Quillan is lame in his left hind leg. I am concerned. I am also am getting a farrier opinion tonight or tomorrow before having the vet come out. If it's an absess, then I may be able to treat more myself than paying out the wazoo. This is what is going on. It looks as though (and I can feel) that his illium area is swollen.. His limps/can't put wt on his left leg basically at all while running and is a faint limp while walking. I've encouraged rest, rest, rest.. but concerned because it seems to not have gotten any better. I don't know if it's a pull or if it's an infection, but judging on his swollen upper haunch area and the severe/moderate limp he's been carring with him for awhile, (3 weeks) and the warmness in his pastern and coronet area, I feel badly that it's an infection and that he's in trouble. Advice? I'm in a hurry now to get him seen, but advice is always appreciated.
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I don't know what to say except I am very, very sorry your friend is hurting.
When I owned horses long ago when I had a mysterious lameness I would generally use the hose with cold water for 20 minutes on the swelling, twice a day if I could though usually it was once a day. At a minimum this gets fresh blood into the hurt area. The vets never said that this was wrong when I told them when I did this. But at 3 weeks with swelling I definitely would be considering the vet!
Have you been taking his temperature during this lameness? The vet will want to know about this if you suspect an infection.
If you can (and I know it can be hard with some horses) keep him from running. For the longest time hand walking has been recommended for lameness recovery, but as always follow your vets advice!
If he gets grain cut it some, I usually cut mine in half since they were of Arab blood and food efficient. This keeps them quieter. If he is on spring pasture you might want to consider a grazing muzzle until the grass is less rich. If you are feeding alfalfa hay I'd try to switch to grass hay, as usual do feed changes slowly! If you are feeding corn oil or a similar Omega-6 oil I would stop it because the Omega-6 fatty acids can worsen inflammation.
I hope everything comes out well for your baby. I've been there, so I know that helpless feeling. Thank goodness there are vets and farriers! Remember I am not a vet, this is just stuff that has helped me and my horses o so long ago when I still had some.
Hi Naomi,
I'm going to be harsh (apologies in advance).
It's great that you are having the vet out. A sudden lameness- or such a severe lameness that the horse can't put it's foot down - requires immediate, same-day medical attention.
Imagine if you were your horse - in pain for three weeks and waiting for help. An abcess, in particular, is agonizing for the horse. If you are reluctant to pay for veterinary attention due to the expense, perhaps you might put away a little bit of cash each month for just such an emergency as this.
I hope the vet and farrier are able to help your horse.
Thanks for the lecture, no hard feelings. It's sometimes wise to wait before jumping into action to fix the issue I think. Rest, alot of times is the best remedy for many horses. The only thing that made me feel really uncomfortable about it, was that he was really sluggish (like feverish) and his leg was not hot, but really warm and i'd never experienced that before. Especially with ones in their prime. Come to find out he was (temp wise) feeling better the next day. Vet came out and verbalized what I had already basically concluded in my head after watching/observing and feeling him over and over again.
Abcesses are very painful indeed. I was worried that I was not identifying it correctly(never personally experienced them) Always had healthy horse feet with all the ones I had delt with... so that was another reason I wanted the farrier to come out first. I had soaked him and I could tell that helped in making him fall asleep! lol He was so relaxed after I was done soaking his foot. It was hilarious actually. The farrier was helpful and came out quickly. No abcess so that was good. Also had the farrier out to look at him to (hopefully) elimate another costly exam via veternarian if I could help it. It worked out and paid off because that's exactly how it played out.
Anyways, he has a bony prominace that sticks out from the inner hock area that looked like parlty just the way he was built structurally, but also partly an old issue "healed/resolved". This "new-found" injury" then, was a result of (most likely) him running hard one day in the pasture and tweeking it. To what extent, we dont' know, but Xrays are to follow in the very near future. For now, he's comfortable for the most part and walks better on it. As far as the warmness, the the vet could appreciate the warmness I had felt (he came out next day), but that was all it was (no infection). I don't know if I mentioned this before, but Quillan has never before had leg issues or injuries. He's a very strong, young guy in his prime. That being said, the 5 yrs he was away from me, he could have/most likely did, have a mild/moderate injury that "healed" just to get tapped into again this yr. It makes sense, especially after the vet re-affirmed what I was thinking. I hot compressed his upper haunches and he LOVED it and swelling decreased pretty well. He has just rested a bunch since this all started and the vet call and is actually running briskly on his own now again. His goat buddy loves to trod around the pasture with him.
Isn't it amazing how old injuries can come back to haunt us, both horse and human!
I am riding an old spavined mare now, her name is Mia. It has been interesting bringing her from total reluctance to move with limping to smoothly moving and mostly sound. Some supplements seem to help a lot. I write a lot about her in my blogs.
May Quillan and you get the help you need to return him to soundness.
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