Front leg swelling up over night

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KathD

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My mares front leg seems to be swelling up over night around her fetlock and lower leg. Today it seemed worse as she went out jumping yesterday. There's was a tiny bit of heat and no lameness. After a gentle hack the swelling had mostly gone. I'm relatively unexperienced with this and not really sure what to do?
 
How old is your mare? Has she had any previous injuries? Are both front legs swelling or just one?

I have seen this happen with several horses all for different reasons...
My mare injured her leg (puncture wound) and after everything healed if she was stabled over night her lower leg would swell up.
I have also seen this in an older mare who was just stiff and would swell occasionally if inside overnight.
I have also seen it happen with horses who are not properly warmed up and cooled down.

In all cases, the swelling went down with movement and/or proper warm up/cool down etc.

Has anything changed in her routine? Are you riding more often? less? is she on a different feed? It could be something simple that is making her leg swell up.

If there is no lameness I would not be too concerned just keep an eye on it. If it gets worse after jumping you could wrap her front legs for the night just for some extra support and see how that works?
 
She a TB and she is 8. A couple of weeks ago she had a nasty cut on the inside of the swollen leg and it has now scabbed over and seems more or less healed. At that point it was swollen but it went down. She was in ligh work. Then we had the snow and she was stuck in so the swelling came up again but once she was exercised and turned out it went down. Then for the past week all seemed fine with no sign of swelling, so I jumped on Saturday, then Sunday morning it was back again. And again after exercise it went down, then when she came in tonight it looked normal size again. It's v odd!
 
Forgot to say I have changed her feed but I do not think its that because she regularly has this feed in the winter. My worry is that when she cut it ( apparently in the fence as she was spotted with it in there fence) she may have pulled something at the same time. But she has not been lame and the heat today was v slight.
 
She could have hit here leg when she got the cut and there is some sort of tissue damage underneath. If it continues or seems to get worse I would have the vet out to make sure there are no underlying issues. They may suggest something to get rid of it, or just tell you how to properly maintain it. Hope you can figure out what is causing it.:)
 
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