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  Discussion on VERY SWOLLEN HIND LEG
Author Message
Member:
liliana

Posted on Friday, Mar 28, 2008 - 10:43 am:

Morning Dr.O
Morning All

First of all congrats Dr.O on the new look of I really liked it!!!

I'll try to give you a bit of background as it may help diagnose...

Chippewa (TB) is an old man around 30 years old, came into may care two years ago as some of you may remember.

He has suffered from chronic laminitis for most of his life, his previous owner had him on small rations to keep his weight down.

When he came to me he was lame on the off front leg as he had had some sort of accident and his hoof was cut down to about an inch in length. Needles to say he was VERY lame! Since the hoof has grown but kind of hollow, really weird.

Some three months ago I change brands in his grain and his hind leg got pretty big. I went back to the original feed and it came down, I assumed that was the reason.

About a month ago I had to go back to that other brand and the same thing happened so I quickly changed back to the original brand again BUT this time the leg has just got bigger and bigger! His fair came off as if it’d been clipped it is very hard not hot but he is very lame walking on three legs also he lost a lot of weight! He seems happy enough eats ok, toilet ok.

His swelling used to get better when he had the run of the whole 8 hectares, most of it jungle though, but due to his age I'm afraid to let him loose in case he gets lost of worse gets tangled of simply DrOp dead somewhere. He is not stabled though the horses have an area of about 30m by 50m to walk about and walk in shelters.

I took some photos which I'll try to upload... just as I thought! they are too heavy, I will put them up in a google file.

Will post later and let you know how to access it as I is not too clever in this matters

Thank you sooo much in advance +

Warm regards to all

Liliana
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Mar 30, 2008 - 9:05 am:

Liliana, it is not clear from your post why this hind leg is swollen and not likely to be related to the feed. Such swelling would likely be bi- or quadrilateral.

You should review the article on swellings to learn what to look for to differentiate types of swelling and follow the links to the articles on leg swelling. You should also evaluate your horses vital signs so you can judge the seriousness of the problem, Diseases of Horses » First Aid » Taking Temperature, Pulse, and Respiration. Unless you learn what to look for so you can make a judgement it will take an examination by a veterinarian to accurately diagnose and treat the cause. I know this is difficult in your area.
DrO
Member:
liliana

Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008 - 12:42 pm:

Morning all

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my post. Sorry to have taken so long in answering.

Sooo much has happened since, unfortunately on March 30 When I arrived at the stables to feed I found Chippewa down on the ground struggling to get up! Imagine my despair, Sunday 7:30AM last day of Easter in Cozumel...

Chippe's tong and gums where white as snow, he looked in so much pain... Still I managed to get a small animal Vet who came with about 1ml of pentobarbital (spelling) not enough to send a mouse to heaven... after visiting 5 vets and finally getting the right dose in little left over in bottles at about 13.00PM Chipp was finally resting, now came the fun part, how to take him out of the property (I have no machinery any more to bury him)the heat is tremendous now, one can fry an egg on a stone... so finally at 4:45PM the crane arrived taking Chippe's body away. Very sad indeed.

Some in the midst of all this at 9:00AM I get a call from my tenant the there is no electricity at home, when I got home at 20:00pm the smell of burnt wire was soo strong, thank God managed to get an electrician who fixed the problem which could have been a lot worse as the main regulator burnt up and the power was coming at 190 instead of 110 which is the norm, another miracle only the fridge and my computer burned up... hence me not writing sooner... and as we know it comes in threes right...

Training Lemba who is now 6 yo (babe on my profile) every thing perfect walk, turns great 20 mins., stupid mum decides to ask for more at the wrong time Lemba thinks don't worry mum I'll help you dismount!. Huge buck sends me flying... landed on my head then my back, off to hospital and bed rest for 5 days, just beginning to walk a bit and as I'm still immobilized I thought it was a good time to catch up.

As usual God showed me that no matter how bad things may look he is still there, all that seemed practically impossible to fix got fixed and did not go as horribly wrong as it could have.

As long as we have faith things will get better, I'm thinking on a different approach to backing a horse which may work, I will let you know about my brain wave, which I hope is not a result of the muscle relax and pain killers LOL

Best to all

Liliana
Member:
kathleen

Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008 - 1:26 pm:

Liliana, so sorry to hear you lost Chippe. But it sounds like you gave him the best he could hope for while he was with you. Take care of yourself and get well. Let us know how you are doing.
Kathleen
Member:
erika

Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008 - 1:47 pm:

So sorry Liliana, both for your loss of Chippe, and your accident. Take care of yourself.
Erika
Member:
dres

Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008 - 3:37 pm:

Oh darn.. you did the best you could with what you had..

OUCH I had dismounting on my head.. I do hope you are feeling better soon..

On the first day God created horses, on the second day he painted them with spots..
Member:
lilo

Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008 - 7:20 pm:

Liliana,

So sorry to hear about all that bad luck. Sorry about Chippe, and sorry about your fall.

Take your time and make sure you are totally healed up before climbing on again.

Lilo
Member:
vickiann

Posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008 - 3:59 pm:

Oh, Liliana, So sorry to hear of your loss and then all of the other difficulties as well. It is amazing how misfortune can come in multiples at times, and I admire your attitude of knowing that things will improve. Will hope for better days for you.
Member:
liliana

Posted on Friday, May 16, 2008 - 1:23 pm:

Hello my dear friends,


Thank you so much for your kind words, sorry for not getting back before but I’ve been doped up to my eyeballs, I had a relapse last Monday, I thought I was better ant tried to lift Kai my grand son who is almost 7kg and my back went again visit the doctor again and morphine injection again.(Forest?)

But still I’ve been told that it is a three week thing so I’m just taking my time, trying to do what I can which isn’t much.

Everybody keeps telling me how lucky I was that nothing broke . You know what seems to be the hardest? With all the pain killers it is hard to think and write sooo stupid really even easy words I have to think twice

Love to all

Liliana
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