Lymphangitis

[Mischi]

Hi everybody

One of our broodmares has lymphangitis. She originally had it a couple of years ago and since then just had a big leg, but no lameness. She occasionally had minor flare ups, but actually has been pretty much problem free for a good 2 years I think. Now about 10 days ago she had a major flare up, extremely swollen leg, lame, fever, not eating... Vet called out immediately and she's on medication now (antibiotics and anti-inflammatory). She is in foal (due in about 8 weeks), so treatment is a bit tricky. She's also being walked several times a day and we've been cold hosing the leg. Swelling has gone down very well and she's not really lame anymore and eating ok again.
However, around the fetlock she has lumps/abscesses that have not open yet. Today she also started losing a lot of hair higher up the leg near the hock and the skin there is really dry. I've washed the leg with warm water and hibiscrub and put some sudocreme on the bald patches.
Any advice on what to do about the hair loss/dry skin? Should I poultice the abscesses to get them to open/drain? The vet is coming back in a few days (earlier of course if she gets worse)

 

[ohmissbrittany]

The hair loss and dry skin is likely from he leg swelling rapidly and just overstretching it with inflammation, or fluid leakage/scalding. Have you tried intermittent pressure wraps (like wrap her overnight, no wraps during the day)? Sweat wrapping helps get the fluid out, but I've not had lymphangitis (only wicked cellulitis) so maybe ask your vet to make sure it's not contraindicated?

Can the vet lance the abcesses that are close to bursting? Just to get the gunk out?

 

[Mischi]

Yeah I figured the hair loss was because of the initial swelling, was just a bit confused cause it happened now that most swelling has been down for a few days and in such big chunks. But it looks like no more hair has come of and the sudocreme definitely helped with the dry skin.
I've read about pressure wraps and sweating, but I'm just always a bit reluctant to bandage a leg with swelling. Plus I don't have much experience with sweat wraps, so wouldn't really want to experiment on her.

2 of the abscesses seem close to bursting, but we'll see what the vet says when he comes back.

She definitely seems happier though, eating pretty well again also, which is a relief! We always feed a mash on Wednesday evening and she's never been overly keen on it, but she ate it all up

 

[Mischi]

Abscesses have now burst. I'm poulticing the leg overnight to help get all the gunk out (smells disgusting when removing the bandage in the morning), during the day I leave it open so it can dry better and get some air to it. It looks pretty bad with the open wounds and she was a little bit sore walking today, but can't really blame her. It must hurt with basically two big wounds around the fetlock.
She is still eating well though and seems to be feeling ok.
I'm really hoping to get her leg to be ok again. She's a nice and still pretty young broodmare (first foal is already a Listed winner), so it would be a real shame to lose her over this. Does anyone have any advice to prevent future flare ups? Something to strengthen the immune system maybe?
She's usually fine during spring/summer/autumn when she's turned out most of the time, but winter is more of an issue with limited turnout and mostly wet ground. A few years ago we fed her horseradish during winter and that seemed to help with the swelling.