what causes lymphangitis?

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riding_high

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i know that might sound like a stupid question but is there any thing in particular that causes it?

my horse has had it in both hind legs less than a year apart, he's spent alot of time on box rest over the years and never had it until recently.

now both times he got it he was on box rest, with a little turn out for a small period of time each day. the only things different each time he got it to other times was the grass he was allowed to graze, it's a small paddock with nice grass in, other horses and ponies have grazed it with no problem but the first time he spent about 4 hours in there and got very bad lymphangitis that night. the next time he spent about 2 hours in the paddock and got very bad lymphangitis.

i've been told if he gets it again then it could well be the end of him so i'm just wondering if there is anyway to prevent it?
 
My horse had it in his front leg last year and i seem to remember being told it was caused by bacteria getting under the skin? he had a scabby patch on his leg like mud fever and we belived it had got in through there.

Good luck with yours - mine needed a LOT of antibitocs of various types and was bandaged for a few weeks to get swelling out and then had tubigrip on it for another few weeks unitl it left completely x
 
my boy hasn't got it at the moment, i'm just trying to think of every possibility to stop it coming back, he's got liver damage so when he's had it in the past it has wiped him out to the point the last time we thought he'd have to be pts.

it's a horrible thing to deal with when they get so down with it. he's bandaged when in the stable now and i make sure he walks around in hand if he can't go out. he's an unlucky horse in the sense that he has 3 bad/dodgy legs but wants to go out jumping the fences and doesn't accept he can't do that anymore!
 
Have got a horse that suffers too - interestingly after a period of box rest but not whilst on box rest. vet said it may be photosensitivity or an allergy after ruling out any cuts. seems a random occurence. sorry can't help any more.
 
thanks cobswithattitude, that's interesting to read. my boy has been fine with his box rest, it was just the 2 days after he had been on the grass, i know he didn't have any cuts or anything too and there wasn't any mud as the ground was very dry and a good coverage of grass.

i have to admit i'm now worrying about him being out on grass and locked in his stable overnight over the winter, he has to be in so i don't have that choice.

i was also told that lymphangitis comes from mud getting into a cut and things but after my boy has had his i've been wracking my brains to figure out another possibility, the only connection i have is being in the paddock whilst i mucked out and stuff. hmmmm!
 
Lymphangitis is commonly associated with a wound, which may be very minor. This is a likely entrance for bacterial access to the lymph ducts. Often it starts with cellulitis.

The initial pain and lameness usually respond rapidly to treatment; however, the swelling may persist for many weeks. In addition, once a horse has had an episode, it appears to be predisposed to recurrence, and may suffer from "filled legs" permanently - i.e. if left in a stable and relatively immobile, poor lymphatic circulation results in a passive oedema of the previously affected limb, that dissipates on exercise. In more severe cases, the limb may never return to normal size. In these cases, there is likely permanent scarring of the lymphatics and other tissues.
 
My boy is currently battling this. :( But I have to say that there is a very big difference in feel to "filled legs" and "lymphangitis legs" It is generally associated with mud fever, but not solely contributed to.

The ducts in the legs can get damaged / malfunction through the system being compromised. In my case age being a contributory factor (27 yrs young). Think of a balloon. Its a little like that. Once stretched it is very difficult to stop the swelling re-occuring. It may well become a case of "management"

Apart from the obvious of drugs - in my case strong anti-b's AND steroids (injected), bandaging, cold hosing, hot and cold compresses, massage, magnetic therapy and system support (herbs for kidney and liver and antioxidants, pre and pro biotics and iron tonic to help replace in the blood what his system is using to fight this) are all the other things you can do to keep the time affected as short and (un)sweet as possible and hopefully limit the long term damage.

Standing in is also NOT recommended for horses that are prone to filled legs or Lymphangitis. As much movement / time out as possible to keep the fluids moving. Obviously if the horse is sore on the legs then it is not so easy to get them moving. Cons was the size of a tree trunk from above the hock down. Took a few days on bute to convince him to move but really was the best thing for him.
 
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Could he have eaten something in the paddock that hasn't agreed with him - could something of this sort cause lymphangitis?

Seems odd that the paddock is the common factor?

It is inflammation of the lypmh vessels I presume - gravity would mean it would most likely appear in the limbs - thought why back legs only I don't know. They are definately more susceptible after an initial episode.

Could toxins from an ingested nasty affect the lymph vessels and cause this?:confused:
 
Usually it is caused by bacterial infection which results in inflammation of the lymphatic channels. There are two types; sporadic and ulcerative. My eventer had sporadic lymphangitis following a bad accident at stud when she was 13. Her back legs swelled to the point that the skin split down the cannon bone, causing white hair to grow back like a pair of cricket pads. However, she made a full recovery and returned to competition, and didn't suffer any further attacks until about 11 years later when she got severe ulcerative lymphangitis which is really nasty but fortunately quite rare. Unfortunately, as it didn't respond well initially to antibiotics, she sufferered necrosis of the skin and terrible subsequent scarring around her fetlock joint . These scars simply wouldn't heal even after 4 months of weekly vet visits as it was too large a surface for the epithelial cells to migrate across. In the end, we made the hard decision to have her pts rather than put her through anything more.
 
