Lame horse - any ideas?

Christmas Crumpet

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Hi,
Further to my previous post regarding heat on the inside of the fetlock... the mare still isn't sound. She has days where she appears almost sound and then comes out of her stable in the morning lame again. She gets better the more you trot her up but she is definately not 100%. She was being turned out and would come in with a totally cold hard leg then by morning it would have swelled right up - much more than her off fore. I have now started bandaging seeing as she is in her stable 24 7. The leg swells a tiny bit when bandaged but not hugely. She has been cold hosed twice a day. She went banana's turned out in a tiny paddock on Sunday morning so has been confined to to her stable ever since. When she came in from hooning around she had taken the scabs off about 4 small cuts on the inside of her lower leg which she got the last day she went hunting which is also when she went lame. Could she be banging herself with her offfore and be bruised?

What I have noticed which is slightly out of the ordinary is what looks like a prominent vein between the cannon bone and her SDFT. Could this be her suspensory? It comes from her knee and then goes in a straight line down the leg and disappears. You definately cannot see it on her off fore, only her near fore which is the lame leg.

I have the vet coming tomorrow afternoon but just wondered whether anyone had any ideas. I hesitated to call him before but seeing as she has been on off lame for over a week there is definately something going on.

Look forward to hearing any ideas!!
 
I did wonder that and the day she went hunting she did go over a huge amount of flints. Why though would her leg swell above the fetlock so drastically?

There is no heat in her foot which is why I discounted the foot!!
 
Is this diagram clear enough to offer any clues?

tendons.jpg
 
I think I may be correct in that the "prominent vein" thing is her suspensory. Its certainly in the same place on the diagram.

Will let you know tomorrow when the vet has been...!!
 
try not to panic. I was sure that Thumper had done his suspensory ligament a couple of weeks ago - turned out to be an abcess in his foot.

Hope all is well. Keep us updated.
 
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