legs fill up overnight

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LouLou3

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My horses legs fill up overnight - all four fetlocks look thicker in the morning but after a day grazing they go down. He is 16 yr TB X. I've spoken to the vet who said there's nothing to be done except perhaps trying to cut back on his feed. I just wondered if anyone else has this problem? Also - what are you all doing about hooves and snow? I'm using a mixture of stokholm tar and oil at the mo - but it still packs in there and is a bugger to remove.
 
My horses legs often fill up over night, i was always told that as long as it all the legs and not just one it isnt a problem and is just a responce to being stabled, although when i first got him though 'oh god what has he done!!!??' every morning! now im just used to it.
 
My lads hinds started filling up overnight as he was in for longer than he is used too..solution,i turned him out for slightly longer and they have gone down and are not coming up overnight now
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Your vet is on the right track. Excess starch/sugar contribute to filled legs (and other stuff too).

I doubt this will be popular but if you take your horses' shoes off you won't have any more problems with snow. :-)
 
Horses legs usually fill when stabled due to reduced circulation because of lack of movement. It is more likely to occur in older horses and back legs are often worse due to being furthest from the heart.

If all the legs swell but go down after being turned out and theiyre not hot then theres not too much to worry about.
 
my 27 yr old boys legs fill up over night in the winter months when stabled at night, plenty of turnout during the day and stables bandages at night work well keeping the puffiness to a minimum
 
There is a very good supplement called Syneqin ihave my old horse on it and can honestly say that the swelling has gone down by 50% as for the hoofs i have been spraying a little baby oil onto the hooves to stop impaction of snow and it has helped
 
As others have said, it doesn't really seem to be a problem. If you are very worried you could bandage them at night but I do think that unless there is a good reason to bandage you could end up causing more problems than you solve, esp. if they are too tight or slip.

On keeping the hooves snow free, I follow the advice I was given when I lived in Switzerland which is to to nothing. We didn't put anything like vaseline, etc on the soles and didn't pick them out. After a day it seemed as though they had no more snow build up and although their soles were packed they weren't walking on wedges either.
 
My lad's legs fill up overnight when stabled as well, he's in Veredus Magnetic Stable boots and these stop them filling at all.

As for hooves, I melt down lard and mix in two tablespoons of salt, pour it in a pot and let it harden up, whack that on the underside of the hoof and it seems to do the trick.
 
Another vote for stable wraps, I bought some thermatex ones a while ago and only started using them recently as the weather got cold, fantastic difference. Her legs haven't swelled up even with being in for 7 days due to the weather.
 
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