Swollen Leg

[PasoPal]

I have a friend who has an arabian mare she sold on May 15. 5 days later, the other woman's horse and the arabian got into a kicking frenzy between panels. The arabian had to go to the vet and had 3 stitches to the back of her hock joint. Other than cuts, she was swollen. My friend now has the arabian back home. The whole lower leg is still swollen and when she called the vet in the other state who sewed her hock, he told her to just ride her anyways and that the swelling may take up to a year to go down. Does this sound right to you because it sure doesn't to me. Anybody dealt with this before? There is no heat. She has tried a couple of Bute to try to get the swelling down. Also wrapped it in cold, wet diapers with epsom salt. Any other ideas?

[pnalley]

I'd get a 2nd opinion from a vet

[Cindy]

If the wound has healed and there are no other issues going on, excersize will actually help to bring the swelling down as it will increase the blood flow. If the horse shows any lameness, no excercise. If when you do excercise the horse the swelling goes down, that is a good sign.

[motorgypsy]

It also depends on if it was a dirty wound. If the wound is not completely cleaned out before it is stitched up the bacteria will grow inside and eventually damage the joint. I'd look for heat and lameness as was mentioned. A horse next door got into a kicking match with a wire fence, it was cleaned up but the knee never did go down and she could not bend it. turned out she punctured the tendon with a wire and with almost no circulation there was no way for the body to get rid of the bacteria that built up in a dirty wound. They had to open it up and surgically flush it over and over. She did recover but it must have taken a year of wrapping and all sorts of antibiotics before the owners finally got the surgeon to open it back up again. So again - it just depends on if it hurts and is hot or if it doesn't hurt and isn't hot. She might try DMSO IF it doesn't hurt or get hot. If it does, there are several antibiotics and anti bacterial agents people use with DMSO for infections but it may have to be opened up and flushed if it continues to have heat and pain. Good luck to her and the horse. Hope it's just residual scar tissue causing the problem.

[PasoPal]

What is DMSO? I keep reading about it here and ther in this forum but don't know what it is.

[Linda Y]

DMSO is dimethyl sulfoxide. It has a distinctive property of penetrating the skin very readily, so that one may taste it soon after it comes into contact with the skin. Its taste has been described as oyster- or garlic-like. You have to REALLY careful with it, because if you have sprayed the horse with fly spray, for example, it will carry the poison with it through the skin, yours and the horses. It is great for relieving inflammation, and if you bump yourself to the extent that you may bruise, this will almost always prevent the bruise from showing up.
Because DMSO increases the rate of absorption of some compounds through organic tissues including skin, it can be used as a drug delivery system. It is frequently compounded with antifungal medications, enabling them to penetrate not just skin but also toe and fingernails.

[motorgypsy]

All of the above and more.

You buy it at a feed and seed store. It comes in liquid and gel. It's marked for industrial use only since it's not approved for humans. it's very cheap.

It's very common for it to sting and even blister the skin - especially if you use it on the face but when I used it after the heart blow it blistered that skin also but while it itched for about a week it didn't peel or anything. Our son used it on his face for shingles blisters that itched 24/7 and were driving him crazy. It stung like crazy for about 45 minutes but the itching was gone in 24 hours and up to that point nothing helped stop it including the major pain killers.

Our Cracker horse was dosed with it IV for about a week after his small intestine resection because it prevent inflammation and scarring and helps prevent adhesions.

Miraculous stuff but you have to be very careful the area has no toxic substance on it before you use it topically.