Big fat leg

[Simkie]

Piggy popped with a big fat hind leg yesterday morning for no apparent reason. Called the vet to come look at him, and they said cellulitis. Antibiotics, cold hosing, sweat wrap, some banamine. Pigs isn’t terribly bothered by it but is a little lame.

I was surprised this morning when I pulled the wrap that the swelling hadn’t really changed much overnight. I cold hosed and put him up in cold poultice past his hock, wrapping the lower leg. He’s pretty hot on the inside of his hock and up further toward his stifle, but little to no heat elsewhere. Still not really bothered, pretty bright and eager to eat and all that jazz.

How long does this stuff usually take to start turning around? Spoke with the vet who’s not overly concerned and says to give it another 24 hours. If still no improvement, we’ll swap out the antibiotic for bigger guns.

I’ve never had a cellulitis before so flying a little blind, and I have one of those weird little feelings that maybe this is something different, but no hints from the “hunch” brigade what that might be. I did find a giant spider in the stall next to Piggy’s yesterday–seriously, the biggest spider I have EVER seen in real life–and I did take Piggy out ponying for the first time ever on Monday. We didn’t do anything strenuous, just walked around the trails for perhaps 30 mins, but the timing is irksome. :-/

[Groom_amp_Taxi]

In my horse’s bout with cellulitis (RH), it took 4-5 days for him to get any noticeable relief - but he was non weight bearing lame at the onset and hot, hot, hot in the groin area. He went on to develop abscesses in both supporting legs within the next few months. The swelling took a LONG time to not be noticeable any more - like 6 weeks or so.

[Kodidog763]

It’s been a couple of years since I’ve dealt with cellulitis, but I think it took a couple of days. Good luck.

[Angela_Freda]

Couple of days with both horses and each of their incidences.
I would be sure to cold hose and maybe even poultice all the way up the inside of that leg where you are feeling heat [if that is not what you meant by our description].
The swelling in the lower limb is may be due to gravity pulling that down, while the problem is actually higher, where you feel the heat.

[Simkie]

Alright, so not unusual to take a few days to really see some action–thanks, that makes me feel a little bit better.

Groom&Taxi, HOLY COW, so glad we’re not dealing with something that acute! :eek: Piggy is ho hum about it, although does canter three legged if he goes cantering. I was really hemming and hawing on even calling the vet yesterday!

Angela, yep–poulticed the hot stuff and all the way down. Vet says normal where he’s hot because that’s where the vessels run.

[Texarkana]

My donkey recently decided she needed some love from the vet, too, and blew up with cellulitis. It took about 48+ hrs. for the swelling to start to decrease and a good several days before it truly went away.

It had been years since I’d had one prone to cellulitis and hadn’t been missing dealing with it at all. I’d also foolishly ASSumed (get it?) that donkeys weren’t supposed to be as susceptible to these high maintenance maladies. Silly me.

[hopashore1]

We’ve had three horses come down with cellulitis type swelling in the last week–so ready for the heat/humidity to go away!

I’ve always found a sweat wrap to be more effective than poultice as far as bringing the swelling down. Definitely keep cold hosing too…if it doesn’t seem to resolve itself or if the swelling starts getting worse/the horse more lame I’d be asking the vet about antibiotics.

I wouldn’t worry about the spider, unless there’s an obvious insect bite site. Generally the larger ones are the less venomous anyway.

[theresak]

Up to 3 days to see a significant change with the antibiotics, but if it’s not improved by then, you need to ask the vet about switching antibiotics. You may have to continue the antibiotics for several weeks depending on the severity.

And I’ve always done a DMSO/Furacin sweat for as long as possible (1-2 weeks) before switching to poultice. Eventually the skin will reject the sweat, but until then, the DMSO is pulling the Furcin through the skin barrier and actually acting against the infection where a poultice is just drawing and cooling.

[cayuse]

:eek: I wasn’t expecting that spider and scared myself.

Jingles for your horse, hope tomorrow finds him improved.

[keysfins]

@cayuse

:eek: I wasn’t expecting that spider and scared myself.

Jingles for your horse, hope tomorrow finds him improved.

Same here! LOL! :lol:

Please, some of us need a warning with a long gap of blank space if you’re going to post arachnids!!

@Simkie How’s Piggy doing?

