Swollen legs

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ALO

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My gelding has had his legs swell on a few different occasions recently.first time was left fore,swollen from knee down to hoof, quite a hard swelling which came up in the stable and went down slightly but not completely when out in field.
No noticeable lameness.following day after turn out both hinds the same. Vet out, steroid,bute and antibiotics for 5 days. After this back to normal. 2 weeks later, right fore exactly the same, same treatment. Thought initially may be mud fever but can't find any scabs. Back to normal after same period of time. Wednesday left fore swollen again and tonight so has left hind. Vet out tomorrow to run bloods as thinks could be systemic.
Has anyone else experienced this? Getting a bit worried as to the cause,horse fine in self,just concerned that swelling doesn't go down when he's out walking around.
Any suggestions?thanks
 
Vet came out,bloods ran,has low WBC and rbc count so thinks probably viral.going onto an iron and b vit supplement to try and
boost. Anyone else experience
this before?how long before he will be getting back to normal?thanks
 
I had absolutely minimal scabs on one of my pony's heels and then he got an infection up to his hock - I think if mud fever or infection goes systemic it can be difficult like that without having many signs first. My vet wondered if it was infection from burrowing mites rather than mud but no real itching been seen. Hope if it's a virus it shifts on quickly for your chap. We funnily enough had a couple of horses on the yard I'm on that went very quiet and a bit out of sorts for a few days before showing swollen legs from mud fever and requiring antibiotics, painkillers etc. The vet did think for one of those it was a virus first, it was an older horse and she's struggled to get the mud fever totally cleared up.

If it is mud fever he may need to be in out of the mud if your fields are bad.
 
Thanks for that. Im in a bit of a difficult situation regarding mud as we have just had a case of strangles on our yard and are trying to keep everything out out of the way untill said horse is clear.bit of a catch 22 tbh.the swelling seems to be going down since he's started the supplement.fingers crossed!
 
On Christmas Eve morning we noticed my Arab (stabled at night) had a swollen front leg, he has had a very mild case of mud fever so we put it down to that. We bandaged it and he was given antibiotics as two days later the other front leg swelled. He was also given strong pain killers as he was in a lot of pain and was getting quite depressed and at one point his legs swelled so much he started leaking fluid. He's not been lame at all and we were advised to lightly lunge him every day and keep the legs bandaged at night. Five days later we noticed our gypsy cob had huge hot swellings on the underside of his stomach! He's not had mud fever and has had no swelling in his legs at all. He was also put on a course of antibiotics and has made a full recovery within a week.
We bought the arab back into light work last week and all seemed fine, then on Saturday morning his back leg had swelled overnight. We badaged him up, gave him some bute and put him in one of the fields that has not been grazed all winter, so is not muddy or boggy but has a lovely layer of grass. The swelling in his hind leg is near enough subsided but im too afraid not to bandage at night. This has been going on for nearly 4 weeks now and everyone is stumped by what it could be. We have eliminated things common to the two horse like changing from straw to chippings etc. plus deduced they are quite often hacked out together.
I heard of a yard near to me yesterday where all the horses have been struck with swollen hot legs. My vet could not make a precise diagnosis so im starting to think this is a virus. Any suggestions as to what this may be please?
 
Have you had any bloods?mine sounded very similar to what your describing but my horses legs were not painfull. They are back to normal now but am now dealing with a hoof abcess!!the joys of winter!
 
Stabled horses get Humus is usually in all four legs fetlock area only, but goes down with exercise, reduce feed esp protein and it should resolve, if swelling is higher up and in any leg and does not go down completely after exercise then i wud check for a virus,
 
Hi, thanks for the responses. I know it's not feed related as I always feed according to work and the season. His legs tonight are all normal! The plot thuckens
 
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