Puffy legs - Alfa A?

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robthecob

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My girls hind legs started swelling a couple of weeks ago. They went down almost completely after turn out exercise and I treated some mud fever on the legs. The left was worse than the right. One day the whole leg swelled up and I got the vet out fearing infection and expecting some antis but the vet said he couldn't rule out suspensory branch damage. There's no lameness!

Fast forward to now and the legs are still puffing up, no where near as much. Mainly thickening on the cannon fetlock and pastern. The vet is coming next Tuesday to scan but in the mean time I am trying to rule out anything management related.

I am fairly sure I have no more mud fever scabs
 
Sorry pressed send too soon.. I started feeding Alfa a about 3 months ago and have had no problems but have read some horses can't tolerate it and end up with puffy legs... Can anyone tell me if this is likely? Why does it affect them like this?
 
I have never had a problem when using alfalfa, in any form but it is fairly high protein and that can make some horses legs swell, one of mine filled when he had linseed only a small amount but they were filling while he was still out nearly 24/7, they went down within 36 hours once I stopped feeding it.
If you think it may be diet cut him back to hay and a token of something without alfalfa in it and see if they go down, if they do gradually introduce it again if you really want to prove it and see what happens.
 
I feed linseed too have done for years without any problem by I wonder if the combination of them both isn't helping. Plus I switched to calm and condition from fast fibre before Christmas which I imagine has higher protein too. I'll cut it all right back from today and see what happens. Thank you :)
 
Thank you :) I'm going to try going back to basics and see if it improves. The swelling is concentrated around the fetlock and pastern so I know it could be suspensory but it doesn't hurt to be hopeful does it :)
 
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