Injured leg swelling while standing in – advice please?

[Jingleballs]

Brief summary of what’s happened – pony injured himself XC a few weeks ago and got a small cut on the coronet band when he clipped a fence with his back leg.

It has been treated by almost 2 weeks of bute and antibiotics and pony is now 100% sound and starting to come back into work and the wound his healing nicely with daily hot tubbing and applications of flamazine.

The horses came in for the winter on Saturday night but are still out for about 11 hours during the day.

There was no swelling on Sunday morning after standing in so horse was lightly ridden on Sunday night before being stabled overnight.

On Monday morning his leg was very swollen – not around the area of the cut but more around the back of the fetlock. Pony had also managed to stand in and break his water bucket while attempting to scratch his leg on it so that was suggested to be the potential cause of the injury.

After a few hours of turn out the swelling was almost fully dispersed and pony was lunged at vet’s request and was still sound in w/t/c.

Stabled again last night and an over reach boot left on the injured leg to avoid him bashing it again but once again the leg has swollen this morning.

This horse has no previous history of this happening and it is only happening on the injured let. Other than the initial swelling when the injury was received there have been no other signs of heat or swelling.

The vet is coming out again tomorrow morning as he wants to see the swelling for himself. Initially he’s suggested xrays to ensure there are no foreign bodies in the wound but now seeing as the horse is still sound and the swelling is dispersing relatively quickly with turn out he doesn’t feel xrays are necessary at the moment.

I’ve never dealt with a horse with an injury before so this is all new to me so I’m just looking to understand if it is normal for swelling to occur like this and if so how can it be treated or how long should it last?

Obviously the vet will advise more tomorrow but it would be good to get some information from others who have experience of this.

 

[blood_magik]

my horse use to get puffy legs when he was stabled.
would restricted turnout help?

 

[CBFan]

It is normal for injury sites to swell when circulation is compromised (like through reduced movement). So it is likely that he just knocked it when playing with his water bucket.

I personally wouldn't be too concerned as the swelling is dispursing with movement and there is no lameness but would probably stable bandage the affected pair of legs overnight to see if that helped reduce the occurrence. Also cold hosing morning and night might help improve the circulation.

If there was a foreign body / infection involved you would expect the swelling to remain even after turnout and similarly if there were any internal injury to ligaments / tendons etc

 

[BonneMaman]

It is a shame that they have come in for the winter as my first reaction would be to turn the animal out on restricted grazing. This type of swelling is very common so don't be too alarmed.

Not really sure what else to add other than to be patient. Don't leave him in for any longer than absolutely necessary and bandaging all 4 legs (prevents stress on unaffected legs due to excessive resting of the poorly one) will help keep the swelling to a minimum.

Bandage with stable bandages over leg wraps/gamgee firmly but not tight! Get an experienced someone to show you how if you are unsure yourself.

Good luck.

 

[Jingleballs]

Thank you - glad that it's nothing too alarming.

As mentioned above, he's out for about 11 hours a day and in for the remaining 13 hours although I am lunging him in the evening to help with the circulation.

If the vet is concerned about stabling him I could probably arrange for him to live out for another couple of weeks but we only brought the ponies in as there were all standing at the gates at night looking miserable.

I'll speak to the vet re bandaging and I have a set of stables bandages that I can use if needed.

 

[LaurenBay]

My Horse gets swollen legs when she is in overnight. Especially around her fetlocks. Within a couple of hours turnout the swelling has gone down. If I work her straight from her stable I give her a very long warmup and the swelling goes down. It has never caused her an issue before, I was going to badagde as that can stop it, but after reading the replys on my thread I decided agaisnt it. It's not causing her pain.