Anyone with any experience of cellulitis?

[SNORKEY]

Hi, we have an elderly mare who doesn't get ridden any more and she got her back leg caught in black thorn about 4 years ago and her whole leg swelled up. She was treated by the vet and we were advised to ride her, which we did at the time and this helped although due to her arthritis we had to retire her.
She has now had this perminately swollen leg, which looks like a shire horse leg on a thoroughbred and no one seems to know what to do with her.
It seems to be getting worse and we are now thinking that we may have to put her to sleep as this combined with arthitis is uncomfortable for her.
She is also on Global herbs move free plus which helps keep her moving, and we do use bute-x sometime with that.
Has anyone else had a horse with this, or knows what could help?
Any vet that has seen her doesn't really know what to suggest.

 

[AmyMay]

Does she actually have cellulitis?

 

[Oberon]

Hi, we have an elderly mare who doesn't get ridden any more and she got her back leg caught in black thorn about 4 years ago and her whole leg swelled up. She was treated by the vet and we were advised to ride her, which we did at the time and this helped although due to her arthritis we had to retire her.
She has now had this perminately swollen leg, which looks like a shire horse leg on a thoroughbred and no one seems to know what to do with her.
It seems to be getting worse and we are now thinking that we may have to put her to sleep as this combined with arthitis is uncomfortable for her.
She is also on Global herbs move free plus which helps keep her moving, and we do use bute-x sometime with that.
Has anyone else had a horse with this, or knows what could help?
Any vet that has seen her doesn't really know what to suggest.

Cellulitis is an infection that is acute in presentation. You can have horses (and humans) who are prone to it coming back.....but it's not constant like that or it would develop into sepsis.

It may be lymphangitis or lymphodema.....but I am concerned that your vet doesn't know this?!

There is another reason for a permanently swollen leg.....something to do with diet/protein and it's on the tip of my tongue but I can't remember it

Any other symptoms, like itchy skin, hair loss, pain.....?

What is she fed?

 

[Mynstrel]

Our old mare had permanently thickened hind legs due to bouts of lymphangitis in them both on separate occasions and somebody who dealt with NH horses recommended fenugreek seeds in her feed & they did seem to help, not quite sure how but she was definitely better when having them.

Global herbs do them but if you can source them from a health shop, internet, foreign foods section or indian cooking shop (it's used in curries) they work out a lot cheaper, think our last lot was half the global herbs price from a local health foods shop which ordered them in for us.

She was walked every day too but we found that walking or turnout didn't help that much in our case, it seemed to swell or go down whenever it felt like it. One thing we did notice was that cold weather appeared to help her, she always seemd to be rough when it got warm but last winter when it was minus something stupid for days on end she was great (even when unable to get out for her walks).

 

[Oberon]

Our old mare had permanently thickened hind legs due to bouts of lymphangitis in them both on separate occasions and somebody who dealt with NH horses recommended fenugreek seeds in her feed & they did seem to help, not quite sure how but she was definitely better when having them.

Global herbs do them but if you can source them from a health shop, internet, foreign foods section or indian cooking shop (it's used in curries) they work out a lot cheaper, think our last lot was half the global herbs price from a local health foods shop which ordered them in for us.

She was walked every day too but we found that walking or turnout didn't help that much in our case, it seemed to swell or go down whenever it felt like it. One thing we did notice was that cold weather appeared to help her, she always seemd to be rough when it got warm but last winter when it was minus something stupid for days on end she was great (even when unable to get out for her walks).

I use them 1kg for £2.33

http://www.cotsherb.co.uk/culinary-herbs-and-spices/whole-seeds/fenugreek-seeds/prod_692.html

 

[Mynstrel]

I use them 1kg for £2.33

http://www.cotsherb.co.uk/culinary-herbs-and-spices/whole-seeds/fenugreek-seeds/prod_692.html

They're the ones we had too. Our local health food shop gets stuff from them though & they added it onto their order for me, so it worked out a bit cheaper than buying directly from them when the P&P was added on.

