Thursday, October 18, 2007

Now I Worry

Chance is Really Lame

After looking much better yesterday, Chance is not only seriously lame today, but his right leg is also swollen.

I have no idea what is wrong. I bandaged him and put him in his stall with his late night snack and will be calling my vet in the morning. There is heat in his leg, but he doesn't seem to be particularly upset when I run my hand along it, squeezing a bit to see if I can feel something wrong.

Why is that significant? When he had a cut on his leg and I tried to clean it, he actually went down on his knees on the crossties every time I tried to touch it. This leads me to think he would also not be very happy with my touching his leg if it were really sore.

This development does not entirely shoot down my theory that the problem is in his hoof, but it also doesn't help reassure me.

This type of situation is really frustrating. His lameness is extreme, but with the swelling, that doesn't surprise me. Often when a horse's leg swells, the swollen joint is painful just because it cannot flex properly. But, the swelling could also be the result of a more serious injury, so that is worrisome.

For now, it's just a waiting game. I will try to hose his leg tomorrow morning and if he lets me, that's fine. If not, I'll have to use some cold packs for a while as therapy.

Hope I can get my vet out ASAP.

3 comments:

  1. What did the vet say?
    An absess (sp?) maybe?

    I hope Chance will recover soon. It is always so stressfull when they are down.

    (((((healing vibes))))

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  2. my first thought was abcess (we'd been talking about them tonight, someone's horse is in with ditto, they'd spent ages assuming the incipient lameness was the same old same old navicular issues, but it was an abcess..)

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  3. Another vote for abcess, but then its so hard to say without seeing.

    When Mate got one last year he was on and off just slightly uneven for about two weeks, then dead lame. His leg had been swelling up and when he was really lame it was huge.

    A couple of days later the abcess came out the bottom of his hoof and he was fine. I couldn't work it out because his leg was so swollen and hot I wasn't focusing on the foot.

    Hope its something similarly easy to resolve.

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