# freaking out, swollen leg, heat, lameness and small cut-vet called



## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

Do not panic yourself before the vet gets there. It might be something simple and easy to treat.


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## natisha (Jan 11, 2011)

Please wait until the vet sees him before you get too upset. There's lots of things that can lame a leg & lots of ways to fix it. Unless it is a bad fracture most things can be helped.
I found my horse like that once. Hugely swollen, non-weight bearing. I was sure it was fractured & it turned out it was but it was a fracture splint bone & healed well on it's own.
An abscess can make a horse not want to walk & they come on really fast.
Maybe cold hosing will make him feel better & give you something to do. It can't hurt.
Stay strong & let us know what the vet finds. I hope for good news.


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## mls (Nov 28, 2006)

Alwaysbehind said:


> Do not panic yourself before the vet gets there. It might be something simple and easy to treat.


Right.

Some horses are very sensitive to cuts and abrasions in the wrong spot. Think of a paper cut. As tiny as it is, those ******s hurt like heck.

Until the vet gets there - hose down the leg to clean it up and the cold water should also help with the swelling and the pain (numbs it a bit).


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## jrcci (Apr 28, 2011)

my friends horse got lymphangitis from cutting his leg on a rusty round pen. the cut was tiny. the vet said that bacteria got in through the cut and his immune system was down (because he is just not recovering from colic surgery?) but the vet said to keep him moving and try to get his immune system back up and running. but with her horse... all four legs wer swollen. but they said that is rare with lymphangitis. usually its only the front or back legs, not all the legs.


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## mls (Nov 28, 2006)

Ah - jrcci - sorry but you are not helping the OP to calm down.

We all have horror stories. This is not the time.


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## jrcci (Apr 28, 2011)

it wasnt a big issue though. they just gave him a shot and now he is fine. im not trying to upset anyone. i thought it would help. im sorry if i upsetted you rachel. but it probably is not a big deal. stay positive


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## Rachel1786 (Nov 14, 2010)

Thanks guys, iv cold hosed it and the vet just called to say they will be here in half hour. Is there a way to post a pic from my phone? The cut is a bit worse then I thought, inside his knee(?) About an inch long and 1/4 inch wide maybe
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## jrcci (Apr 28, 2011)

send the picture to your email then save it on your computer. that is what i always do.


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## Calmwaters (Aug 24, 2011)

Relax take a deep breath and wait for the vet. I hope every thing turns out for the best.


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

Vet is almost there. I am sure the vet will fix things right up.


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## Delfina (Feb 12, 2010)

mls said:


> Some horses are very sensitive to cuts and abrasions in the wrong spot.


Oh yes, there's a few of those where I board. A little tiny cut or scrape and they are convinced that the world is ending and their entire leg is going to fall off. 

I'd also suggest the cold hosing, see if that helps him feel any better while you are waiting.


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## dee (Jul 30, 2009)

Rain stuck her foot somewhere it wasn't supposed to be and cut the front of her leg, right above the hoof. It was deep and wide, but didn't bleed much. There was a flap of skin hanging on, but it wasn't enough to cover the wound. It swelled up huge and she was non-weighbearing on that front leg. Vet came out and told us to keep it clean and watch for signs of infection - the swelling was just inflamation. He didn't want to stitch it, and cut off the flap of skin. Cold hosing for the inflamation. Within a week, the swelling was going back down. We used Underwoods, and within a month you couldn't even tell where she'd been cut!

Scooter stuck his foot through some wire and cut the back of his foot. Hit a small artery - the amount of blood was terrifying - he soaked through four bath towels before the vet got there, and he was there in 20 minutes. Vet kind chuckled - the blood was scary, but the amount was far from life threatening, and the bleeding had all but stopped by the time he got there. Cut was pretty deep - you could see the tendons if you spread it open. Again, no stitches - vet wanted it to heal from the inside out. This time it had to be kept covered, with bandage changes every other day. By the end of the first week, his foot was hot, but not very swollen, and he limped something fierce after a bandage change. Vet says it's because we are being mean and moving the foot around in a way that is a bit painful...but necessary to prevent the joint from getting stiff. It's been two weeks, now. He's much better. The cut is still open (and draining) but you can see nice pink tissue. We have another week of bandage changes before the vet re-evaluates again, but he seems to be doing just fine.

Your guy will be okay too - horses can recover from horrific injuries - but it's scary at times...


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## LetAGrlShowU (Mar 25, 2009)

The area right in front of the knee is super sensitive. My glding just got caught up in the wire and the vet said, had it been any deeper, onyl time would heal it, as stitches dont stay well there. But ultimately she said it would have healed on its own, just keeping it clean, and keeping him comfortable. I will be hoping for the best for you, let us know what the vet says


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## Rachel1786 (Nov 14, 2010)

jrcci said:


> send the picture to your email then save it on your computer. that is what i always do.


