Swollen hind leg just above the fetlock but not lame? Any ideas?

Nickles1973

Nickles1973

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As title really. We've been turning out in this horrid weather for 4 or so hours a day putting hay in the field to keep the horses occupied. And then hacking out on the road when conditions have allowed for short distances just to keep them sane. So far this has been working just fine.
Anyway last evening I brought my horse in at 4pm as usual took off his turnout boots and put on his Bioflow tendon wraps behind. (Used to help with filled legs) I always run my hand over his legs before doing this as he is your usual accident prone tb and I'm certain as I can be that I felt/noticed nothing unusual.
This morning I took the tendon wraps off and discovered his n/s hind really noticably swollen just above the fetlock and mostly towards the back of the lower part of his tendon. It wasn't noticably hotter than the other hind. (baring in mind that I'd just taken wraps off) But it did feel firmish.
I walked him up the yard and he appeared fine and then my YO watched him trot and again he looks completely fine.
After moving him around a bit it looked to have gone down a little which made me wonder if it could just be a slight knock which had filled over night? I'm usually the first person to call out the vet but after landing myself with a few £130 bills for a quick exam and some bute for several cases which have all resolved in a few days I'm loath to do anything rash.
I have left him in for today and will obviously visit later but has anyone experienced similar?
Should I have called the vet or am I right to think I should give it a couple of days and see how it goes?
 
Could just be a knock - if it started to go down with movement that's generally a good sign. However, if you've left him standing in all day, it could be more filled by this evening. If he's still sound tomorrow, I would be tempted to turn him out to see if it goes down during the day.
 
I had a similar thing last week,although mine are out 24/7 and unbooted.
I guessed at a slip and bash from the hard ground,so I removed them from the lumpy poached field and kept an eye on things. My filly was lame as well,but after a couple of days in a safer field the swelling and lameness disappeared.
If yours gets worse,call the vet,otherwise I would keep the circulation active with as much turnout as is safe and possible.
 
Well the swelling came up again overnight and was just the same, hard but not hot. I turned him out and when he came in this evening the swelling had got a lot less but had not completely gone. He definatley doesn't look lame to me or my YO so I'm quite confused by it really.
My YO wondered if it could have been caused by the brushing boot he was wearing as it had had got wet in the snow and frozen quite hard in the ice? Does any one think this is likely? Tbh I'm dubious but I'll consder anything at this stage.
 
marydoll said:
How is he looking on the lunge on a circle on soft ground ?
He might have tweaked something, soft tissue lameness might show up more on the softer ground on the circle
Click to expand...

Unfortunately due to the bad weather our school has been to frozen to be able to lunge him so just been walking and trotting him up on the concrete yard.
He's going to have another day of turnout tomorrow and then I'll review and lunge him on Thursday to get an idea where we are.
Gotta be said that this year has not started well for us and I'm beginning to feel dispondant :-(
 
My mare gets this all the time on one hind leg - it had been doing it for ages with no lameness and when she eventually went lame it turned out that she has chronic suspensory ligament desmitis and that it's actually related to that, but in what way I don't know. It doesn't mean that when it's swollen she's more lame, and it does go down when she gets moving. Some days are worse than others, but the vet said that as long as it goes down when she gets moving, he's not too concerned about it.
 
Could be the superficial digital flexor tendon. If it doesn't improve in the next few days I would get the vet but I would keep him in. I posted about something similar last week. Horse wasn't lame either. Luckily he has just bruised his SDFT and nothing worse. Could also be the tendon sheath. Maybe cold hose in the mean time. Hope everything is ok
 
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