 

[madeleine1]

i dont no about horses but cellutitus (my bf has it) makes the leg swell and then it goes down and the point of infection becomes smaller and then the leg wouldnt be swelled any more

 

[Marydoll]

Difficult to determine without seeing, and touching ,Op it doesnt sound like cellulitis to me, in my experience the leg would be hot amd painful to touch.
Discuss it with your vet if its not walking off as there may be something going on

 

[Ladydragon]

Cellulitis is an infection that is acute in presentation. You can have horses (and humans) who are prone to it coming back.....but it's not constant like that or it would develop into sepsis.

It may be lymphangitis or lymphodema.....but I am concerned that your vet doesn't know this?!

There is another reason for a permanently swollen leg.....something to do with diet/protein and it's on the tip of my tongue but I can't remember it

Any other symptoms, like itchy skin, hair loss, pain.....?

What is she fed?

/\ This... Cellulitis is a progressive infection... Ditto osteomyelitis...

Oberon, do you mean hypoalbuminemia or nephrothapy? Low albumin can cause oedema and be dietary related (malnutrition) or indicate liver issues... Fluid retention from low protein can indicate the kidneys playing up... Perhaps not so likely in single limb presentation though...

What colour is the skin under the hair Snorkey? Fluid in the veins (as opposed to the lymphatic system), or venal insufficiency, will normally discolour the area... If it's only one leg it might indicate it's localised rather than a system wide health issue - which kinda narrows things down to trauma, infection or efficiency the blood/lymphatic system...

I think I'd be wanting a second opinion to try and determine if your horse could benefit from treatment, management or a quality of life decision... Your vet's position is not particularly helpful...

 

[SNORKEY]

Thanks for your reply's, I will definately try the seeds, fingers crossed that helps, as we are currently spending £50+ a month on Global herbs products.
When I research this on the net it seems the vets in America seem to know a lot more that the uk vets on this, It must be quite rare!

Just to help a little more, her leg is very swollen from the fetlock up to just above her hock, the skin is very tight and her leg is warm to touch, and the hair is coming off a little, but that looks more like a touch of mud fever.

She also has a scar from where she got caught in the black thorne and the skin there is grey.

She doesn't seem to be in pain if I massage it and keeping her out at night seems to keep her moving better but this isn't always possible, especially when its too cold and we need the others in.

Im reluctant to pay for another vet to come and see her as I keep getting the same answer of exercise her and thats about all you can do. Which we cant as she is lame from arthritis.

Maybe I should call around and try and find a vet with some expertise on this.

 

[AmyMay]

As I asked previously, does she definitely have cellulitis?

 

[SNORKEY]

Well that's what the vet called it, but after reading a bit more about this, im thinking maybe not!

 

[AmyMay]

Well that's what the vet called it, but after reading a bit more about this, im thinking maybe not!

If it is cellulitis the horse will need specific antibiotics (after the serum is swabbed).

But in any case it sounds as if the vet should be asked back for a specific diagnosis and and precise treatment.

 

[nadinek82]

I'd have thought that if it was cellulitis and it has been going on for a couple of years that the horse would have developed septicimia by now?
My horse had cellulitis recently, the vet administered antibiotics, painkillers and anti-inflamitaries intravenously and prescribed oral antibiotics for 5 days. By next day the swelling was going down and within 3 days it was back to normal.
I would seek the opinion of another vet if i was you

 

[Batgirl]

My horse has previously had cellulitis, when it becomes more chronic like this seems to be my vet referred to it as lymphangitus (apols for spelling).

Luckily mine is still in full work and exercise takes it right down, if particularly bad he gets leg bandages at night, his was a reaction to the beginning of mud fever. However as a few posters have said it is not likely to be cellulitis at this stage as she would have been extremely poorly if not dead from septecemia by now as prolong cellulitis caused blood poisoning.

Sorry to not be much help