Septic hock joint

[HeyMich]

I've had the most horrendous few days! Feel the need to share...

My mare had a tiny wee cut on her back leg on outside of hock joint on Tues eve last week. I cleaned it out and put some purple spray on it. It was clean and not hot to touch, she wasn't lame (I'd long-reined her, so had a very good view of her rear end!) so put her back out in the field with the herd. She trotted off happy as anything.

Weds I didn't see her as I was busy collecting my shiny new trailer (eeeeeek!!). YO said she was happily grazing and moving around the field, no probs.

Thurs am, another livery brought her in for me at about 9am. She didn't notice anything off or odd, walked in fine, started on her hay like normal.

I went to the yard at about 11am and her leg was swollen and the wee cut was weeping. I cleaned it out, cold hosed it and walked her in-hand to try and reduce the swelling. Called the vet after an hour, as the swelling wasn't going down.

Vet came at about 4pm. In the meantime, I'd cold hosed again repeatedly, and walked in-hand again. Horse was starting to look sorry for herself and non weight-bearing. Vet took a sample of the synovial fluid in the hock, gave IM abx and said he'd be in touch...

He called back an hour later after taking sample straight to the lab, saying to take her to vet hosp asap. My first trip with her in the new trailer wasn't exactly as I had planned - the upside is she travelled brilliantly!

So, Fri am she had operation under GA. Hock joint flush and de-briding of infected tissue. There was also some damage to internal joint structure, implying a crush injury, consistent with a kick (I'm not pointing fingers, she's in a happy herd and I know accidents/hijinxs and herd dynamics do happen!). Treated with more IV abx and close monitoring...

Thurs/Fri I was ready to PTS. I had totally made the decision, not that the decision was ready to be made. The vet made it clear that she might not survive tho. Very tough words to hear!

She has made a brilliant job of recovery at the horspital. Eating/pooing well, and responding well to the abx. I went to see her on Sat and she was brighter than before, not 100%, but better. She has since had the dressings changed and they say she's on the mend! Phew!!

Hopefully should be able to bring her home tomorrow... then 3 weeks box rest! Arghh! She's very much an out 24/7 kinda horse... it's going to be painful! Then restricted turn-out, if recovery goes well with no set-backs...

Anyone else been through similar and come out smiling? Back to riding/jumping as normal? How long did it take to recover?

Anyone know why a tiny cut would lead to such a massive infection?

And most importantly, would anyone else have done anything differently? I'm beating myself up about not checking on her on Weds, even though the infection only appeared to set in mid-morning on Thurs. What if... what if...

Packet of jaffa cakes for anyone getting to the end! Thanks for listening xx

 

[Elf On A Shelf]

You'll be back on the road again in no time at all with no long lasting effects!

Joint infections are tricky ones to deal with as they can set in when you least expect them to and think you have covered all bases.

 

[twiggy2]

Went to get horse in and from the top if the track I could see she was not right, head hanging down standing halfway up the field on her own, called her and no feaction, I phoned vet before I got to her and requested an emergency visit, when I got to her he was holding a leg in the air, massively swollen fetlock, took ages to walk her in as she was non weight bearing, she was in the stable for 5-10 mins before the vet arrived and had laid down, breathing heavy and noisy and we struggled to get her up, vet gave poor prognosis at that point, got her up and examined her, took a sampled of joint fluid which looked like cottage cheese, so he flushed the joint in the stable under sedation, gave 2 sorts of im antibiotics and requested her in at the surgery the next day. Prognosis still poor.
Next day at the vets surgery she came off the lorry 2 tenths lame, vet was astonished and rather than surgery just flushed again under sedation, she had 2 weeks of 2 types of im antibiotics and never looked back, 2 days box rest after flushing and back in walk work and living out within 5 days.
She never had any issues from it and it was all caused by a tiny fragment of black thorn.
Good luck and I hope your mare recovers just as well.

 

[HeyMich]

Went to get horse in and from the top if the track I could see she was not right, head hanging down standing halfway up the field on her own, called her and no feaction, I phoned vet before I got to her and requested an emergency visit, when I got to her he was holding a leg in the air, massively swollen fetlock, took ages to walk her in as she was non weight bearing, she was in the stable for 5-10 mins before the vet arrived and had laid down, breathing heavy and noisy and we struggled to get her up, vet gave poor prognosis at that point, got her up and examined her, took a sampled of joint fluid which looked like cottage cheese, so he flushed the joint in the stable under sedation, gave 2 sorts of im antibiotics and requested her in at the surgery the next day. Prognosis still poor.
Next day at the vets surgery she came off the lorry 2 tenths lame, vet was astonished and rather than surgery just flushed again under sedation, she had 2 weeks of 2 types of im antibiotics and never looked back, 2 days box rest after flushing and back in walk work and living out within 5 days.
She never had any issues from it and it was all caused by a tiny fragment of black thorn.
Good luck and I hope your mare recovers just as well.