I meant when I'm on my phone, I can do that when u get home lol I meant so I could post now.


Vet just left, first look she thought it was infected in the hock joint. I was devastated but we took xrays and the joint looks ok, he got a shot of bute and is gonna be on antibotics for a while. She said he's not completely out of the woods and if the swelling doesn't go down in a few days we will have to reevaluate but I'm hopeful for now. I stayed strong when the vet was here but I almost lost it a few times, I'm so emotional when it comes to blue, he's my best friend and I don't know what I would.d o if I lost him. Thank you for all the support, 13 years and he's never been hurt before lol its the first time iv had to call the vet out for any of my horses.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Calmwaters (Aug 24, 2011)

Glad so far the vet seems to think he will be ok. I will keep him in my prayers. Darn horses and animals in general we get so attached to the sometimes I think they do things to make us worry about them.


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## dee (Jul 30, 2009)

Glad things are looking better than you feared! Wishing you and yours a speedy recovery!


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

Healing thoughts.


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## Rachel1786 (Nov 14, 2010)

I'm home from the barn so I can post the pics now. He ate all his breakfast after the vet left(also ate some chopped hay while waiting for her). Before I finally got in him into the barn Legacy went over just kinda like "hey whats the matter with you?" and Blue pinned his ears and bit at him, so he's being his normal "i'm the boss" self at least. The vet gave him a shot of bute and he started putting more weight on the leg. Before the vet cleaned the cut it didn't look that bad but it's a decent cut. Vet said it was pretty deep. 
Before the cleaning.









after


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## dee (Jul 30, 2009)

Ouch! My knee hurts just looing at it! Sometimes it's those silly little cuts that hurt the most...


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## Crossover (Sep 18, 2010)

It looks to be on a pretty sensitive area so not surprised it hurts. 

My girl just got a cut a few days ago on the inside of her cannon, a little lower than your guy. I hose it each morning and then put some biozide on the cut (great stuff). Also put some furazone on the swelling part, not the cut, to help with swelling. She's still gimpy but the swelling is going down and she's feeling better. 
*Personally*, I avoid bute unless the horse is in serious pain as I worry if I make them feel too good they'll hurt themselves worse.


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## Rachel1786 (Nov 14, 2010)

Crossover said:


> It looks to be on a pretty sensitive area so not surprised it hurts.
> 
> My girl just got a cut a few days ago on the inside of her cannon, a little lower than your guy. I hose it each morning and then put some biozide on the cut (great stuff). Also put some furazone on the swelling part, not the cut, to help with swelling. She's still gimpy but the swelling is going down and she's feeling better.
> *Personally*, I avoid bute unless the horse is in serious pain as I worry if I make them feel too good they'll hurt themselves worse.


I'm normally not one to bute either but he's so sore he literally can't walk. He's not they type of horse to run around the pasture like a ninny since he's so old so I don't think he will over do it, I'm only going to do the bute if absolutely necessary. He got the shot today and it made him more comfortable but he was still only putting minimal weight on the leg, but it was much better then when I found him. When I first saw him this morning he wouldn't even put an ounce of weight on it, after cold hosing he was slightly more weight baring but just enough that he could hobble around. I will see how he is in the morning and decided if he needs more bute, basically if he can walk I won't give it. Can I get the biozide at tractor suppy? I've never heard of it. I've only horses 13 years and I've never even had to do basic wound care so this is all pretty new to me. She is going to have me wrap it to keep debris out. I've heard good things about vertrycin(sp?) and was thinking about picking some of that up. My moms friend works at a vet so she's getting vetwrap and gauze and such. So besides those things what should I pick up from tractor supply tonight? Supprisingly enough the whole vet bill was only $168,that included 2 x-rays! While I consider Blue my horse, financially speaking he's not. It's a long story, but when I was 12 we(my mom, brother and I) moved in with the above mentioned friend and Blue and a mare, Tiffany were bought for me. So the final say of his treatment wasn't my call, which makes it even scarier. I know they wouldn't want to spend tons on treatment, and I couldn't afford to foot the bill for expensive treatment so I'm very very glad it wasn't worse. I know there is still a chance he could take a turn for the worse, but at the point I have to be hopefully.


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## mls (Nov 28, 2006)

Crossover said:


> It looks to be on a pretty sensitive area so not surprised it hurts.
> 
> My girl just got a cut a few days ago on the inside of her cannon, a little lower than your guy. I hose it each morning and then put some biozide on the cut (great stuff). Also put some furazone on the swelling part, not the cut, to help with swelling. She's still gimpy but the swelling is going down and she's feeling better.
> *Personally*, I avoid bute unless the horse is in serious pain as I worry if I make them feel too good they'll hurt themselves worse.


