One filling hind

[Bens_Mum]

My friends horse has started getting one back leg filling in the stable.

Its not warm and its puffy above the fetlock and all the way around. There is no obvious cut or injury. It goes down when the horse has been out then fills again. He isn't lame maybe a tiny bit stiff yesterday but today sound when he came in and it had gone down. After being in a couple of hours its filled again..

Is it too high to be an abscess? There is no heat in the hoof at all and no swelling directly above it. Farrier is coming tomorrow anyway so will have a look.

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts at all? If the farrier finds nothing he will call out the vet its just strange I've not really seen anything that comes and goes like that in one leg before. I assumed infection but there is no heat at all.

 

[ohmissbrittany]

Could it be a minor tweak of something from slipping in mud or something similar? Or has he ever been injured in that leg? My horse has a gnarly scar that I'll never know what happened and when it's warm, humid or she's kept in that leg will fill a little bit. If you press into it and it doesn't leave an imprint (ie, not "pitting edema") and it's not sore... it may not be anything. Usually an abcess they'll get really lame on it fairly quickly...

 

[Birker2020]

It could be like omb has said and something tweaked. Maybe an inflamed tendon sheath or similar. WIll be interested to see what the vet/farrier finds. If both back legs had filled I would just say this is due to poor lympathic drainage, a lot of horses get this standing in their stables in the summer, with the heat. But with only one back leg I would think its more likely to be symptoms of an injury.

 

[Bens_Mum]

Farrier found a nasty bruise and he was stiff through his pelvis so hopefully that has resolved matters. He's roaring round the field so can't be feeling too bad after his £50 physio the little sod!

 

[Birker2020]

Farrier found a nasty bruise and he was stiff through his pelvis so hopefully that has resolved matters. He's roaring round the field so can't be feeling too bad after his £50 physio the little sod!

Well don't feel too bad, the physio will have sorted out an compensatory issues that he may have had, so it was money well spent in my eyes. Horses can really stump you some times.