To my horror Kingsley's hind legs looked ballooned this morning. The swelling looked like on the very first day of this malarkey. Considering poor creature stands in the stable 24h a day I told myself not to panic and see whether it's just the puffiness related to this inactivity.
Took him for a 5 minutes walk around the yard as advised by the vet and sure enough even this little leg stretch brought the swelling down.
I had a very good look at the tiny scabs on his fetlock but I really don't think we can class it as mud fever and rely on this to be the cause of the problem.
Mucked him out at lunch time and took him for another 5 minutes. He is definitely 100% more comfortable walking in general but not entirely free moving. By this time the swelling went down further but I decided to bandage his legs and see whether that helps to stop the legs from filling.
It did. This photo was taken about 7pm and his legs are looking better than they had since all this started.
Now, the bad news is, he took quite a few odd steps when Pauline and I took him for his evening 5 minute walk...He wasn't lame as such but was definitely saving his right hind leg from doing too much work. It showed the most on turns and changes of directions. We didn't trot him as vet didn't mention anything about that but I am pretty sure that if we did, he would have shown hind legs lameness.
What baffles me the most is that this is the leg he is clearly cow hocked on and which I asked to be particularly well screened at the vetting. I used to ride some fantastic show-jumpers that were badly cow hocked and it never stopped them from performing well so I am not overly prejudiced about this conformational fault. However, if it is of significance and is causing the horse to be unsound then it's totally different matter!
Well, vet is suppose to come in tomorrow and hopefully we will reach some diagnosis (or at least start working towards one). I bandaged him for the night to see if it has any positive effect on filling.
I wish we did have something to focus on and start fixing him. Not knowing is what is most frustrating.
For now, I got him a snack-a-ball which he had a lot of fun with:
3 comments
Glad the wrapping and walking helped. Could there be a stifle issue? The turning problem makes me suspicious. Hope you get to the bottom of it - it must be very frustrating!
It's rubbish isn't it! Sorry to hear Kingsley is no better - I'm not convinced that Echo is any better either - I'm still not happy with her left hind, but can't do anything until the back and saddle are sorted in case it's something to do with that.
I hope you get to have some fun with him soon!
Kate - possibly, really hard to say as they way he trotted today it looks like more than two legs being affected. It's just one big mystery!
Suzie - I hope you get Echo sorted too, it's just so frustrating. I wish there were some full body scans machines widely available and we could just pop a horse in and see what the problem is!
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