Lymphangitis

[Horsegirl25]

Has anyone dealt with lymphangitis before? My mare had what we suspect was lymphangitis a week past Sunday. She had a bilateral hind swelling with left significantly worse than the right, she also had a temp and was just in general down and not herself. She got a steroid injection, some painkillers and an antibiotic injection from the vet and went onto 24/7 turnout. Within 2 days of being out and oral doxycycline, the swelling went down and she came back in overnight. All was well her legs coped and didn't fill back up until Saturday... Bilateral swelling but this time on her front legs, again left worse than right.
Repeated the above as she still had more doxy to take to finish the course and now legs back to normal.
Has anyone dealt with it swapping from hind to front before? How can I prevent this happening? Nothing has changed in her routine bar being out 24hrs due to the initial swelling then swapping back to in at night. The uncertainty around it is driving me mad as have no idea if her legs are going to be swollen or not.

 

[Barton Bounty]

Awww I feel for you! Not me but my friend did have this with her lionheart cob. I know this is not what you want to hear but It kept recurring and he got cellulitis as well off the back of it.
I really hope yours goes away

And just another note, doxycycline is an antibiotic you are not allowed out in the sun with for humans! It is maybe the same for horses too?

 

[Horsegirl25]

Awww I feel for you! Not me but my friend did have this with her lionheart cob. I know this is not what you want to hear but It kept recurring and he got cellulitis as well off the back of it.
I really hope yours goes away

Thank you. I had heard that once they get it once it can keep recurring but wasn't sure if there was anything that could be done to avoid it. Luckily hers is very mild compared to some photos I have seen but the switching to the front legs caught me off guard!
Hope your friends cob is doing well
Edit: re the antibiotic, I am not entirely sure, I presume they are ok to go out in the sun as the vet recommended 24hr turnout so half of that would be spent in the sun

 

[Barton Bounty]

Thank you. I had heard that once they get it once it can keep recurring but wasn't sure if there was anything that could be done to avoid it. Luckily hers is very mild compared to some photos I have seen but the switching to the front legs caught me off guard!
Hope your friends cob is doing well

He didnt survive but his heels collapsed in hind so it was unrelated

 

[OrangeAndLemon]

Your vet will provide good advice for long term care but from my (limited) experience you will need to plan for plenty of turnout and it should involve movement, not snoozing gently in the same position all day long, so track systems are a great option if you can provide one.

Adding Cleaver and Marigold to her feed will help with additional support. Cleavers are sticky bud plants and are growing well at this time of year in hedgerows so grab some of those for her as a treat.

 

[Horsegirl25]

Your vet will provide good advice for long term care but from my (limited) experience you will need to plan for plenty of turnout and it should involve movement, not snoozing gently in the same position all day long, so track systems are a great option if you can provide one.

Adding Cleaver and Marigold to her feed will help with additional support. Cleavers are sticky bud plants and are growing well at this time of year in hedgerows so grab some of those for her as a treat.

Luckily her field companion spends most of his time trying to play with her and keeps her moving as she tries her hardest to avoid him lol.
Waiting on the vet phoning back after Saturdays swelling but always helpful to get input from people that have had first hand dealings with it.

Will have a look into that, thank you.

 

[nutjob]

I had one with lymphangitis. It came on really quickly and one of his hind legs was enormous, the other less so. He had antibiotics injected for 5 consecutive days and I cold hosed or walked every couple of hours. It did go down and he made a full recovery. I was warned that it could reoccurred but it never did thankfully.

 

[Albus15]

We had one that came up on both hinds and left fore, presumed cause was mud fever. Emergency vet out with antibiotics, recommended turn out and ridden in walk as he was reluctant to move, followed by cold hosing on all legs to help reduce inflammation. Took about 10 days to return to normal due to restricted turnout

 

[Horsegirl25]

We had one that came up on both hinds and left fore, presumed cause was mud fever. Emergency vet out with antibiotics, recommended turn out and ridden in walk as he was reluctant to move, followed by cold hosing on all legs to help reduce inflammation. Took about 10 days to return to normal due to restricted turnout

That is reassuring to hear as from what I could find online it isn't often it flares in the front legs so had me questioning slightly if it was that or not.
Glad to hear it came back to normal