[Simkie]

Good news, everyone! Piglet actually has a hock tonight. Like with bony parts and EVERYTHING. His leg is still filled, and so is the hock, but it is much improved. If we can maintain this improvement trajectory, he should be back to normal in a day or two

x-halt, I think the spider may have been a dark fishing spider? It was on the wall behind the water bucket. I am not a spider squishing type, but after a very brief period of contemplation, I kicked the wall. The body was about the size of a quarter :eek: Absolutely could have been a wolf spider–I didn’t examine very closely!

[Angela_Freda]

Yos first, worst cellulitis was from a tick bite up near his sheath, probably too close to glands… that got infected.
Jingles for continued improvement!

[Posting_Trot]

I always found that cold-hosing and turnout (in addition to hand-walking to make sure that she actually moved around) made the biggest difference. Along with the antibiotics of course. Standing around is the worst thing for them, and when it’s as hot as it’s been, they often do just want to stand around even when they’re feeling fine otherwise.

But yes, it usually took at least two to three days for significant improvement to occur. And then it took an additional week or more for the leg to look really normal again.

Has your horse been checked for lyme? I ask because the cellulitis that my older mare used to have was almost always associated with either a recurrence or a reinfection of lyme disease.

[WNT]

Mine came in today with a little bit of fill and heat around his ankle on the hind leg that had BAD cellulitis last summer. It looks like he banged his shin above the swelling doing something silly, and it blew up a bit.

Today, I cold hosed it, gave him some banamine, and rubbed the bruised spot with some arnica. I’ll go out first thing tomorrow and see how it looks if I need to sweat it or get the vet out for antibiotics. Right after having the dog at the vet for his own problems

[Simkie]

Piggers looked nearly 100% this afternoon when I brought him in from the field…You really had to look hard to see any filling in that leg. Thrilled with the quick turnaround, especially hearing about some of your horses that have not gotten better quickly!

Posting Trot, that’s interesting about Lyme. I had a titer run on him early in the year, when he came down with anaplasma. I’m still a little bitter about it (and the one we ran on Dove) because I did some digging later and found that there was a snowballs chance that either would have been positive given how long it takes for the immune system to respond. Anyway, that’s a long tirade to cover why I’m hesitant to retest for Lyme without more glaring Lyme symptoms. That test ain’t cheap. Figure I’ll test them all at the end of the season. I’ve had zero ticks, though, since I started feeding garlic after all that fun with anaplasma.

WNT, fingers crossed for quick and easy resolution!

[WNT]

Simkie, thanks! Fill was down a bit today, he’s sound as a dime, and no temperature. Given our heat index is over 105 today, I’m pretty pleased. Iced and banamine, and back out to check tomorrow.

However, the poor guy also got stung on his nose right before I brought him in; he had a half-dollar sized weepy welt between his nostril and corner of his mouth. Luckily I had extra ice packs with me, so he got his muzzle iced, too. It’s been a weird week.

[Simkie]

Yay, WNT! Nifty news about the leg Bummer about the sting, though! Poor guy. It HAS been a weird week all the way around :-/

Piggers is all better. Still a little filled in the AM after being in at night (despite the large run–he has room) but normal after turnout. He’s not keen on the antibiotics in his feed, though, silly boy. Guess I can’t blame him. Playing around with that, but otherwise his big fat leg is a thing of the past

[WNT]

Good to hear your guy’s is down to normal, too. Mister just had a titch of fill you’d only see if you knew his legs well; I’m so glad I caught it early. His nose was also much better.

I also found out today, he appreciates cold watermelon on a hot day.

[Simkie]

@Posting Trot

Has your horse been checked for lyme? I ask because the cellulitis that my older mare used to have was almost always associated with either a recurrence or a reinfection of lyme disease.

This is an old thread, but thanks very much for posting this, Posting Trot. I’ve always kept it in mind and, on a flyer, ran a Lyme titer on a horse that suddenly popped with a whopping cellulitis. Vet hadn’t really seen a Lyme/cellulitis connection, but the test came back with a hugely high chronic titer. I’m hoping it’s the key to this but also some frustrating chronic problems we’ve had. Don’t think we would have tested if you’d not shared as nothing else about her really says Lyme. So thank you!!!

[Texarkana]

@Simkie

This is an old thread, but thanks very much for posting this, Posting Trot. I’ve always kept it in mind and, on a flyer, ran a Lyme titer on a horse that suddenly popped with a whopping cellulitis. Vet hadn’t really seen a Lyme/cellulitis connection, but the test came back with a hugely high chronic titer. I’m hoping it’s the key to this but also some frustrating chronic problems we’ve had. Don’t think we would have tested if you’d not shared as nothing else about her really says Lyme. So thank you!!!

The hits keep on coming!!!