Creatine and stocking up: other possible causes for young horse repeatedly stocking up?

[paintedpennypony]

Has anyone ever had experience with creatine in supplements causing mild edema in their horse’s hind legs?

I’ve been giving my older mare the loading dosage of AniMed MuscleUp over the last two weeks, which has 2000mg of creatine in it. I’ve noticed over the last week especially that her hind legs have been mildly stocked up almost every day. The swelling is enough that you can’t see her tendons and her fetlocks are just puffy enough to notice. No heat, temp and other vitals are normal, not lame, just bilateral mild swelling of both hind legs that decreases, if not goes away entirely, after 15-30mins of exercise and cold hosing.

The only changes that I can attribute to this are the MuscleUp. I also just started her on spirulina last week and that’s when I started noticing it happen most/every day. She’s been out of work for pretty much the last year and I’ve been slowly bringing her back by ground driving and lunging over the last three weeks to get some muscle back on her before I start riding her again. Was wondering if anyone had any experience with creatine and edema in their horses. Thank you!

ETA: she’s outside 24/7 and is never stalled.

[paintedpennypony]

Update, I didn’t give it last night and she wasn’t stocked up today. My logic was that creatine can cause water retention in humans so maybe that would extend to horses, but I haven’t been able to find any literature about possible connections online. Will update in a week or so in case anyone stumbles across this with a similar question in the future!

[paintedpennypony]

She didn’t stock up for the first few days after stopping the creatine but has been stocked up the last two days. It decreased most of the way after 30 mins of ground driving and poking around the pasture at a walk + cold hosing yesterday and again today after 10 mins of walking and 2 mins of trotting on the lunge. She got a close trim on Thursday by a new farrier which has made her sore I think. She’s still on the spirulina because it has helped with a cough she had due to the dusty conditions (drought) here, but I noticed the daily stocking up has coincided with getting spirulina every day.

She has no edema on her stomach and there’s no concerning heat in her back legs. I don’t have hoof boots so I’m caught between hand walking her to help the stocking up and wanting to give her some time for the trim to grow out. She doesn’t move a ton during the day because it’s hot and they’re fed out of a hay feeder, but today I took the feeder out and scattered the flakes around the dry lot so she will have to move a bit more to eat.

I think I’m going to stop the spirulina to see if it’s maybe she’s having a mild allergic reaction? At what point do I call the vet? Is there anything else I should be looking out for or can do to help her? She stocked up once over this last winter but for it to happen nearly every day out of the last week or so is concerning me! Thank you!

[CanteringCarrot]

My horse has pretty much the same thing going on. Started last Friday/Saturday. He doesn’t seem lame or otherwise bothered, just swollen. No fever. I cannot figure out what it is since I’ve made no changes to his diet. I am calling the vet tomorrow.

What state or region do you live in?..out of curiosity.

I did add Marigold and Cleavers (Hilton Herbs) to his feed starting today to help his lymphatic system a bit. This helped my older horse when he had to be in or be in a smaller area more that usual.

[paintedpennypony]

That’s pretty much exactly when it started for my horse too! We’re in AR.

I should add that it’s very minor. Like enough to where the tendons are not visible or not as visible, but the leg isn’t bigger in size. Her fetlocks are only slightly bigger. Very minor as far as stocking up goes, to the point where I’m wondering if I’m overreacting. No heat beyond the normal, “this is a living animal that’s outside in the summertime” warmth. But it’s just happened almost every day for two weeks now… very unusual for her.

[CanteringCarrot]

Hm. I’m in a state that shares a border with AR.

This is a crap picture but you can kind of see the swelling:

[paintedpennypony]

Here’s what she looks like right now. Better than this morning, but I can still feel some puffiness. She looks like your guy before exercise and cold hosing.

[CanteringCarrot]

Just came back here to say that with my horse it ended up being a viral infection of sorts. He’s over it now, but it was still annoyingly weird and his fieldmate hasn’t gotten it.

[mikeyscott]

Good detective work! It seems as if you are going the right approach by trying to identify the cause of the problems. That is why it might be wise to stop taking the spirulina next time. If things do not improve though, it’s always safer to speak to the vet in case something was missed. Tell me how she is doing so!

[paintedpennypony]

Interesting! Did the vet confirm it was a viral infection? I took their hay feeder out since our last posts and spread flakes around the paddock track-style. Forcing her to move around to eat has helped, I guess, because she hasn’t stocked up since. Thanks for the update!

[CanteringCarrot]

Yes. He wasn’t lame when we trotted him up, and the swelling was decreasing. The vet did a blood test and the only thing abnormal was high leukocytes. He seemed to be getting over whatever it was. So the vet just had me give banamine for 2 days.