Check ligament?! Or something else?

[sparry]

My horse pulled a shoe off his off fore out hunting the other day and when he came home the inside of his fetlock had gone puffy. I checked all up his leg for anything and hibi scrubbed and cold hosed and bandaged that night. The next night I decided to leave the bandages off to see what happened and the whole of the inside of his lower leg had come up. It wasn't huge but enough to see a difference. He's out during the day and when he came back in at night the leg had gone down but there was still a bit of puffiness when you ran your fingers down the inny bit of his leg. There's not really any difference in heat between his 2 front legs and he's completely sound. When I checked it tonight there's only a bit of puffiness at the top of his inny bit. If you were to look at the leg you can't see nothing wrong only just feel that bit of puffiness.

Am I being really worried over something minor or does that sound serious? There's no point showing you a photo as it just looks like a normal leg. I'm crossing everything that it's not serious seeing as we're not half way through the hunting season yet and I'll be deverstated if I've broken my pony

 

[Scatterbrain]

Have you carefully palpated the limb whilst non weight bearing to see if there's any pain response over the area? There can be significant damage without lameness present. It's puffy for a reason. If in doubt, always ask a vet to examine to see if a scan is advised. Minor tweaks caught early can save lots of heartache.

 

[sparry]

Scatterbrain - yep I've done that and not even a flinch. I've flexed the limb and trotted him up and lunged him on a small circle and still as sound as a pound

 

[Ronalda]

The two check ligaments on the front legs are located above and below the carpus and would seem too high in the limb to cause the problem that you have described.

Swelling on the inside of the fetlock would normally be a Windgall (articular synovial distension) brought about by local injury (ie restraining of the forelimb as the shoe was stepped on by the hind) or overuse of the joint following the subsequent change in pressure and position of the joint. Palpate with thumb to check whether the fluid swelling can moved around independently of the joint, but still remain within its joint capsule.

Swelling several inches higher than the fetlock may be excess synovial fluid from the tendon sheath. This may be combined with general stocking up.

Cold hosing and light work, if the horse is up to it, should see it sort itself out within a few days.