More lameness fun

[grandprixer]

Hi all. Another post about my injury prone gelding

He had 2 abscesses last week - one in the LH, which I noticed last Tuesday, and one in the RF that I noticed Thursday. I had the vet out Thurs who drained and packed everything.

He’s doing great up front right now, but I’m really concerned about the LH. It was a little puffy all week, but yesterday afternoon it was much bigger. Swollen all along the inside of his leg up to his hock, and he’s very reactive to pressure just below the hock but not the rest of his leg.

To me, being very reactive to tendon pressure only on one spot screams soft tissue injury, but he’s fairly sound on it - and he is missing that shoe with an abscess.

Other concerns - when I saw this hind lameness, I assumed the abscess was in his heels because he was walking on his toe. Turns out the abscess was in his toe, but I noticed his fetlock “snapping” into place. Not audibly, but it’s slightly flexed when he lands on it and it seems to clunk into place. His other doesn’t do that.

Are these all coincidences? Weird manifestations of a healing abscess? Again, he’s 93% sound and missing 2 shoes, so I don’t think it’s anything crazy serious but I don’t like it.

[lenapesadie]

@grandprixer

Swollen all along the inside of his leg up to his hock,

I’ve not had an abscess present with swelling in the leg up to the hock. Not saying it isn’t possible the swelling isn’t from the abscess, just that I haven’t seen that. I’d give the vet a ring.

[Obsidian_Fire]

I agree, that sounds like more than “just” an abscess. I’d call the vet.

[grandprixer]

I put a call in! But this horse is known for weirdness. This was his last abscess… I was treating it like a bow until it popped!

[grandprixer]

Here’s some video, just for fun.

This is from Monday, before I noticed the swelling, but the lameness level hasn’t changed. He’s feeling good enough to run around at least. https://youtu.be/ihXLJtR9KW4

This is from this morning, shows the swelling and his response to pressure. https://youtu.be/i_DXAxnBYQg

[Scribbler]

I have seen abscess present with significant stocking up. That was on my friend’s rather sensitive Arab, more than once. My horse does not.

[grandprixer]

I think that’s it. I came home today and the swelling was majorly down, but not gone. He’s also minimally reactive to pressure now.

Not sure if his body just threw a mini tantrum or what, but I’m not complaining about it going down.

I did hear back from the vet too, he said he wasn’t too concerned since he wasn’t any more or less lame. If he’s still having issues after the shoes go back on we’ll reevaluate.