Advice on swollen leg

dust100

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Hi all,

Looking for some advice really, my horse has had a case of laminitus around 12 months ago, he seemed to recover from that fine however recently has been intermittantly lame.

The vet has been out and cannot really find a cause of the lameness apart from long toes so put together a shoeing plan with the farrier.

He gets lame whenever his shoeing date is due and then it usually clears up however this time he has got quite lame following his shoeing. It mostly appears to be on his left fore leg and he has got quite a lot of swelling in the leg too... this does tend to go down if he is turned out but when left in it swells up quite a lot. He is also quite lame to the point where I feel bad turning him out in the morning however when he comes in the swelling has gone down and he appears more footsore than lame.

I am unsure how to move forward with treating this as turn out seems to be good for him however as he is lame and there is heat there with the swelling is box rest for the best? Stable bandaging his legs does not seem to have an effects on keeping this down neither does cold hosing.


I have spoken to the vet who has advised his toes may be a little short and to see how he progresses over the next few days.

anyone got any advice at all?

Cheers :o
 
This maybe wont be much use but my old boy (RIP) used to get celulitis in his legs that went down when turned out but flared up when in. He used to get antibiotics and bute for 5 days which cleared it up. Dont know if this is any help but thought it sounded similar. has he got any cuts mud fever in his legs where infection could get in? Hope u get it sorted.
Mel x
 
Has the vet scanned him? Is the swelling just above the fetlock joint? I have a gelding who had a similar swelling, it was diagnosed as desmopathy of the tendon sheath.
Also will PM you details on a farrier who covers n/w Wolvo from your other post.
 
thank you for the quick responses :)

the swelling is in the bit inbetween his bone and his tendon if that makes sense?? the kind of place you expect to mildly fill in an older pony after being in for a while?

There havent been any scans as of yet as the vet is unsure whether the new shoeing plan is making his feet unhappy and putting strain on his leg a little or whether something else is going on and so soon after shoeing it would be hard to make a call on it...

there is no mud fever or cuts present no sign of abcess or nothing.
 
Hmmmm, that does sound a bit similar. It started with my boy when he was 15, started coming out of the stable lame in the morning, both hinds had swelling just above the fetlock, once he was out and moving around it reduced (but didn't go away) but he seemed sound. Ultra-sound scan gave us the result. He didn't have any history of laminitus though. Could be worth suggesting to your vet though I guess?
 
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