Lower leg swelling with no lameness...

[SuckerForHorses]

Last fall: 8 year old QH gelding, got small spot of a spongy/puffy like swelling along suspensory on left front leg (about 1.5" long, .5" wide, outside of leg). Not lame, not sensitive. Vet said probably bruise or slight sprain. Swelling went away, all was well. Horse had the winter off.*
*July - September was spent trail riding and schooling on the barrel pattern in an arena with slightly deeper footing than I would have liked but was good for grip on the pattern; I did feel that he wasn’t striding out like normal, but he wasn’t off.

Flash forward to this spring: I have been riding him in lessons a few times in good shallow footing and riding out on the dirt roads. No issues - no swellings, no lameness, he’s really moving nice.

This past weekend, I had a two day barrel clinic. Footing was slightly deeper than what I’ve had lessons in this spring, but I was actually quite happy with the footing. Great for speed turns but not too deep.

Saturday was spent doing proper warm-ups before the clinic started; clinic consisted of loping through the barrel pattern once, then receiving feedback as the day went along. We did some other non-pattern exercises (loping circles, roll backs, etc) but nothing strenuous - there were 20 riders and one clinician, so honestly, the day was spent mostly standing around.

I rented a stall at the facility for overnight. Sunday morning, gelding is normal. I take him from barn to my trailer where my tack was, and not until I went to put his bell boots on did I notice that his lower legs, between the fetlock and knee, was super swollen. Pastern NOT swollen at all. Horse not lame. No heat detected. Hind legs not affected - they were completely normal.

I think maybe it’s from stocking up a little bit from being stalled - he’s normally on 24/7 turnout, but does get stalled occasionally at home, however, he does not stock up at home. I finish tacking him up and quietly walk him out, do some trotting, and an easy lope to each direction. Horse is NOT lame, AT ALL. But swelling does not go down.

I cold hosed him for about 20 minutes. Swelling went down some, but not enough to make me feel better.

I pulled him from the clinic and he spent the day eating hay and drinking water at the trailer while I audited the clinic.

Get home Sunday night, cold hose again, give 10 cc’s banamine orally, turn him out to see if movement helps.

Monday morning, swelling gone.

Now - I’m concerned because of the swelling last fall. I’m afraid that whatever that was, was aggravated by the footing this past weekend.

I have an appointment with the best lameness vet in the State for Friday afternoon. In the meantime…

what would cause swelling but no lameness, if not stocking up?

Since the swelling went away overnight, with him turned out, I am wondering now if it was just stocking up. But they usually work out of that rather quickly and he did not. Also, it was only above the fetlock that was swollen; typically any stocking up I’ve seen is the entire lower leg - it usually affects the pastern to some extent also.

Thoughts?

[SaratogaTB]

All four were swollen/stocked up, right? What you are describing happened to one of my OTTB geldings a couple years ago. First rule out vet did was Lyme. When that was negative, we attributed it to a spring weed common in our area, hoary allysum, which causes edema in all four on horses. My OTTB did exactly what you described, no lameness, then it went away at about the same time. Check to see if that weed is in your area.

[SuckerForHorses]

No, only fronts were swollen. Hinds were completely normal. Which made stocking up even more of an unlikely culprit. I just edited my OP to include this info.

He’s Lyme negative as of February.

[SuckerForHorses]

ETA: I do have a vet appointment for him this Friday.

[yourcolorfuladdictio]

I’m going to say stocking up.

If the horse is not used to being stalled, he wasn’t wrapped, and spent some time doing some hard work on his front end in deeper footing and then standing around with a rider on his back rather than walking out-- it’s bound to happen. Sometimes it takes a while to get all that stocking up out of the leg too 15-20 min of work isn’t going to do it.

Even with horses that are used to being stalled like show hunters, they still get wrapped at night when they are at horse shows because there are a lot of variables that can induce stocking up. They also get walked obsessively to keep them from becoming stiff and to hopefully help prevent stocking up.

This is probably a good lesson in remembering to standing wrap & walk your horse at night at such events and shows.

I will say, I’ve never seen a completely sound horse with an active tendon injury. But it’s worth having your vet give your horse a once over just in case.

[SuckerForHorses]

Typically, stocking up occurs in the hinds, and when I have seen it in fronts, it also continued down the pastern to the hoof. This swelling was only between the fetlock and knee, and with the hinds completely unaffected. This is what was odd for me to believe it was stocking up. This combined with the odd swelling he had last year (which wasn’t the same type of swelling but still…) made me very cautious.

I have no-bows and wraps and can do an “ok” job, but need more practice on wrapping. I figure no wrapping was better than bad wrapping.

