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Discussion on Left Hind Leg Swelling
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Member:
klmcbri
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Posted on Tuesday, May 14, 2019 - 12:13 pm:
Trying to figure out what to do with this. Sunday horse came in from turnout with swelling of left hind leg. He has had a scrap on the back of that fetlock but it was scabbed over. I had noticed it the prior Wednesday. We cold hosed, applied clay poultice and wrapped the leg and left him in over night. Around 1pm the next day (Monday) I took the bandage off and hosed the leg. Seemed back to normal so turned him out. He trotted off fine. Came in Monday night at canter and it looked fine. Tuesday morning it was swollen again. Cold hosed, poultice, wrapped and in the barn. He does not like putting weight on it now. But he did put weight on it yesterday when I hosed him off. The swelling seems to mostly be above the fetlock on the sides of the cannon. Is this windpuffs and with a few days rest will go away or should I get the vet here? I have not given any bute yet as he is horrible about pastes.
 
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Friday, May 17, 2019 - 7:26 am:
Hello Kathy,
It would not be unusual for the amount of blunt trauma to create a "scrape" to cause swelling like is shown in the image above and for some time afterward. The swelling would be worse in the morning after standing up in the stall at night. For more on this type swelling and after you thoroughly review the article associate with this discussion area see HorseAdvice.com » Diseases of Horses » Lameness » Diseases of the Lower Limb » Stocking Up: Cool Swellings of the Lower Legs if you think it applies. However if you remain uncertain as to the nature of the swelling and certainly if you have lameness, which is not clear from your post, you should have the veterinarian out.
DrO
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Member:
klmcbri
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Posted on Saturday, Jun 1, 2019 - 8:49 am:
Thanks Dr O. We ended up having the vet out and he felt the swelling was not tendon related and more of a skin issue/small scrape. Of course when the vet got here and I pulled the wraps off the swelling was much less. He is back to normal now. Never thought that a skin issue/small scrape could cause that much swelling.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Saturday, Jun 1, 2019 - 6:20 pm:
The thing to learn from this is not so much the amount of swelling but the nature of the swelling: hot or cold, pitting or not, painful or not, lame or not, etc. Spend more time with the Diagnosing Swellings article associated with this area that goes through all this carefully so as to learn the characteristics of different types swellings. Never underestimate the ability of a horses lower legs to swell even with minor injury, they are normally borderline perfused enough to not swell when stalled.
DrO
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