Went to the vet last week for sudden acute lameness in right front and vet reported swelling of lower leg was common with abscesses. Took x rays and vet said abcess or stone bruise, x rays were good. Yesterday she was dead lame on right front(opposite leg) and farrier came out today and said abscesses don’t cause swelling in the leg and he thinks it is further up. Horse is stalled and on bute as she can barely walk. Farrier said it was not retracted soles as it has been rainy here. Has anyone had lower limb swelling from an abcess? She has swelling in both now but left front is much worse than the other.
Where exactly on the leg is the swelling, since I see possibly conflicting info. If it’s high up, not from an abscess. If it’s coronary band/fetlock/DDFT area, very possible.
Were it me & my horse: I’d soak, pack-n-wrap the hoof with the suspected abscess and turn the horse out in a tough Gorilla Tape or Hoof Wrap bootie, so they could move as desired.
Movement moves the fluid. Stalled = stocked up.
If it’s higher up, ultrasound.
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Last summer my mare developed an abscess in the front hoof and she was definitely stocked up in the lower leg.
@ChocoMare is right: the horse needs to have the opportunity to move. I did what she recommends: soak the hoof in warm water mixed with epsom salts; dry it; put an Animalintex pad on the hoof’s sole; wrap the hoof in VetWrap; and then wrap the whole shebang in Gorilla duct tape. It will all probably fall off the next day (and if not, you should take it off), and then you repeat the process.
For soaking the hoof, I found that the best thing was a hoof soaking boot like the Tough1 or the Davis soaking boot (which is the one I have). The boot makes the soaking much easier!
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/davis-original-horse-boot-5123829?gStoreCode=1494&gQT=1
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My gelding had an abscess years ago that caused swelling around his lower leg - and my farrier reassured me many times that it was normal. Once we pulled the shoe to relieve some of the pressure, the swelling went down.
And yes, move move move! Same gelding had another really, really bad abscess that he was three legged lame for. My vet sedated him twice a day for a bit to get him to put more weight on it. That was an exceptionally bad one (he was so lame we actually thought he broke his coffin at first) but he needed to put weight on it and move around to help it move to the surface.
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I haven’t experienced swelling from a foot abcess, though I note the others here who have. But usually an abcess can be seen on an x-ray, and yours came back ‘good’ so no abcess found?
Yes, had an abcess cause signficant swelling all the way to the knee. Agree with others that movement is helpful and I’d discuss with the vet whether to discontinue the bute if vet is confident that it’s an abcess.
Pain and swelling went away fast once abcess drained.
Not clear is this the same leg (RF) or the other one?
I had a mare who’d swell to the knee or hock days before she went lame with an abscess. Once I knew that I called the farrier if she started to swell, and every time we’d find an abscess.
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I’ve seen an extreme case caused by a pigeon fever abscess that was way up in the poor horse (inguinal area) so it wasn’t visible. His whole leg just sort of blew up one night and he couldn’t walk. Once the vet was finally able to pinpoint the problem and went in surgically to drain the abscess he was on the long road to recovery.
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So, she was then lame on the opposite leg? Could it be anaplasmosis or something else tick borne?
I’m all along her tendon. She has a tendency to get stocked up
Yes x ray did not reveal an abcess
Have not found any ticks on her
I have seen swelling in lower leg that was caused by a hoof abscess. I have not seem an abscess cause swelling or lameness in the opposite front leg
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Of the 6 abscesses I’ve dealt with on my personal horses (2 in each of 3 horses), only 1 of them caused any swelling and it was about 3/4 up the leg. The very worst of those 6 abscesses caused no swelling anywhere. I’m not sure what “common” means. I don’t think it’s rare, I don’t think it’s the norm either, but it does happen
Your farrier isn’t correct in saying it doesn’t cause swelling, which is unfortunate 
The difference is that abscess-caused swelling rarely results in the swollen area to be reactive to palpation. It might feel weird because it’s swollen, you have to decide if he’s reacting to being palpated and thinks you want him to move his leg, or he’s reacting out of discomfort
Bute doesn’t often work for abcesses.
The supporting leg may be swelling due to excess strain, maybe it’s some stocking up from not moving as much
Are you packing and wrapping the foot? How big is the stall? Any chance she can be out to move on her own but not be pushed around by another horse?
I never found the ticks that caused anaplasmosis in one horse, and Lyme in another.
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My mare had stovepipe swelling from a hoof abscess. Hind foot….broke out the coronet band.
It started with mild ‘offness’ and some mild swelling into and up to the outside of the fetlock. She got a little worse so I got her to the vet. His assessment was a sprained fetlock. I thought she was pretty pissy about the hoof testers on that foot but apparently he didn’t think her reaction was enough. Sent me home with bute and rest for 3 days. She was better so after the 3 days of bute, so I didn’t go out the day after her bute was finished. When I went out the next day and she was 3 legged lame and that leg was severely swollen from foot up to above the hock. Hard ginormous swelling 
. I thought she had blown a suspensory or worse?
In palpating her leg, what I found was her lateral heel was blazing hot. Luckily, when I went out the next day, we had a hole in the coronary band and she was walking better. It took about 3 weeks for all that swelling to resolve even though she rapidly returned to soundness.
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My young horse had an abscess in hind foot this winter. He had swelling about midway up his cannon bone and I thought he had a tendon injury. Farrier was here, poked around and found it in one of his heel bulbs. Swelling and lameness was gone about 36 hours later. This is the first time I’ve had a horse that had leg swelling with an abscess.
Deer tick nymphs are the size of a pin head.
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One of mine came in two weeks ago very lame and swollen about half way up the cannon bone. I panicked, vet came out - nothing seemed wrong in the leg so she assumed abscess. I soaked, and the next day it popped. Leg swelling went down. My farrier opened up the hole a bit and the next day it also came out the coronary band.
I originally didn’t think abscess - no heat in the foot, it was a back leg, and the day before I rode her and she was sound. This mare swells up easily for all sorts of reasons (ticks, scratches).
ETA last year my other horse had an abscess from hell caused originally by a stone bruise. It never showed up on xrays but definitely was an abscess. It blew three times. She never had swelling.
Also wanted to add that I have found that acetaminophen helps a lot more than bute/banamine for my horses for abscess pain. It’s a lot of pills - 30mg/kg 2x/day.
I’m in the midst of the opposite - horse had a back leg come up with some swelling and heat up over the fetlock, didn’t want to weight his heel as much. We treated for an abscess, farrier happened to be out a couple days later and also thought he had a heel abscess. Another week later, no abscess and horse was getting worse (resting the hind leg constantly on the toe, definitely not wanting to put heel down).
Vet came out and found the SDFT and annular ligament were irritated. Ultrasound showed no lesions so assumed he took a bad step or maybe whacked it on something. Stall rest for a couple weeks and hopefully can go back on small turnout. It’s been a week of stall rest (and poulticing and wrapping) and swelling has come down significantly and he’s much happier standing on it already.
This horse has a history of small abscesses in wet conditions but never any swelling up the leg. I wish I’d had the vet out sooner.
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