Lymphangitis / weird tricks? / asking for keyboard vets

[sittingextendedtrot]

disclaimer: i am in contact with a new vet. we’re working on a plan for him, just want to get other’s opinions. give me all the off-the-wall, witch voodoo tips you have and I’ll try them

Horse has been battling lymphangitis in FL since summer of 2018. It was under control in Southern California and then I decided to move to Houston summer of 2019…uncontrollable flare ups for a good 5 months after the move and off and on lameness and flare ups since then until a month ago when an abscess popped at the top of his coronary band. Leg went down in size and had no issues, horse went back into full work. Went out to the barn Tuesday after a couple of mornings of rain and his leg was back into bad flare up mode, horse could not walk on it. 3 grams of tricholomethiazide given Tuesday/Wednesday, gave 4 ccs of dex tonight due to no changes. Tricholomethiazide is his usual treatment when he gets small flare-ups but it seems to not be working right now. Horse is on pasture 24/7, gets fed Triumph grain, smartpak joint supp, and CalTrace plus. I have done multiple blood tests and there is no infection, so please don’t come at me with that.

Anyway, anyone have any weird tricks? I’d be willing to sacrifice a lamb to a god at this point, I’m tired of 2 years of battling with this.

Could the small amount of rain we got caused scratches? mud fever? I’m at a loss.

[fristysen]

contact with a new veterinarian
It may help.

[joiedevie99]

Unfortunately my experience with lymphangitis is that if you don’t murder it on the initial onset, it can be really hard to control afterwards.

Some ideas: x-ray/ultrasound to look for an unresolved pocket of infection? regional limb perfusion of antibiotics? Horse socks to provide gentle compression 24/7? Equi-chaps for turnout to keep the leg clean and dry? Back on track boots overnight to promote better circulation? Talk with your vet about having Naquasone on hand so you can start the trichlormethiazide and dexamethasone together right away next time. Sometimes hours make the difference between stopping a flare before it takes root, and being too late.

[Posting_Trot]

If you haven’t done it already, it would be worthwhile to have the horse checked for lyme disease. It’s relatively inexpensive to do, and easier than sacrificing a lamb to the various horse gods.

My experience with my previous horse who had three or four bouts of lymphagitis in the last couple of years of her life was that it almost always signaled a new infection of lyme disease (or a flare-up, depending on whether we ever really successfully eradicated the lyme in a previous treatment).

Lyme disease certainly exists in Florida, parts of Texas, and parts of California, so you shouldn’t let the vet tell you that it doesn’t.

There’s a very readable, recent veterinary paper on equine lyme disease here:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jvim.15042

[sittingextendedtrot]

Thank you for the ideas! I’ll definitely look into a couple of them

[sittingextendedtrot]

He got tested for lyme last year (negative), but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get him rechecked. Thank you!

[ChasseurSauteur]

Ugh, solidarity from a fellow chronic lymphangitis owner. My go-to for serious flareups is the combo trich/dex steroid but our big flareups usually have an infectious component that we have to blast with antibiotics as well. My protocol includes Back on Track wraps or compression wraps as mentioned, as well as long marching walks no matter how painful he is. I also alternate cold hosing (high-pressure with massaging effect) and icing multiple times a day until it starts going down (though that can damage the skin barrier if already compromised). Mud fever is usually the culprit for my guy. I keep him on a copper/zinc supplement to support the skin barrier. Sending healing vibes!!

[sittingextendedtrot]

I’m picking up antibiotics and more bute from the vet today have you seen that majky equine made compression ice boots?

What’s your go to for treating mud fever?

[ChasseurSauteur]

I’ve seen the Majyk Equipe ones but haven’t tried them!

Oh man, I have tried everything under the sun for mud fever this year. (There are some good threads on these forums with people’s various remedies, if you search for Scratches.) The first go-round, I did a mixture of desitin; triple antibiotic; Vagisil; hydrocortisone; and a dewormer (can’t remember which one.) That worked for a bit, but it came back within a few weeks. I’ve now been using Equiderma lotion which has now gotten rid of all but one tiny spot, so that is my current favourite.

[luvmyhackney]

One of the best bits of advice I got on this board was to supplement vitamin E with any skin issues or crud. Plus, I used to use my old vets creation of dandruff shampoo or medical shampoo you can get at cvs, dry area with a blow dryer and sprinkle with treated foot powder to get as dry as possible. Slather with zinc oxide to protect it. If it doesn’t clear up in a few days, I would get the vet to scrape and send to the lab to see exactly what it is.

But since adding extra Vitamin E, I haven’t had to deal with skin crud in almost 3 years.