Getting better but still slightly lame after 3 weeks, any ideas?

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ss1

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Basically, went to pick my horse's feet out 3 weeks ago and noticed that there was a little swelling around her fetlock on her near fore and that she didn't really want to pick it up. Trotted her up and she was quite lame on it. Cleaned it up and found a small cut so cleaned it up, purple sprayed it etc. No heat in the fetlock, pastern , foot at all. She was stabled for 2 weeks and got better in the first week then better again in the second until she appeared sound. I rode her at the weekend but noticed that she still wasn't right in trot, that she was still short on that leg but nothing major.

She has now been going out in the field since the weekend, there doesn't seem to be any further improvement but the lameness is barely noticable in trot and she walks sound. There is still a little swelling above her fetlock, it goes up the back of her leg about 2 inches but there is no heat and she lets me prod an poke at it.

I called the vet in the first week and he doesn't seem overly worried, said to get back to him with a report after 2 weeks, I tried to get hold of him the other day but he hasn't returned my call.

I'm thinking that it can't be too serious because she made such an improvement in the first 2 weeks and is almost sound but can't help think that it seems to be taking a while to get better completely. Am I right in thining that tendon/ligament injuries would create more swelling/heat and she would be lame in walk as well?

Any ideas welcome, thanks for any advice in advance.
 
Unfortunately tendon and ligament injuries don't always produce the huge amount of swelling/heat and lameness that you would expect unless they've done a serious amount of damage.

The lameness could be from a low suspensory injury (worst case scenario) or dermatitis or irritation from the cut she had if mud or something got into it (vet prescribes steriods for that and should go down) or any number of other things!!

The reason I gave the above ideas was because exactly the same has happened to a horse at our yard and it took her a while to come sound. Her leg was puffy around the fetlock area and slightly above and it turned out she had dermatitis (or however you spell it). A course of steriods and she is right as rain.

Fingers crossed for you and the pony though!!
 
Hope it isn't anything serious and its probably not, but my mare wasn't that unsound even straight after her injury to her fetlock/pastern area and improved on box rest etc, but got worse when turned back out - got vet, scanned - she has now been off since November as had actually damaged her annular ligament and SDFT.

There wasn't much swelling or heat or lameness in walk - in fact she was only 3/10ths lame in trot when worked up at the vets - is now down to 1/10ths lame, but off till at least easter on paddock rest and possibly longer.

You've done the right thing in ringing your vet, hope its something of nothing for you, but definitely worth investigating further I would have thought.
 
My ex racer had exactly the same very lame with small cut ,swelling but no heat and it turned out to be tendonitis behind the knee and above the fetlock basically he had a big hooley round the field and twisted his leg. Had about 6 weeks box rest altogether and then a further 8 weeks of controlled exercise (or not depending how he was feeling!!!)Has been fine ever since but my vet said to be aware of te ground that I am riding in so ie not deep/holding ground.
 
Thanks for all the info, I spoke to my vet and he suggested that we could do nerve blocks etc but that she doesn't sound lame enough to make them worthwhile because they may not be able to detect a significant difference when trotted up.

He then said that more time off is probably the sensible approach to take, give her another 2 weeks and then see how she is. I could bring her back into work and see if it gets worse but there are obvious issues with bringing her back too soon, no matter what the cause is, another 2 weeks off wont hurt so I think that's what I'm going to do.

I put her on the lunge last night and I'm not even sure if she is still lame, she just looks lazy to me, suppose I wont know any more until I get on and get a feel for whether she feels level or not, this is so frustrating.....

When she was really quite lame it was easy to see the improvement, now it's more like guess work!

Thanks again
 
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