My rising 3 year old QH mare came out today with a swollen tendon. She is stalled over night with about 8 hours turn out a day. She had a small cut on one of her legs that had to be kept dry and it was quite wet outside, but is fine now after the vet cleaned it etc.
Her right hind leg is swollen on the outside of the tendon, but there is very little, if any, swelling on the inside of the leg. She is not lame at all and she seems very comfortable. There is absolutely no heat coming from her leg either. I walked her today, and hosed it down, but there wasn’t any significant difference in the swelling of the leg.
I’d prefer not to call my vet within the first 24 hours because her tendons sometimes do get swollen when she is stalled, but that’s when I put standing bandages on her. She’s turned out overnight now in a dry paddock. My only question is, any ideas what it could be?? Should I just walk her some more and bandage her legs? Usually with tendon injuries there is a significant amount of heat but there’s nothing.
Can you post pictures?
I’ll try to get one, I’m not sure how to upload pictures though!
Upload to a photo sharing site like Imgur or Photobucket or post to Facebook and make the photo public, then copy and past the link here.
It’ll be easier to give suggestions if we can see what you’re talking about.
It’s not the greatest photo, but I hope it works!
http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp20/yaningyangg/Mobile%20Uploads/image_zpsugz9lwwu.jpeg
I’m having trouble telling what is swelling and what is just puffy winter hair. It doesn’t look terrible. Did you wrap her last night and then noticed this today? Or were you saying that if you see swelling, you wrap the leg? If there’s no heat and she’s sound, I’d probably just leave her be over night and check on it tomorrow. If there’s more swelling, heat, or any unsoundness tomorrow, you might want to put a call in to your vet to see what they say. Maybe cold hose? Probably hold off on any anti-inflammatory meds just in case the vet does want to see it.
I have a 3 year old too, they’re clumsy, sometimes they just bang themselves around a little, puff up and then it goes away.
Thank you! I didn’t wrap her last night, she was turned out yesterday, I put her in and she was fine. This morning is when I noticed the swelling. I’ll see if there’s any improvement tomorrow with cold hosing and wrapping etc, then I’ll decide if I should call the vet!
They injure themselves everywhere at this age, I’ve called the vet way too many times for her in just 6 months of owning her.
I can’t really tell either, from the picture.
Instead of hosing I’d put an ice boot on it, or make one with frozen peas and a standing wrap. The fact that she’s not bothered by it lends itself towards a little cut or something - some horses just blow up over small things.
What you describe definitely doesn’t sound like typical stocking up, particularly since it’s just one leg.
If the swelling is more concentrated towards the fetlock, it might be a windpuff from a strain - they very often never cause lameness. It’s also possible the fetlock tendon sheath was a little torn - also does not necessarily cause lameness.
My general rule is 3 days - ice if necessary, rest, no bute, and see how things go. If it doesn’t start looking better, or for sure if it starts looking worse, by the end of Day 3, then I call the vet. Or in a case like this where there isn’t any lameness from the start, I’d even go a week or 10 days.
I see what I think is some swelling in the tendon sheath, but it’s hard to see. Definitely not bad. I would suspect a strain since on one side of one leg only. If no heat, then my guess is that it will resolve without a lot of stuff being done, but you may want to wrap it while she is stalled.
