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 Veteran
Posts: 107
Location: Michigan | My mare ran a couple real nice patterns both Saturday and Sunday. Got home Sunday and turned her out to pasture for a few hours, brought them in and she was fine. I booted her up with BOT boots like I usually do before and after a race day. 5am Monday morning and her leg is twice it's normal size from just above the hock all the way down, she is not eating and look very uncomfortable. She does not really want to move but we get her out and start cold hosing it.
Vet comes out around 8:30 and it still seems to be getting worse with the swelling moving up into her upper thigh area. He takes her temp ,104.5, say it is most likely an infection gives her an injectable banamine, steroidal anti-inflammatory and a large bottle of antibiotics (24 pills a day). He does not seem overly concerned, says as long as we can get the swelling under control there will be no long term damage.
Did hand walking and cold hosing every hour.
Next morning the other vet comes out and like his partner thinks it is a localized infection, but gives her a much larger dosage of the steroids along with a bottle for me to continue the injections once daily. Told us to stop with the cold and start doing warm soaks with Epson salts to get the blood flowing along with continued walking.
A week later now and from the hock down still has swelling, it does seem to be going down but very slowly. She is out to pasture with her friends to keep her moving on it in the hopes that this will help pump the fluid up and out of her leg.
Any ideas or thoughts on how to get the rest of the swelling down and what could have caused this as there are no marks at all on either of her hind legs? I have a 2 day that we are hoping to race at in 2 weeks. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
 
| You won't be racing in 2 weeks.
Had one similar her infection was in the tendon sheath and the swelling was too much the infection couldn't drain as the one ligament that wraps around their ankle was working like a tourniquet.
The vet had to cut the ligament then go in 3 different days and surgically scrape the tendon.
She recovered well, her ankle is a little bigger and has competed 2 years since with no ill effects.
I would be taking the horse to a vet and getting xrays and ultrasound to see what tissues are affected |
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 Good Grief!
Posts: 6343
Location: Cap'n Joan Rotgut.....alberta | Im with cheryl on this......id be xraying or ultra sounding.....m |
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Veteran
Posts: 107
Location: Michigan | Guess I will give it another week or so and the re-access how it is coming. Don't really have the money to spend on more treatments, she is 17 and after bowing a tendon last year most did not think she would come back and be able to run strong again. But she surprised everyone by coming back very strong last October and has been winning in poles and running at the bottom of the 1D in barrels. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | rcoe - 2015-06-15 3:33 PM Guess I will give it another week or so and the re-access how it is coming. Don't really have the money to spend on more treatments, she is 17 and after bowing a tendon last year most did not think she would come back and be able to run strong again. But she surprised everyone by coming back very strong last October and has been winning in poles and running at the bottom of the 1D in barrels.
Is this the same leg she bowed? I'm with the others on this I would be getting a few xrays done to see if there could be a crack in her leg somewhere, I dont think I would be doing any riding untill I found out what was causing this. Hope that she does get better. |
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 Jr. Detective
Location: Beggs, OK | You have money for a weekend of entry fees and expenses, but not for care and maintenance? |
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 Georgia Peach
Posts: 8338
Location: Georgia |
I would definitely get a x-ray done. I had a similar injury happen to one of my horses. Localized swelling, uncomfortable but not visibly lame. Cold hosed for a few days, swelling went down some but not much. Took the horse to the vet who concluded it was a ligament strain of some sort. Said to give the horse 3 weeks off and go back to riding if swelling was gone. Swelling did not go away. Went back for x-rays and found something more serious. Ended up giving the horse 8 months off before I could ride again. Better safe than sorry. I hope its nothing serious.
Edited by Runninbay 2015-06-15 5:57 PM
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 Expert
Posts: 3782
Location: Gainesville, TX | We also had an X-ray and ultrasound done when our gelding ended up with a hock infection. They had to open him up and drain it and then keep him wrapped. He was at the vet a month. He is only pasture sound. He would have been dead without the procedure. The infection had gotten into the bone. If the horse has an infection, you need to know where and be more aggressive. |
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Veteran
Posts: 107
Location: Michigan | Southtxponygirl - 2015-06-15 3:50 PM
rcoe - 2015-06-15 3:33 PM Guess I will give it another week or so and the re-access how it is coming. Don't really have the money to spend on more treatments, she is 17 and after bowing a tendon last year most did not think she would come back and be able to run strong again. But she surprised everyone by coming back very strong last October and has been winning in poles and running at the bottom of the 1D in barrels.
