Stocking Up

It seems that I have plagued with vet issues lately.  It all started with Semper last fall, then Lily, and now Bob has a little issue going on.   His hind legs started to get "stocked up" in the stall.  At first it was just one and pretty minor. Then it got worse. Then the other hind leg started swelling. With exercise they would go down, not completely but some. A week ago last Monday I had just had enough... and called the vet.  Decided to take Lily and have her rescanned to see how her healing was coming along.  I am all about the "two birds with one stone" thing.

The vet scanned Lily first and she is doing marvelously.  Visually they look much better to the Vet.  I see them everyday so it is hard for me to see a difference.  It made me feel better to have her comment on how good they look.  When she did the scan we couldn't see any open spaces, the tissue is looking very good and got the o.k. to increase her paddock size. The vet even said maybe some light riding in 6-8 weeks. Since Lily doesn't understand the concept of light riding, I think we will just wait it out till the healing is just a little further along.

Then Bob.  He was pretty swollen in both hind legs. No visually apparent reason. No cuts, scraps, etc. The vet presses her thumb into the inside of his leg right about his fetlock joint and holds it for a about 30 seconds. When she moves her thumb out, there is a depression that stays for minutes - this is called pitting edema.  She explains that this means that each individual cell is retaining fluid. Not that the leg has fluid building under the skin.The body is not being efficient enough to get all the lymph moved out of his limbs. It can be caused by over work or lack of movement and excessive heat exacerbates the problem.  She watched him move and he isn't lame, but he isn't comfortable either.  She flexes him and when I trot him off, he is lame for the first few steps. She decides that we should bute him and turn him out for 7 days to see if we can get it to go down all together. I take him home for turn out and give him a loading dose of 2 grams of bute.  The next morning -  no swelling. Both hind legs are back to normal. I give him another gram of bute and go off to work.  When I get home - his legs look perfect -  but I followed Drs. order and give him another gram of bute with is dinner. The next morning when his legs still look great I decide to see what happens if I take him off the bute.  And guess what? Nothing, nada, none, zip, zero, no swelling.  He looked fine with just the turn out.

Bob was rechecked last night and the vet gave him a clean bill of health. We talked about what causes the "stocking up",  how to avoid it and what to do when I happens.

Solutions that we talked about are: cold hosing his legs after he is worked and turn out.  Pretty simple. 

I haven't ever had a horse that did this so any insight from those of you that have been there would be more than welcome.

Another feather in Bob's cap... he has never been a horse that likes having his hind legs messed with, but he has been a perfect gentleman during all this. Absolutely perfect.