-old daughter as an alternate jockey. Long story short, is that freak injuries happen!! I would be going back to the vet - even if horse is not lame. Sometimes things fester and could get worse. |