Are you aware that furazone alone does not reduce swelling? You are thinking of a furazone/DMSO sweat wrap.

In the OP's case - bute is a good thing. The vet was also there to advise. It's important for the horse to move around to aid in reducing the swelling, promote any drainage and maintain his appetite.


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## Bellasmom (Jun 22, 2011)

I have had a similiar issue with my elderly QH mare (26). She has never been ill, never needed a vet except for routine maintenance in the eight years we've owned her. In the last year she has sustained fairly minor "dings" on two occassions that caused the affected leg to swell.....antibiotics for several days each time with full recovery. I wonder if horses (like people) tend to suffer from compromised immune systems as they age.


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## Rachel1786 (Nov 14, 2010)

Blue is doing much much better this evening. He is walking around the pasture with just a slight limp and the swelling has gone down some, he also got a shot of penicillin around 2. Vet suggested gentimycin(sp?) Which we have ordered will be started tomorrow. I'm crossing my fingers that he's going to keep progressing like this. Thank you again guys, I'll keep you updated
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Calmwaters (Aug 24, 2011)

Sounds great!


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## Rachel1786 (Nov 14, 2010)

Blue is still improving, He's not limping at all and running away at shot time, he doesn't run away from me, but I do it while he is eating ;-) He got his last shot of gentamicin this afternoon and he is getting his last shot of penicillin tonight, then she starts oral SMZ's. The swelling is almost 100% gone. Today tho when I was examining his leg I noticed some funky "stuff" on the front of the leg, I'm not really sure what it is, Chrissy is going to look at it when she gets home, it almost looks like it started draining from there and that it's just dried pus and serum but I'm not 100% sure. I took a picture but it's very hard to make out.


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

I can not tell much from that photo.

Just want to say I am glad he is doing better.


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## mls (Nov 28, 2006)

Rachel1786 said:


> Today tho when I was examining his leg I noticed some funky "stuff" on the front of the leg, I'm not really sure what it is, Chrissy is going to look at it when she gets home, it almost looks like it started draining from there and that it's just dried pus and serum but I'm not 100% sure. I took a picture but it's very hard to make out.


The drainage can cause the hair to come off in clumps.


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## Calmwaters (Aug 24, 2011)

I just wanted to say what Always said. LOL


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## Rachel1786 (Nov 14, 2010)

I took a better pic and we texted it to the vet and she said it looks like a second wound, she wants us to clean it up and put furizone on it, He also has similar stuff on his belly(I think that may have attributed to his sheath swelling) I have no freaking clue what he could have done to cause all these cuts and scrapes! 
Better pic of his leg 









And his belly, not a good pic, but you can see the chunks of scabbiness


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## Jumper4ever (Jan 2, 2011)

looks like bugs of some sort? My mare just had a hock thing and her whole leg was crazy with swelling and heat. I freaked out and then poulticed her with sore no more poultice and then wrapped her in a stable bandage for the night. Unwrapped her in the morning, cold hosed her, wre-poulticed her, wrewrapped her, etc. I also used sore no more liniment. She is now sound. good luck with your old boy.


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## thesilverspear (Aug 20, 2009)

Ah, horses. They know how to be scary.

I was once going to a dressage show, trailering my horse and a youngster who was just along for the ride and the experience. The trailer parking area was just a field, a little bumpy, and the youngster must have lost his balance over the bumps. We could feel him flailing about in the trailer. When we stopped to unload, my horse had blood pouring from her swollen left hind leg and hopped off the trailer on three legs. Yikes! Called the show vet, but as it was only a schooling show, they didn't have one on site so we had to wait, during which we wrapped the injured leg with polos soaked in water. By the time the vet showed up forty minutes later, the swelling had gone down and the horse was weighting and using her leg normally. Vet examined the wound, determined it was completely superficial, no more than a scrape, and wondered why the hell we got him out of bed on a Sunday morning just for that. I swear, she was three-legged lame at the time we called, honest. He gave her a bute injection and left. $80 farm call and $8 shot of bute. Nice one, horse. Cheers. 

A slight digression, but the story gets better:  I had scratched from my classes so we decided to go home. And then we realized the trailer was also "lame" -- it had a flat. Between myself and my two friends, the owner of the young horse and another pal who had come along to be a "groom," we thought we could work out how to change a flat ourselves. We were after all independent young women. I'd never had a flat on the truck or the trailer before, so I didn't know where the jack was (yes, it is good to know these things before they happen, but we *were* all about 20). We launched a full scale search of the truck, no jack. We even had the bright idea, eventually, of looking in the owner's manual, but there was no jack in the spot the owner's manual said there should be. At which point I remembered two or three years earlier my Dad needing the jack for some reason, not finding it, and complaining that some previous owner of the truck (it was used) probably nicked it. So I had to man up and sweetly ask another competitor if we could borrow their jack, and in spite of my assurances that we could in fact change the tire, they kindly did that for us, assuming (probably correctly) that three college girls were incapable of doing so.