my lad was given his food at 9am and by midday he had high temp, couldn't move at all, it wasn't helped by the fact that he was in for a tear to his DDFT, has alot of scar tissue in the one hind leg and the other hind leg had the lymphangitis, vet came out and gave him a massive dose of everything he could and said to get him moving around as soon as it takes affect.
the next day my horse still hadn't moved from the spot, basically he was pivotting on his one good leg. a friend forced him out the stable before i got there as if he didn't walk the vet was coming out to pts.

last year when he got it it took a couple of days for a high temp and all that to take hold, they initially treated for a tendon issue as he was just uncomfortable on it. this year it wiped him out almost straight away.

he had liver fluke a few years ago and i know his liver is damaged, tried everything to help 'repair' it but blood tests last year showed it was still damaged, the vet is fairly confident that the damage is quite bad which is why the lymphangitis wiped him out so quickly this year.
vet has recommended him be out 24/7 BUT if he has to be in at all then bandage all 4 legs and make sure he moves around.
 
my mare had it a few years ago and my old vet was a big help. it is caused by infection getting into the lymphatic system of the leg by a small wound as mentioned before. in areas such as cracked heals ext. it is most commonly seen in stabled horses.
the lameness is eased by being hand walked, sounds stupid to walk a lame horse i know but it really did work with mine. in long standing cases the serum will weep through the skin. treated by antibiotic, corticosteroids and possibly phenylbutazone will cure the condition, but is essential that the horse is walked in hand a few times a day and if possible turned out all the time so that it can move around. to prevent recurrences the leg should be bandaged if the horse is stabled for more than 12 hours

i know all the exercise ext sounds strange but it really does work and helps heal faster and i can not thank my old vet enough.
 
Beacon had a bout of this many years ago, vet said it was either something he ate in field or a bacterial/virus

I gave him aloe vera juice 4 large bottles from holland and barratt at about £200ml a day. Touch wood it never came back!
 
with the aloe vera juice is that given only IF they get it or can you give it on a daily basis to help prevent the lymphangitis coming back?

the vet and myself searched my horses legs and could not find a single mark on them. he was bandaged at night, on semi box rest........as in he was allowed out into this paddock while i mucked out and did the other little jobs that needed doing. the weather was dry and had been for ages so no 'fresh mud' or anything like that in the paddock. just good green grass.
he had it twice in less than a year after being on this one paddock for a couple of hours the day before, to me that's the ONLY common ground but surely it can't be that the grass made him get it???
 
lymphangitis is inflammation of the lymphatic vessels and this can have a number of causes, including an allergic reaction or infection. Commonly an infection may be suspected but tests will prove negative, which can make it difficult for the vet to initially prescribe the best antibiotic. the swelling is part of the inflammatory process, which temporarily overloads the lymphatic system, and by the proximal lymph nodes closing to contain the agent and prevent it spreading throughout the body.
Lymphangitis damages lymphatic vessels, but the system has reserves, however, some horses have less effective systems and an attack of lymphangitis may be 'the last straw' or may cause damage which only becomes apparent over time, leaving them vulnerable to further attacks.
The equine lymphatic system is particularly reliant on movement to function efficiently, and stabling horses prevents this. Some cope, but other horses develop filled legs, which is not a harmless condition, but an early stage of lymphoedema. Putting stable bandages on these horses prevents the flow of lymph, this may give the optical illusion that the problem is resolved, but the tissue waste products etc that should be removed by the lymphatic system sit there until the bandages are taken off, and this causes further damage. This is believed to be why horses that have never previously had a problem may develop filled legs after being on box rest.
Standard treatment for lymphangitis is concerned with the immediate issues, but does not answer the lymphoedema that can result. Lymphoedema damages skin tissue immunity and makes the horse more vulnerable to further attacks of lymphangitis.
Lymphoedema can't be cured, but is controlled with 'combined decongestive therapy' which improves the health of the affected tissues and has been adapted for use with horses. More information is available on equinemld.com.
Massage is often recommended for lymphangitis, but is too heavy on the fragile lymphatic vessels, and there is also the risk of opening the lymph nodes while the causal agent is still present. Cold hosing slows down the development of inflammation and exercise is good for lymphatic flow because it is stimulated by the action of the hoof and fetlock pumps.
 
I had a mare, many years ago who got it following foaling when she hadn't cleansed properly.. From a very well known stud too. Luckily antibiotics cleared it and she was not left with a permanently thickened leg. Not sure it's not bacterial rather than viral infection?
 
yes, bacterial infections are the most common causes of lymphangitis, but the inflammation can result from other things, which is one reason why it can be hard initially to find the correct treatment for the causal agent, along with treatment for the effects of the inflammation.
 
I suffer from Lymphodema human kind in my right leg you can get it Cellulites from a scratch or prick in to the affected limb, I have Manual lyphactic drainage and it helps your horse would not benefit from hot or cold in fact these two factors make any tye of Lymphodema worse in either human or horse, your horse will be worse in hot weather or very cold weather.
standing is not good for lymphodema legs either human or horse and if there is a cellulites presant you should not do any Manual lymphatic drainage as you can push the infaction t the kidneys I know I was bitten by a horse fly on my back and later that day a nurse did MLD and I ended up in agony with cellulites in my kidneys.
 
must admit I am a bit worried by the use of massage and massage machines recommended for horses' lymphatic systems, because of the risk of doing this with acute conditions, and I've found that people who use them don't always know enough about the lymphatic system to do so safely. However, I have noticed that recently, manufacturers' have somewhat modified their information about the use for lymphatic problems on websites.
 
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