# Horse Limping



## laken316 (May 21, 2011)

The leg she's limping on isn't the leg she injured is it? (I read the description of your horse..) It could be old scar tissue pain from the injury. Just a thought. If it's not the same leg, I would try lifting the leg and completely flexing and extending it several times to see if she's tender with either.. if she lightly sprained it, she may not notice the pain while running and playing but when standing still and putting weight on it. Moving the leg around could help you figure that out. If she's tender, I'd try applying heat a few times a day. My old palomino sprained his ankle one time when I was barrel racing.. my vet told me to put heat on it because it helps loosen the muscles and release tension on the sprain so it can heal. It also helps with the pain. I got an old sock and filled it with uncooked rice, tied it off and stuck it in the microwave for like 3 minutes.. the rice holds heat well and it forms to the shape of the joint to evenly apply the heat. I wrapped the sock around his ankle and then secured it on with a stretchy ace-bandage type wrap. I let it stay on his leg until the heat was gone out of the rice. It really seemed to help a lot. I hope this helps you too!


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## BellaC (Jan 18, 2011)

Not sure if you've already covered this or not, but it could be an abscess? My horse had the same thing. He was limping when he walked, was always lifting his leg up when standing still, yet there was no heat, swelling, nothing. I phoned up my farrier and got her out instead of the vet(which saved me tons of $$$) anyways, she ended up making a little hole in his hoof, and I had to soak it in a little more than warm water, with 1-2 cups of epsom salt for 20-30 minutes, twice a day. It draws out any infection etc... Anyways, after that, I was instructed to use the animalintex poultice, put a layer of duct tape on that, then wrap around the entire hoof with vet wrap(getting the heel in as well, or it will just slip off, and being careful about the tightness over the coronet band) And then I would wrap that again in duct tape with about 3-5 layers to make it "water proof", with the strips of duct tape switching from horizontal layers, to vertical layers.
The abscess never did blow out of the top of his hoof, or his heel, but drained from the hole my farrier made, which saved him from lots of pain. Anyways, as soon as I got that done, he had stopped limping maybe 3 days later?
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask! I hope I could have been some help to you 

Let me know what happens with your mare


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## JustDressageIt (Oct 4, 2007)

My suggestion is to get another vet out. If the horse is lame, you need to find out why.


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## PaintHorseMares (Apr 19, 2008)

I suggest having your farrier out also and wouldn't be surprised if it is an abscess. Pesky ones can linger around for months until they pop out the top or the bottom, and I would start doing the epsom salts right away (it won't hurt anything).


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## lucky13 (Nov 9, 2010)

The vet and I thought it was an abscess too. He looked and looked for it but he said he couldn't find anything wrong. We both thought for sure that is what it was. 
Her other owner was a farrier and he couldn't shoe her or pick out her feet without being sedated. She is very "moody" when picking up her back legs. When my farrier comes out, we keep trying to work with her without sedating her. However, when the vet came out, he did have to sedate her to look at her back hoof....Im just wondering if my horse would of even of felt any pain in her hoof if she was sadated, the vet said yes. I will try heat for a few days too see if there is an improvment, if not, I think I might call my farrier out this time to see what he says. It's not the same leg that was injured when racing.


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## lucky13 (Nov 9, 2010)

Farrier said there was nothing wrong with her hooves, they look great. Very frustrated!! I just wish I could do something  Guess Ill be getting the vet back out Friday.


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