Swollen tendons half way up one leg.. Which factor is to blame?

That your physio thought he/she was qualified to diagnose a lower leg problem, really just indicates they are incompetent.

I am always keen to avoid unneccesary vet fees, but have sufficient experience to have a good guess at the cause of swellings, you clearly have no idea. If the tendon is swollen you get the vet & put the horse on box rest immediately - end of. It is you who claims the tendon is swollen - such a bizarre attitude.

She's used to be a veterinary technician so knows what she is talking about. And if you read the comment above, I asked you not to post things like this as it's of no use to me please.
 
OP you have years of experience with your own horses but last year you started a thread asking if at 14 yrs old with 4 yrs riding experience you would be ok to back a youngster?

so you are 15yrs (so your knowledge is limited) old people are only trying to help on here and can only go by what you have said, if the swelling has gone then great. but don't be so quick to be defensive, you painted a picture of a horse with a swollen tendon and hooves in very bad condition, people offered advice and suddenly you knew all there was to know. for what it is worth an equine physio that works on your horses without the vets ok is not covered by insurance so i would query their qualifications and ethics.

good luck with the mare

just out of curiosity how many horses do you have on half an acre?
 
the mare's feet were in bad condition (too long and cracked)

She lives out with the herd on about 1/2 - 1 acre of paddock

the ground is fairly hard, we are only walking but she does run around in the field which isn't too hard but not exactly soft either.


Walking differently since her feet have been rasped

Well there is a possible cause. Having lived long term with neglected and unbalanced feet, to be trimmed (and I wouldn't be trusting anyone to trim a horse's feet that had let them get into that state in the first place) then to be chucked straight out in a tiny paddock with a 'herd' and lots of running about on hard ground. Voila.

Cause isn't the important thing. Diagnosis is. VETS can diagnose, physiotherapists and veterinary technicians LEGALLY cannot.

So farrier not until Friday, your horse may have had tendon damage for over a week at that point, not being box rested. Good grief :( Poor, poor horse

ETA I hope to god this is a troll post. I really, really do.
 
Well there is a possible cause. Having lived long term with neglected and unbalanced feet, to be trimmed (and I wouldn't be trusting anyone to trim a horse's feet that had let them get into that state in the first place) then to be chucked straight out in a tiny paddock with a 'herd' and lots of running about on hard ground. Voila.

Cause isn't the important thing. Diagnosis is. VETS can diagnose, physiotherapists and veterinary technicians LEGALLY cannot.

So farrier not until Friday, your horse may have had tendon damage for over a week at that point, not being box rested. Good grief :( Poor, poor horse

ETA I hope to god this is a troll post. I really, really do.

The physio did no work, she just felt down her leg nothing else, and she wasn't there as a physio, she was there as a friend my point was that she was trained to spot lameness and she said she was not lame. I very much agree with you about the feet. We didn't agree with the woman who owned her to do her feet for this reason. The paddock isn't rock hard as there is some give but little was my point. And again, our friend did not diagnose she advised as a friend. I have already said that Friday is the best we can do- it is an emergency visit.

As someone else has pointed out, I am young, I am only 16 but this isn't purely my decision it is my mothers also. The only reason I am being defensive is because people like amymay are being pushy and unhelpful.

Since all of you people are making me out to be some horrible person I have begged my mother to call the vet and she has, he is coming tomorrow. Thank you very much to everyone for stressing the hell out of me and insulting my horsemanship- really appreciated
 
To twiggy 2, I asked my mother how many acres the field was and she said about 2 acres.. whoops, I'm not good with acres and we have 5 on that but they come in for hay daily.
 
Well done for calling the vet. Is he/she an experienced equine vet? Did you manage to speak to them directly - when I called initially I was asked to treat it as a potentially serious tendon injury (I was anyway) and vet came out after 7 days (to allow swelling to subside) to scan. Horse was box rested and intensively cold hosed/iced during that time.

I would make sure your vet is bringing the portable scanner with him to save an extra trip. You can feel the structures in the lower leg with palpation, but an ultrasound scan is really the only way to be sure.

Foot imbalances impact hugely on the tendons and ligaments.
 
I had to beg my mother but she did. My mother spoke directly to her, she is a fully qualified equine vet, she treated my TB mare when she sliced her knee really, really badly and did a fantastic job. The vet said she will scan etc. when she comes.
 
How did it go with the vet today OP? :)

Honestly couldn't have gone better. The vet came, looked at her leg asked me to trot her said she was as sound as could be, scanned her leg anyway and said tendons were fine. The cause of the swelling was an allergic reaction to a fly bite which we had to find a magnifying glass to see. The vet also said that if I had kept her in on box rest I would have made things worse because it would of most likely swollen even more and has said to keep her moving with in hand walks as we had been to doing and continue everything we had been doing. £60 to tell me my mare is sensitive which we already knew.. the joy of horses.
 
Honestly couldn't have gone better. The vet came, looked at her leg asked me to trot her said she was as sound as could be, scanned her leg anyway and said tendons were fine. The cause of the swelling was an allergic reaction to a fly bite which we had to find a magnifying glass to see. The vet also said that if I had kept her in on box rest I would have made things worse because it would of most likely swollen even more and has said to keep her moving with in hand walks as we had been to doing and continue everything we had been doing. £60 to tell me my mare is sensitive which we already knew.. the joy of horses.

Very relieved to hear that :) Hopefully once your farrier's been out you'll be able to get cracking on with her. Only £60 to visit and scan though? I want a vet like yours!

I know all about sensitive horses. She isn't chestnut by any chance, is she? :D
 
Very relieved to hear that :) Hopefully once your farrier's been out you'll be able to get cracking on with her. Only £60 to visit and scan though? I want a vet like yours!

I know all about sensitive horses. She isn't chestnut by any chance, is she? :D

No, that's without scans, that's just the visit as we got an urgent call. And no she's brown with some white on her and white legs, we knew she was sensitive but not this bad we've made her some special gel with herbs and stuff so the flies should stay off her for a bit anyway
 
Very odd that your vet would ask you to trot your horse but then scan for tendon injury anyway. My horse does have a tendon injury, and six months down the line, trotting is still not an option.

And something iyou said on your original post about your mare being vocal and you would know if she was in pain. OP - horses do not vocalise pain. It is entirely against their nature as in the wild it would make them a target for predators.

Now don't take this the wrong way, but at 15 you have a lifetime of leraning about horses ahead of you. Take every opportunity to learn from the good advice you have had on this thread. You may need it in future! Good luck with your mare.
 
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