Has anyone seen this before? Enlarged blood vessel over tendons?

kerilli

kerilli

Well-Known Member
Joined
1 April 2002
Messages
27,417
Location
Lovely Northamptonshire again!
Visit site
My Ellie has a slightly enlarged blood vessel where it crossed her tendons in 1 foreleg about an inch below her knee. Absolutely no heat, no swelling, but a definite slight 'ridge' that you can see and feel which is exactly where the blood vessel is. I am, of course, panicking, and have booked my vet to come and scan it asap, while hoping that it's nothing... any advice much appreciated. it's very odd, never seen anything like it before.
gosh, i just want to be able to crack on with this horse and there's always something! argh.
 
Regularly, and have come to the opinion that if everything else (tendons etc.) feels OK then I tend to ignore it. I am happier if it is bilateral, but it isn't always. Occasionally the vein increases in size when there is eg. a foot abscess (in the same way as you can feel a digital pulse in the arteries) but more often it's just one of those things - more obvious some days than others.
 
The mare i ride has this on both front legs, about where the check ligament is.
Her check ligament was scanned 6 weeks ago as she had a swelling inside and outside of her leg just like when they strain the ligament.
Thankfully it showed nothing, so was told that it prob just tweaked it.
Vet didnt seem to think the enlarged blood vessells were related to her injury as she has had them for years.

Will be interested to hear your vets opinion tho.
 
have this a lot, its usually juts about where the top of a brushing boot might be, I usually think its to do with the pressure of the boot and don't worry about it.
 
Hi K, William has had this too. Vet came out because I was super paranoid about it - felt about and prodded/poked. He had flexion tests too and everything was fine. His was also in one foreleg only. His was helped by putting more salt into his diet (bad mummy hadnt replaced his salt lick :()

Its gone now, he used to come in from the field and it would fill a bit whilst in the stable, I'd work him and it would disperse and then an hour later, back it was! I had to have the vet for my own peace of mind!! :)
 
I've had it before, and called the vet panicking. She usually looks at me with one of those looks before telling me he's fine :-D
 
Yes, it was one of Ronnie's many ailments. It was sort of over the check ligament, running diagonally downwards from below the knee (by about an inch) backwards and down. Used to come up on warm/humid days. I had it scanned by ultrasound and it turned out to be a varicose vein. I was advised to bandage him for support for hard work (much like support stockings for old ladies) but to be honest, after about a month it went down and never came back (in the 12 months longer that he survived).

His was very swollen on his right fore, although the same area on the left fore was very slightly enlarged.

If you're worried get the vet, but it sounds like it's a similar thing to what Ronnie had.

Embarrassingly when I took him for his next PSD checkup at Cambridge Vet School about a fortnight later, I told them that he'd had a swelling there, and immediately one of the vets said (words to the effect of) "we had a silly woman bring her horse in with a swelling there, she thought he'd done a check ligament but it was just a varicose vein" (cue much mirth amongst all the students). I smiled brightly and kept my mouth shut :D
 
Was it there after work? A 3 year old I am backing had it after a bit of work. It was hot etc, just a vein which once rested went away. It had it on both front legs.
 
it's there all the time, but a tiny bit more pronounced now than it was a few weeks ago.. as in infinitessimally more. it's no different after work, after standing in, etc. if it's a varicose vein i can rest a bit easier! it's not diagonal though, it's straight across, pretty much perfectly horizontal. hmmm.
 
Yes, no, sort of ... on my legs not a horses :o

They become more pronounced or less depending on how fit I am, the weather and what exercise I'm doing. Saw a Dr once becasue they looked really awful for a while and he just said that they are fine and just 'me'.

Fingers crossed it is just one of her 'things' and that you can crack on with her work.
 
Yea like you say totally get the vet to check it out but we have had this too. And like pp says it's always bilateral and it's never been anything to worry about at all! It doesn't worry me anymore but I know exactly what's normal for them, if it was in any way different I would be getting the vet out asap too but by the sounds of yours it sounds the same as what happens to us. I'm glad you've written this post though because even though it doesn't worry me I'm always aware of it iykwim.
 
kerilli said:
it's there all the time, but a tiny bit more pronounced now than it was a few weeks ago.. as in infinitessimally more. it's no different after work, after standing in, etc. if it's a varicose vein i can rest a bit easier! it's not diagonal though, it's straight across, pretty much perfectly horizontal. hmmm.
Click to expand...

Same. It sounds fine. Let us know what vet says though cos I'd be interested in what it is too :)
 
My mare has this sometimes. I asked the vet when he was over and he said nowt to worry about. Probs worth a scan for piece of mind though x
 
When Badger had his scan for his check ligament injury his blood vessel was loads bigger than usual (as in for a usual horse not usual for B), so the vet said, he originally thought that was the damage to his ligament but it was exactly the same on the other side, he didn't seem to think it was an issue in itself.

Suppose if it feels bigger than it normally does it could be because it's pumping more blood somewhere though?
 
A vet once told me that sometimes the leg veins become more prominent as the horse gets fitter as the vein wall (whilst not really being muscle) becomes relatively more muscle-y and thus stands off the tendon more. If you've ever seen a fit athlete, they quite often have very prominent arm veins (think Madonna ;)), I assume that sort of correlates to horses as well.
 
kit279 said:
A vet once told me that sometimes the leg veins become more prominent as the horse gets fitter as the vein wall (whilst not really being muscle) becomes relatively more muscle-y and thus stands off the tendon more. If you've ever seen a fit athlete, they quite often have very prominent arm veins (think Madonna ;)), I assume that sort of correlates to horses as well.
Click to expand...

Yes, that makes sense... but i've never seen/felt it actually across the sdft and ddft, have seen them like that further up the legs though, on horses fit for 3* and 4* LF.

Update - Ellie scanned today. Leg FINE. wooohoooo, relax, breathe again, stop panicking here.
basically she has a slight anomaly, she has a thin layer of extra tissue between her skin and sdft, particularly noticeable toward the top of the tendons, clearly visible on scan. that's what i could feel.
and when we checked back on the other foreleg's scans (done in March this year when i had a knicker attack about that leg)... hey presto, the same thing. so, it's just her. and i can stop being a pathetic paranoid prat and GET ON WITH IT. yesssss!
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) wooooohooooohooooo.
thanks everyone.
 
my horse has that and has had it as long as i can remember.

Also another horse did years ago and it was more visable when i trimmed her legs one day. The conformation judge at a BYEH class questioned if she had ever had a tendon injury - we bred her so i knew she hadnt but they scored her 5/15. She usually got 12 or 13 out of 15 so it must of been the reason !! Anyway, 8 years later she was still sound !!
 
That's fantastic news! I wonder if that's what mine has then too... I always thought it was a vein like you said but maybe it isn't. Definitely sounds identical, and I had a fantastic vetting done on mine and it wasn't even mentioned so maybe it's quite common. Either way though I'm really pleased for you, I know how it feels to worry like that.
 
Ours has this exact thing (bi-laterally) too. I have found this thread whilst looking for info on something else leg/ligament/tendon related:( but don't tell Baggybreeches I have been 'cos she told me not to ;)
 
Yup, quite normal , as has been said ,more prominent in horses in work.(real work , not paddling round a school for 45 minutes:D0
 
Mike007 said:
Yup, quite normal , as has been said ,more prominent in horses in work.(real work , not paddling round a school for 45 minutes :D
Click to expand...

Oh yes, proper work - which is why I had a duck fit when I saw it/them. I usually think 'bilateral similarities = perfectly normal' (or in obviously terrible circumstances THE END) and my heart rate slows a little.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top