Lymphangitis - 3 horses showing symptoms at same time??

molly7886

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When I got my horse in yesterday (currently out 24/7 with 3 others) he had 3 filled legs. Looked like typical lymphanigitis so got vet out to him so I could get him straight on anti-biotics. Vet agreed and prescribed him anti-biotics and Danilon. No obvious wounds but nothing too extraordinary there, I know it can start in the most minor abrasion.
However this morning when I went to see to him 2 of the three others also had filled legs to varying degrees. All clearly sore to the touch. The owner of these others has spoken to her vet to so they are all now being treated.
I know lymphangitis is not contagious as such but seems really weird that they've all shown symptoms within 24 hours. Has anyone else experienced this?
Vet said it may be that the enviromental conditions ie mild and damp, may be causing bacteria to be particularly prevalant but if anyone has any other ideas I would be interested.
(My horses legs were much less swollen today so seems to be responding well to ab's - good news!)
 

spike123

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Could it be protein related? My old horse had lymphangitis and it was caused by the bacteria getting in via a tiny mud fever scab but vet said he had to much protein in his diet as well so to cut it back. Just wonder if it's possible in your horses cases
 

mytwofriends

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Maybe a bite/sting? My friend's horse is turned out with my boys and had a severely filled and extremely hot leg one morning - he wouldn't even move. She knows he's sensitive to bug bites and keeps him in fly gear the majority of the time whereas my horses are unaffected for the most part. The vet thought it might have been a hornet or something similar, and he prescribed steroids for a few days. The leg gradually went down and all was fine. She never knew the ultimate cause.

Just an idea.
 

molly7886

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Could it be protein related? My old horse had lymphangitis and it was caused by the bacteria getting in via a tiny mud fever scab but vet said he had to much protein in his diet as well so to cut it back. Just wonder if it's possible in your horses cases
Due to having had gastric ulcers in the past he has a very low protein, high fibre diet. Other than grass (which I guess is better than usual for the time of year) all of them have the same feed (just a handful of happy hoof, no straights at all)
He is a thin skinned TB (as is one of his field mates) so it wouldn't suprise me if a tiny nick/bite is the cause of the infection,(although the other is quite a chunky hunter type that is usually indestructible!) and it was the fact they all blew up at the same time that puzzled me. Absolutely no change in their management
 

molly7886

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Maybe a bite/sting? My friend's horse is turned out with my boys and had a severely filled and extremely hot leg one morning - he wouldn't even move. She knows he's sensitive to bug bites and keeps him in fly gear the majority of the time whereas my horses are unaffected for the most part. The vet thought it might have been a hornet or something similar, and he prescribed steroids for a few days. The leg gradually went down and all was fine. She never knew the ultimate cause.

Just an idea.

He is sensitive to bites, I've certainly seen swellings on his torso when the bugs have got to him when he's not had his fly rug on, they usually go down withing a day or 2 so maybe there was something that was going around the herd, just seems odd that there's nothing untoward other then their legs (none had fly rugs on yesterday)and a rather spooky coincidence but its a possibility,
 

soulfull

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Quite a few years ago a similar thing happened at my old yard. Vets put it down to a virus or a plant eaten in the field. Legs were swollen/hot/ sore to touch.
Aloe Vera juice was an enormous help
Strange how all the horses were only affected on the same 3 legs.
 

Janovich

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Have you changed or started on a new batch of haylage....if that's what you feed Molly7886??

The only reason I ask is because some years ago something extremely similar happened to 4 of the horses on the yard I was on at the time.

Turns out it was the haylage that had just been delivered and after vets had a good natter with the makers of said haylage, they reckoned it was because of the haylage and the fact the crop had been fertilized earlier in the year with high a nitrogen content in it. (The makers were used to growing 'cow grass' and not horse grass!).

One of the horses just 'peed out' his poo basically and the others were looser than normal in the back end dept and also has swollen limbs and raised temps.

When taken off the haylage and onto hay,...the majority of the symptoms disappeared within a 48 hour period. The ones with raised temps took a little longer to right themselves, but they came good in the end.

Just thought I'd tell this little story as it did turn out that the haylage seemed to be the common denominator as nothing else had changed.
 

anguscat

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I had three come in with very filled legs recently (one looking much like lymphangitis). They'd just been moved to a fresh paddock and I suspected it was too rich for them and they were able to eat a lot without moving very much. I quickly moved them all back onto a sparser paddock for a few days so they had to move around a lot more for their intake. All their legs went down fully. Then over the next few days I put them on the richer paddock just for periods of a few hours to start getting it eaten down more, using the sparser paddock at other times. After about 5 days they were back full time on the 'now less rich' paddock.
No more filled legs.
 

Red-1

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I have had a problem with a couple of mine, all September / October, all just for a few days, over several years.

I did wonder if it was exercising in stubble fields, as each time we have been doing that? I wondered if the stubble was pin pricking round the ergot area?

Other than that we do have Sycamore round our field, so at the first sign of trouble he will be coming off field turnout and moving to his winter turnout which is on the arena.

Each time it has cleared up no problems, although I have always taken either horse to the beach to paddle in the sea, which has taken most of the swelling down in one visit with the salt water. And no, we do not live near the beach, it is a 5 hour round trip! I do think though if you get the swelling gone as quickly as that there is less likelihood of long term filling.
 
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