Is this the same leg she bowed? I'm with the others on this I would be getting a few xrays done to see if there could be a crack in her leg somewhere, I dont think I would be doing any riding untill I found out what was causing this. Hope that she does get better.
No she bowed a front leg this is a hind. Never had any problems until now with the rears other than slight arthritus.
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Veteran
Posts: 107
Location: Michigan | rachellyn80 - 2015-06-15 3:56 PM
You have money for a weekend of entry fees and expenses, but not for care and maintenance?
Thank you for passing judgement.
I have had two different vets look at her, neither of which had consulted with each other. Both after examining her came to the exact same conclusion, some kind of infection and that as long as the swelling continues to go down we should be good. And it is going down a bit every day, I was just looking for ideas for helping it go down. The 2nd vet is a friend of the family and knows this horse pretty well and if he had even hinted at needing any other treatment or xrays last week they would have been done.
Thanks to those who expressed concern now at least I know there might be other issues aside from a simple infection and that if her recovery does not continue what needs to be the next step. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Just remember not all vets are created equal.
If they do small animals or even cows, I will not take my good horses to them for complicated issues, as these vets only know a little amount of info about a lot of things.
These vets do not have the experience
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | rcoe - 2015-06-15 9:21 PM Southtxponygirl - 2015-06-15 3:50 PM rcoe - 2015-06-15 3:33 PM Guess I will give it another week or so and the re-access how it is coming. Don't really have the money to spend on more treatments, she is 17 and after bowing a tendon last year most did not think she would come back and be able to run strong again. But she surprised everyone by coming back very strong last October and has been winning in poles and running at the bottom of the 1D in barrels. Is this the same leg she bowed? I'm with the others on this I would be getting a few xrays done to see if there could be a crack in her leg somewhere, I dont think I would be doing any riding untill I found out what was causing this. Hope that she does get better. No she bowed a front leg this is a hind. Never had any problems until now with the rears other than slight arthritus.
Glad to hear that its not the bowed leg. Thats crazy how fast her leg blew up, hope that you can get her to feeling good again, if the swelling dont go down in the next day are 2 I would really have her xrayed just to check to make sure theres nothing else going on, the xrays are really not all that expensive. Good luck to you and your mare.  |
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Veteran
Posts: 170
| Pull blood for tick diseases. They will cause fever and random limb swelling/lameness. |
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 Expert
Posts: 2013
Location: Piedmont, OK | Did they tap the hock to make sure there is not an infection in the joint? Or pull blood to check her white cell count to check for infection? I am with the others definitely xrays and ultrasound. She could have torn something. |
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Common Sense and then some
Location: So. California | I had something very similar happen with my older mare, she was retired at the time.
Just one morning, one rear leg swollen, started hock and below and spread all the way up to her stifle area quickly. Hauled into the vet, they ran blood work and gave her a shot of Exceed antibotic. I took home a second shot (looks like oatmeal) and gave it to her as directed.
It cleared up in about 10-14 days and never came back.
I have no idea what the infection was, she had a name for it, but I don't recall, it's been several years.
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Veteran
Posts: 107
Location: Michigan | Just an update. Continued to get better all week. Thursday night just a small amount left in the hock area but everything is back normal size. Put her in the round pen and slow trot for about 5 minutes just a little off on it but even that was mostly gone after a couple minutes.
Looks like we might have got lucky. Farrier and vet both are coming out next week so hopefully she will get a clean bill of health.
Thanks for the concern and support. |
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | Prayers they both give you a thumbs up and nothing serious |
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  Angel in a Sorrel Coat
Posts: 16030
Location: In a happy place | I was wondering if it might be cellulitis. But if it has gone down then I guess that wouldn't be what was wrong. |
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Veteran
Posts: 107
Location: Michigan | Well I will say I did not have 100% faith in the vets diagnosis, but now not even 2 weeks later and there is just a small amount of swelling left. Worked her at a trot for 10 minutes yesterday and 20 today and at an extended trot she does not appear to be off at all.
Hopefully will get some light riding in on Monday or Tuesday.
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 Take a Picture
Posts: 12838
| rcoe - 2015-06-20 5:43 PM
Well I will say I did not have 100% faith in the vets diagnosis, but now not even 2 weeks later and there is just a small amount of swelling left. Worked her at a trot for 10 minutes yesterday and 20 today and at an extended trot she does not appear to be off at all.
Hopefully will get some light riding in on Monday or Tuesday.
Good |
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