Needed help with a horse...

[Akane]

In my experience once a wind puff occurs they actually get worse with rest. The lack of movement lets the fluid settle down around the joint. Regular exercise and pressure wraps can keep the swelling down but if the horse is not being shown or worked hard it's not really an issue. If you can easily keep a boot (they sell them just for windpuffs) or wrap on it without it getting too irritated or dirty from turnout or going too long between being checked then that would be a good idea. Otherwise I'd just leave it alone but keep an eye on it. A vet can drain the fluid but the wind puff will return so that's only a temporary measure if it starts to get too big or before an event. We had it on a show mare so we'd have it drained at the beginning of show season, keep it wrapped, make sure she got daily exercise, and then let her go over winter. She never came up lame from it unless too much fluid built up and then she would have trouble flexing the joint. Shortly after we started working her again and kept things circulating she'd appear perfectly sound.

 

[welsummerchicks]

If all I saw was a teeny weeny windpuff in an older high mileage horse, I wouldn't have answered as I did. I see joint enlargement that looks firm, and an annular ligament strain.

Too, most responses to windpuffs are not designed to treat them or address joint strain, but to lessen their appearance. Wrapping, draining, etc are meant to reduce the swelling as in some divisions of horse showing, windpuffs are considered a blemish so these methods have evolved.

In a mature horse with lots of mileage, a little bit of windpuff due to a long ago healed strain the animal is coping with fine, is not unusual, but I would not always assume they are benign. Any fluid accumulating around a joint means that joint is being stressed. I would be concerned if an existing little windpuff was suddenly augmented with a whole lot more fluid and hard distension of a joint.

Legs sometimes fill up due to other reasons - a viral infection, a few days without any exercise. But that does not cause a hard distention of a joint. Swelling from stocking up is soft.

 

[patandchickens]

My concern is that the swelling is described by the original poster as "it all seems to hurt to the touch". That is 100% *not* just yer basic harmless windpuff, which would NOT be painful.

Honestly I tend to discount anything anyone says about "the horse is not lame", unless i happen to know that person very well, because in my experience the great majority of horse owners cannot recognize subtle lameness, and quite a large number cannot notice anything short of 3-leggedness or at least a significant head bob. Maybe the horse is genuinely totally sound (although this is extremely unlikely if the swelling itself is painful to touch), maybe it is just not obviously lame enough to notice, I don't think it makes sense to draw conclusions.

Doesn't look much like an annular ligament strain to *me*, but then I've only seen maybe four of them, so certainly it *could* be. (e.t.a. - I also don't see obvious enlargement on the front of the joint -- what i see is a photo taken at a slightly-to-the-front angle, which means you are seeing some of the curvature of the other side of the fetlock on the apparent "front" of the fetlock.)

Vet.


Pat

 

[welsummerchicks]

Vet.

'Hurts to the touch' is another reason get the vet.

 

[koonaone]

Hi folks

Hmmm. 17 and not rode much?

You might try this. Wrap it with a tensor bandage with a pad soaked in Di methyl sulphoxide (DMSO) get it from a vet most places, hardware stores other states, give it 4 or 5 days of soak.

Unless the horse is skinny, corral him and cut his feed. Rest and fat are horses worst enemies. Feed plain grass feed, no grain and NO alfalfa.

The DMSO will either work pretty quick or not at all, I've seen it do amazing things often, other times zilch. In my experience (lengthy and varied) time usually works wonders, but age has it's way of bunging us up.

yours

douglas

 

[lockedhearts]

I would have to concur with Patandchickens, it appears to possibly be more likely a suspensory tear/strain, which in my experience with a couple over the years, is treated with stall rest, pain management and support wraps. If it is acutally a tear, it will take a few months to completely heal. You can take a wait and see attitude, but personally, I would get a vet out to confirm.