Wow! That's an amazing recovery. So glad to hear yours reacted so well and so quickly to the flush and abx. Brilliant to hear that they can bounce back like that! Fingers crossed...

 

[Pearlsasinger]

I am so pleased for you that she is on the road to recovery.
I lost a big IDx mare as a result of cellulitis. Despite a week of abs and 3 vet visits, she went rapidly downhill on the 8th day. She was too far gone to travel in a trailer, so was pts at home.

Wishing her (and you) all the best.

 

[MissTyc]

sounds like you have a good vet!

My mare punctured fetlock joint and tendon sheath ... Flushed under GA, discussed PTS, etc etc. Because of extent of damage we had several months box rest (also a 24/7 turned out horse) and she coped OK although it has made her more anxious since ... Back to full work after an initial period of mechanical lameness caused by muscle wastage that rehab livery was thankfully able to work out for me.

 

[HeyMich]

Thank you everyone for your kind words and good wishes. It is appreciated!

PAS - so sorry to hear you lost a horse this way. It's amazing how quickly it can set in. You have my sympathies xx

 

[oldie48]

If as owners we could anticipate everything that might go wrong with our horses, the vets would go out of business. Many owners would have missed a small cut, you did all the right things and were just very unlucky Wishing your horse a speedy recovery!

 

[HeyMich]

If as owners we could anticipate everything that might go wrong with our horses, the vets would go out of business. Many owners would have missed a small cut, you did all the right things and were just very unlucky Wishing your horse a speedy recovery!

Yes, agreed. They do come up with inventive new ways to injure themselves, don't they? I bought her as a tough, hardy type too!

Thanks also for the vote of confidence, I really appreciate it xx

 

[Mule]

It's scary how something so small can turn so serious, so quickly.

 

[asmp]

This happened to my horse not long after I bought him 10 years ago. Got kicked in the field and had a small cut to the hock. Was OK at first but then went lame so got vet out. Told me to take him straight to the horsepital where he spent 5 nights. I can't remember how long he was on box rest but he was fine afterwards, winning many competitions with my daughter over the years.

I still remember being rather dumb struck when the vet told me he had to go to the horsepital with what looked like a very small cut. Hope everything goes OK with your horse.

 

[HeyMich]

This happened to my horse not long after I bought him 10 years ago. Got kicked in the field and had a small cut to the hock. Was OK at first but then went lame so got vet out. Told me to take him straight to the horsepital where he spent 5 nights. I can't remember how long he was on box rest but he was fine afterwards, winning many competitions with my daughter over the years.

I still remember being rather dumb struck when the vet told me he had to go to the horsepital with what looked like a very small cut. Hope everything goes OK with your horse.

That sounds exactly like what we're going through. I'm really glad to hear your boy was ok in the end, and recovered fully. Dumb-struck is a nice way of putting it!!

It seems that it's just luck of the draw whether they come through it or not.

Thanks for your good wishes xx

 

[HeyMich]

UPDATE (just in case anyone wanted one...)

She's home from horspital! On box rest for 2 weeks (that's going to be painful) then restricted grazing for a month (that's going to be a challenge too!). But she's home, and that's what matters! Could have been a much worse outcome...

Thanks all xx

 

[OldNag]

that is good news

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Excellent news!

 

[Blurr]

Just caught up with this and very happy to read your good news.

 

[hopscotch bandit]

Brilliant news, very happy for you x

 

[SEL]

That's really good news - box rest will fly past hopefully!!

 

[laura_nash]

Great news!

I've not had anything similar with a horse, but did with my old greyhound. She was slightly lame after a run one day (not particularly unusual with her as she was always pulling something!) and then the next day the leg started suddenly swelling up. Took her to the vets and in the car she started developing huge blisters. She had to have a ton of anti-biotics and the vet said if we'd left it another hour she would have died, but she pulled through ok (though the blisters took a long time to heal over). Hers turned out to be a tiny bit of backthorn in her leg.