This is kind of the other side of the coin from the last post.

My Clyde baby (now 15 but still my baby) came in with a swollen hock, and it quickly turned into a swollen leg.  My first reaction was injury.  But when you have a Clyde with a swollen leg from stifle to hoof, you call the vet.  My vet said cellulitis.  Okay I’ve dealt with that, with a friends horse.  Some antibiotics, poultice, wrapping,  and we’re good to go.  Or not.  The leg came down, but the hock didn’t.  More antibiotics.  Horrible tasting antibiotics.  How did we know that?  Beside the fact that she spit them out, don’t syringe a horse with your mouth open.  Now when a Clyde decides she’s done with oral antibiotics they put their heads up to the ceiling.  Even with a step-ladder you’re not going to convince her otherwise.  So we went to IV.  No, she was done with that too.  Okay, so here we have a Clydesdale who has a raging temperature, swollen leg, that will not take any meds, so up to the University we went.

They always start with the obvious.  With the temp there was obviously an infection, even though they couldn’t find an opening or a wound.  But they thought the infection  was on top of an injury.  So they started treating both the infection and the swelling.  When it wasn’t responding, I told them they had to look in another direction.  I know my horse and she is not a fighter, and neither are the horses that are with her.  My fencing is horse safe (I checked it for damage, there was none), and they don’t run around like idiots.  Dawn has no work ethic, she thinks work is unethical.  They did an ultra sound, and found nothing.  They kept treating, and I kept insisting they look for something different.  They eventually found an abscess that left a hole so big you could put your fist in it.  It didn’t go into the joint or the bone so we kept treating it.  The abscess was caused by a bug bite (probably Black Widow).  A year later,  the hock is still bigger than her other one, it will never have normal skin, but she’s sound on it, and can still leap in the air and jump a fence.

Moral of this story is, yes, always look for the obvious, but keep an open mind for the unusual.  Mostly – check all the signs, look for red flags, and know what is normal for your horse.