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## Rachel1786 (Nov 14, 2010)

Blue is still improving, the scabs on the front of his hock and on his belly are really hard to clean and I haven't really made much progress getting the gooey crust off. Yesterday was the first day of SMZ's, I tried to be smart and dissolve them in water then just mix them in his grain but as soon as he got a taste of them he wouldn't eat anymore, so I shredded some carrots and got some molasses and mixed that in, he ate some more, then must have tasted the meds again and wouldn't eat anymore. So much for drying to be sneaky lol, today I just mixed them in a syringe and gave it like dewormer, much less of a headache, but by tomorrow he'll be wise to it and I'll have to out smart him again lol gotta love the oldies!


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## Alwaysbehind (Jul 10, 2009)

Glad he is improving. Silly old man. He knows all the tricks.


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## Rachel1786 (Nov 14, 2010)

UGH, I don't know what is going on with my poor old guy. Today his opposite side front leg was swollen, I can't find any wound but on the outside of his cannon bone there is what looks like serum drainage, the swelling starts a little above his knee. I'm so worried that there is more going on then what it seems. I found out today that my mom thought the SMZ's were only once a day so they were only getting done when I was giving them in the AM, so I'm hoping that is whats wrong, his back leg was also slightly swollen again. I think we are going to put him back on the injectables. I just want to cry I'm so worried about him. I'm thinking about pulling blood and having chrissy run a complete chemistry and cbc on him so see if all his organs are working correctly and his his white blood cell count is elevated. I don't think I can handle making the big decisions, I know he's old but until this he's been in such great health, he's still eating and drinking and still has that spark in his eye. He's not giving me any indication that he's ready to go.


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## Calmwaters (Aug 24, 2011)

Sorry hes haveing such a hard time with this. And I know its hard but relax take a deep breath and stop thinking the worst you have to stay calm and remain positive for the old man. If it would make you feel better I would get your friend to do the blood test it may give you some peace of mind. Good luck with him and I hope things turn around for you soon.


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## Rachel1786 (Nov 14, 2010)

When I saw Chrissy today and was telling her what was going on now she said it sounded like he has cellulitis, I was just doing research on it and it does seem to fit. It started with a swollen sheath, then the next day is when I made this post because of the hugely swollen severely lame hind leg, then I noticed the swelling on his belly and now his front leg, the only thing I can think is that the swelling on his belly is draining into his front leg since there are no obvious wounds, unless there is a cut under the serum on the front leg. I've read a few things that say riding a horse is helpful to promote the swelling of cellulits to go down along with antibotics and bute. Chrissy is going to call the vet tomorrow and ask her advice,She is also going to pull a full blood panel on him just to make sure we aren't missing something. I don't know about riding him tho, I've only ridden him bareback a handful of times in the last few years, I know he'll be fine but I worry about his lack of muscle and being underweight. Maybe some light lunging, but he never did lunge very well.


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## dee (Jul 30, 2009)

If that's the case, virtually any sustained movement = exercise, including hand walking, I am thinking. I hope things get better!


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## Rachel1786 (Nov 14, 2010)

dee said:


> If that's the case, virtually any sustained movement = exercise, including hand walking, I am thinking. I hope things get better!


He is never stalled, we have an open barn so he can be in or out as much as he wants. When I'm at work I can see the pasture and he has been out walking around most of the day but even so he is still pretty swollen. Any idea is cellulitis would cause his leg to ooze serum? I don't know a whole lot about it and none of the research i've read says anything about serum drainage, but i'm 99.9% sure it's serum, it's not milky at all, it's clear and yellowish. This has been one of the most stressful weeks of my life!


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## nuisance (Sep 8, 2011)

When swollen, they will weep the serum out of any opening, and then the serum irritates the skin around it. Good luck! Thoughts and prayers with him.


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## Rachel1786 (Nov 14, 2010)

Thanks guys, any idea how to get the serum off, I tried using dish soap and warm water but that stuff is like glue! His back leg is not swollen much today, front is still a bit but he's walking ok on it, he's back on bute twice a day(he was down to once a day) back on pencillin twice a day and smz's twice a day.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Rachel1786 (Nov 14, 2010)

I've been hesitant to update since it seemed like every time I did something else would happen. The last week or 2 he has been completely better, and he's no longer on antibiotics.


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## Calmwaters (Aug 24, 2011)

Glad hes doing better.


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## dee (Jul 30, 2009)

So glad to hear it!


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