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  Discussion on Leg swelling
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New Member:
matilda

Posted on Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008 - 6:26 pm:

I hope someone can give me some advice. I have a 9 year old donkey ( i know not a horse but if someone could help i would really love it) she had swelling on one of her front legs (over the joint where her knee? would be) the following day it was both front legs so we had the vet out.she thought maybe she fell (i thought tat was highly unlikly) so we gave her a bute and also her vacs (she was due next month)and called it a day. the next day she was a little off and her legs still swollen. day 3 had both the ferrier and the vet out, trimmed her feet (they look great)but she had swelling on both back legs too, and a fever. the vet took some blood (but she has no normals for donkeys)doesn't really seem to be anything on the bloodwork way out of wack. so she put her on banamine. a few days later we had another vet (same practice) come out because she wasn't eating very well either, she put her on SMZ and drew more blood (didn't look too much different than the first).she is eating better and the swelling comes and goes up and down but she still has a low grade fever (100.2 Today)i am just at a loss with what to do for her.don't get me wrong the vets have tried, they have calls into tufts veterinary school, but any more advice you could give them/me would be really helpfull. Thank-you so much!
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008 - 7:56 pm:

Welcome Gail,
This is a common enough event in horses (and other equines) but there are many possibilities most are not serious illnesses. Note that none of the information in your post really gives us a clue as to how seriously ill your horse is. One of the best ways you can gauge this be taking all the horses vital signs and noting its demeanor, for more on this see Diseases of Horses » First Aid » Taking Temperature, Pulse, and Respiration.

Hmmm the fever can be caused by the vaccinations so let's put that on hold and a reason to not vaccinate a horse while it is ill, it makes interpreting clinical signs the next few days difficult. One of the most important points to help reduce the rule out list is whether the swelling is inflammatory swelling or passive edema. To study the difference so that you can tell which it is see Diseases of Horses » Skin Diseases, Wounds, and Swellings » Swellings / Localized Infection / Abscesses » Diagnosing and Assessing Swellings in Horses.

I know it is a lot of material to digest but by going through this I believe you can get a much better idea of what is going on and how serious it is.
DrO
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