Lame horse! Help!

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Nannon

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My ace irish cob has never been lame in his life, but the other morning (morning of area horse trials qualifiers!) went to his stable and noticed he was suddenly overnight very lame.
It is his offside front leg, to start with there was a bit of heat in his fetlock region - we thought it originally may be due to him having shoes put on that week for the first time in a while. Its been over a week now, and there has been little improvement - Ive been away and my parents have been looking after him.
Today I have noticed that the inside of his leg is swollen and has heat in it - can barely feel tendons on the inside of the leg - any ideas?
Will be calling vet this evening!
 
The change of foot balance from being shod may have agravated something. He may have kicked himself with the shoes.

I would get the vet, it could be anything!
 
The timing and progression of the swelling is perfect for an infected nail bind on the same side as the swelling. I'd get the shoe off immediately and poultice overnight and see how he is tomorrow.
 
cptrayes said:
The timing and progression of the swelling is perfect for an infected nail bind on the same side as the swelling. I'd get the shoe off immediately and poultice overnight and see how he is tomorrow.
Click to expand...

That was my first impression too.
 
Turns out he had managed to injure his heel! Discovered pus coming out of heel, vet has poulticed the heel to draw pus out - may be due to a blackthorn
Thanks for the suggestions :)
 
Pus often breaks out of the heel with an abscess, it doesn't mean that he has injured his heel at all. It may still relate to a nail prick from shoeing, but it tracks to the easiest place that it can find to get out, which is often the thinner skin where the bulb of the heel meets the skin of the leg. The timing is perfect.

You may find that his heel will crack or the sole in that quarter shed or the back half of his frog shed, in about 12 weeks or so. Don't worry if they do, it never seems to cause much of a problem.
 
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