[candyappy]

[QUOTE=yourcolorfuladdiction;8137187]

I will say, I’ve never seen a completely sound horse with an active tendon injury. But it’s worth having your vet give your horse a once over just in case.[/QUOTE]

My horse had a slight bowed tendon once ( up high) . I was young and stupid and a group of us spent time galloping up big hills. He was never, ever lame and I noticed it the next day. He was laid up for 6 weeks as a precaution. With legs you never know.

I am interested to see what your vet has to say. I hope it is nothing but a issue of stocking up.

[jawa]

I wouldn’t be 100% sure that it was stocking up because it affected the fronts and not the hinds.

I would be more concerned that he is sensitive to the footing, that it’s to deep for him or that he’s not conditioned to deep footing.

I’m glad you have an appointment with the vet.

Did you palpate your horse’s legs to see if he had any sensitivity?

If you don’t know how, get the vet to show you when you have your appointment.

Jingling for a good appointment.

[yourcolorfuladdictio]

[QUOTE=SuckerForHorses;8137223]
Typically, stocking up occurs in the hinds, and when I have seen it in fronts, it also continued down the pastern to the hoof. This swelling was only between the fetlock and knee, and with the hinds completely unaffected. This is what was odd for me to believe it was stocking up. This combined with the odd swelling he had last year (which wasn’t the same type of swelling but still…) made me very cautious.

I have no-bows and wraps and can do an “ok” job, but need more practice on wrapping. I figure no wrapping was better than bad wrapping.[/QUOTE]

Oddly enough, I see it more commonly in front legs. But then again I work with jumpers so those front legs get a lot of wear and tear. And it usually does sit just above the pastern and fills up from there. But that’s only if we are talking stocking up in one set of legs rather than all the way around.

I would be much more concerned if it were a front and hind or just one leg (of course), but when a pair of legs (fronts or hinds) fill with no heat and it goes away with turnout-- I’m not about to jump on the “disaster” bandwagon.

If your horse isn’t used to running a pattern in deeper footing that’s enough to make any horse’s legs puff up. But most injuries that I can think of that that sort of behavior would cause would either make the horse lame (possibly very, very lame) or the swelling would not dissipate completely with turnout. The horse would also be tender to the touch somewhere. Deep footing would cause soft tissue and that would, reasonably, get worse with turnout in the “hot” phase of the injury.

Don’t panic, but definitely get some good practice on wrapping. It’d be even more embarrassing to have to scratch from a clinic or show because you bandage bowed your horse. Because yes, no wraps are better than bad wraps. So everyone needs to make friends with those standing wraps and get good at them! Or buy those fancy Quick Wraps (I am a big fan of the new Professional’s Choice ones). These Guys

I’d also consider icing in the future if you feel questionable about the footing and the work asked of your horse in said footing, especially when your horse isn’t used to it.

[yourcolorfuladdictio]

[QUOTE=candyappy;8138053]
My horse had a slight bowed tendon once ( up high) . I was young and stupid and a group of us spent time galloping up big hills. He was never, ever lame and I noticed it the next day. He was laid up for 6 weeks as a precaution. With legs you never know.

I am interested to see what your vet has to say. I hope it is nothing but a issue of stocking up.[/QUOTE]

I would say that that was probably fairly unusual as bowing a tendon is generally painful, hot, and swollen causing the horse to be lame to varying degrees. I’d consider your horse the exception rather than the rule, good thing you caught it.

[SuckerForHorses]

Did you palpate your horse’s legs to see if he had any sensitivity?

He was not sensitive if I palpated the leg while the foot was on the ground and weight bearing. If I lifted his foot (like I was going to clean the foot) and then palpated the leg between knee and fetlock (so the tendons and ligaments were slack) he did seem sensitive to that.*

*He is sometimes a twit when it comes to holding the foot up for cleaning and the farrier so its possible his reaction was that, and not sensitivity, but I’d rather not make that call and I am more comfortable having a vet look at him and make sure everything is a-ok in there as far as soft tissue goes.

[SuckerForHorses]

I’m on my phone so this will be short in an effort to limit autocorrect snafus!

Horse palpated and flexed normal. Vet thinks it was likely minor irritation due to the footing being deeper than what he’s conditioned to this year.

Suggested trying a sports medicine boot (like PC SMBs) since deeper footing can’t really be avoided in this discipline.

Honestly though, I’m on the fence about barrels with him anyways. It’s hard on the body and the mind, and I may just casually lope the pattern once in a while and leave it at that. My friend who went to the clinic with me was like “do you want my opinion? He looks like he couldn’t care less about barrels. He moves really nice why don’t you show him?” :lol: he enjoys loping barrels, ears up, ready to do it… But the “drive” isn’t there. It’s like we are out on a Sunday stroll. And I haven’t “made” him go faster because the trainer who started him last year, who I picked because I love his style, said he will give me speed when he’s ready. When you force them, that’s what burns them out or makes them hot.

He’s going quite nice at the moment…maybe I will just trail ride, show, and do some barrels for fun once in a while