Ugh. My horse is going to be the death of me. He’s a 19 year old Dutch warmblood gelding, big performance career but has no major issues. A month or so ago he was tripping behind and we did all these neuro tests and ended up injecting his stifles and conditioning him different which has made a world of difference. However, for about the past two weeks his right hind leg has been stocking up around the tendon sheath. It’s not hot, he’s not sensitive to it and it improves greatly with work. He has had cellulitis before and it does not present like that at all. We’ve tried sweating it, poulticing it, icing, etc. Nothing seems to make a huge difference. He goes out for about 8 hours during the day by himself. He doesn’t move much outside which I predict is not helping. He would rather stand and eat his hay in one place. As of now I’ve been keeping both hind legs wrapped when he’s in. After I ride him I’ll throw some ice and then poultice on to make myself feel better. The vet’s best guest was that he stung it on a jump and said it can take weeks for the swelling to completely dissipate. Also another factor to consider is that it has been in the 60-70s here (PA) so a big temp increase. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Last resort is to ultrasound or x ray it which I’m not inclined to do considering he’s sound and no sensitive. The first picture is it before twenty minutes of work and then after.
Does he always stand like that, RH forward and closer to the midline? Or is it the LH that’s back, and pulled closer to the midline?
An increase in humidity can definitely cause unilateral stocking up on a leg that had a previous injury, while the lymphatic system gets back to normal (and it doesn’t always)
I don’t think so. He is pretty straight behind up and down behind if that makes a difference. I think that may have been dumb luck? Here are some other, more recent pictures I have.
Ok, good, maybe just coincidence, though it’s something I’d start making note of 
Do you have good pics of his feet? I know it’s not a good angle to judge much of anything by, but the last pic makes his feet look pretty long overall. The RH also looks to have some M/L imbalance, with a high Medial (inside) wall.
Good Hoof Photos - How to take Good Hoof Photos
Yes, he was definitely over due in that picture! He just got done last week. I’ll try to get some pictures tonight as long as he’s a willing participant 
From the last pick, it appears there is swelling or a lump below the hock on the outside. Is that an optical illusion?
i was wondering if he could have kicked the fence or a stall wall?
Not an optical illusion. It’s a windpuff he’s had for the past 10 years.
Not sure if this is helpful, but you mentioned he’s very straight in his hind end. I have a Friesian/Morgan X who is also super straight back there. I had a sports med vet look at him because he was puffy in his hind fetlocks. His swellings were in the tendon sheaths, I believe the suspensory branches. They were two distinct swellings that ran down the back of his fetlocks, kinda along the sides. Sometimes there would be general puffiness in his fetlock areas too. He was also just kinda NQR behind under saddle, but not lame per say. This vet told me that this upright conformation combined with a tight gaskin muscle was causing irritation in the tendon sheath areas. We did shockwave to the gaskin areas and he did a 30 day strengthening program with pole work that increased his length of stride slowly. It seemed to help him and the swellings decreased. No idea if this is what your guy has going on but I figured I’d chime in with my experience!
If you’re tired of looking at it, as your vet for some naquasone.
This is a zebra diagnosis, but I had a horse start stocking up in one leg due to an internal abscess in the chest. Best guess is that it was impeding the lymphatic system.
We found the abscess because it was also causing her to choke, which was fortuitous, because otherwise there’s a good chance we would’ve never gotten there. We treated with antibiotics for a long time and kept an eye on the fibrinogen to keep tabs on progress.
Bloodwork might be useful if you’re not able to find another explanation.
Continuing the discussion from One leg stocking up:
This is exactly what we’ve been working on. He was dx’d with very weak stifles and we injected those about a month ago. It’s only been about a month, but we do a lot of poles and walking/trotting over cavaletti in hopes of strengthening that area. I think his conformation predisposes him to some issues back there and coupled with a long career, I’m not too shocked some things are popping up at 19 years old.
Oof. This is a little scary but certainly something I can have my vet look into since she’ll be out on Tuesday morning anyway. He has a heart murmur (knock on wood, hasn’t caused any issues) and has choked two or three times in the ten years I’ve owned him, none of which were recent. But, thank you for your suggestion, I will definitely be passing that on to her to see what she thinks.
It looked and felt about the same when I went this evening to wrap it so I didn’t take pictures. I did standings behind with Surpass underneath (vet recommended this) and some Bute. I’ll be out first thing tomorrow to take a look at it.
