Box rest for older horse & coping with edemas/stiffness?

[sarahann1]

Hello,

My oldest horse Smartie (he's meant to be 25, but is probably older) has come in lame, it's been rumbling on for a couple of now, he's probably around 5-6 10ths lame. There is no obvious reason, no swelling, no cuts, no heat, no lumps or bumps, no sign of an abcess popping through, I thought maybe bruised sole, but no reaction when I was prodding with a hoof pick. He's not rocking back on the turn and no pulses I can find either. I'm keeping him in to rest whatever the heck has gone wrong, however, he gets bad edemas in his stomach area and his legs fill up so he has tree trunks instead He's not shod.

My question is, has anyone else dealt with a similar situation, what did you do to help reduce swellings? I've read high protein diets can make it worse, he's only on haylage so thats one thing ruled out. I know I can bandage his legs, but from previous experience this just pushes the fluid elsewhere, though I'm happy to be told I'm wrong and should be doing this if anyone knows better.

I'm waiting on a vet phoning me back, but in the meantime I'm interested to hear anyones experiences.

Ta

 

[soloequestrian]

I wouldn't box rest at all.
You could try adding salt to the diet generally, I found my older mare got swollen legs once when I ran out of salt and they went away when I started adding it to her feed again. I don't think it was just a coincidence.

 

[magicmoose]

I wouldn't box rest either. I would turn out and allow him to mooch as he pleases, as long as he's not going to get hassled by other horses. By the time they're in their 20's the urge to hoon around and make things worse has usually subsided.

 

[sarahann1]

Thanks, unfortunately he doesn't seem to realise he's an old man, and will goon around with the best of them.

I'll try adding salt, what sort of quantity though? He's 16.2, middleweight IDxTB.

Re turn out, they've just changed fields today, so there would have been lots of hoollying about, I'll maybe give it couple of days to settle and turn him back out, still waiting on the vet to phone.

 

[soloequestrian]

I just give about a tablespoon per day. If you are determined to box rest, you could get him a salt lick too. Just make sure he has plenty of water available.

 

[sarahann1]

Thanks SE, he seems to be improving a bit with box rest and the vet is hopefully coming tomorrow so I'll know more then. I'm not determined to box rest as such, but when I trotted him up he was lame enough that even a non-horsey person could have spotted something was up and I've always been taught box rest is the default thing to try first. I guess old habits die hard, as time goes on and his age creeps up I seem to get more and more paranoid about the best way to deal with problems, no idea why, I've been around enough lame horses to be confident in my choices, but for some reason I'm doubting myself this time