As in Bar's knee looks like there is a football inside it! Above is him wondering why I'm squatting down and taking pictures of his legs instead of giving him carrots to make it feel better.
This all started yesterday, as we started walking down to the round pen to get our workout started. I looked down and noticed his left front knee looked a little puffy. "Huh," I said and palpated it (with no reaction), walked him around to see how he moved on it, and then took him right to the wash rack to run cold water over it. I thought about Bute, but he really (really) hates it and since he seemed to be moving okay on it, I left it.
Today, Katie emailed me from the barn (the joys of the iPhone) and said, "What did you do to that poor horse?" She was kidding, but as it turns out, the knee is even more swollen today. Argh.
Do I know what happened? No. Is there any clue? No. Just a big, fat, puffy knee full of fluid and heat. Ever-hopeful, I floated the theory of a bug bite to Peter who had me trot Bar and said that limping definitely indicates it is NOT a bug bite. Drat.
So we walked. Then we ran cold water over it for awhile.
Then we iced it.
And iced it some more when that ice pack got warm.
Meanwhile, Lena wanted to know why Bar was getting all the attention. Please don't let her get any ideas about injuries as a way to get more of the limelight.
If the knee had been smaller than it was yesterday, I would have forgone the Bute, but it wasn't, so I didn't. That horse can pout like nobody's business. "No, I don't want your stinky carrot. It might be MEDICINE!" Hopefully one dose will be enough, because I'll now have to resort to extreme trickery to get it in him next time.
More later, hopefully we'll be down to a tennis injury tomorrow.
5 comments:
Knee injuries often puff up dramatically. My Noble banged his knee a number of years ago and still has a bit of permanent puffiness, but is completely sound on it.
Good to know, Kate--thanks! It looked terrible last night, and he moved pretty stiff, but it had improved a little by the time I left.
Hoping for less swelling today, too!
Leg injuries. Second only to colic in my humble opinion, at least for owners.
Probably not practical for unanticipated injuries, but I've had success administering pills by dissolving them in apple sauce and using a large syringe. Although it's not to effective at 20F, which is somewhere below the freezing point of said applesauce.
Hope Bar gets better soon. Keep us posted.
Thanks, BR! It seems I have one horse who is the colic fear and now I have leg-injury boy. Argh.
My daughter suggested skipping the 'bute tonight because the leg wasn't any better today with it (possibly a little worse), and we might want to save 'bute for something really serious..
I will keep posting.. it's a journey, right?
I just found your blog by googling pics of horse knee injuries. I *might* be taking on a rescue mare with a knee injury, that isn't really old, I don't think. (There is propaganda surrounding taking on the mare from people who claim to not own her and not want her, that she was abandoned on their property when they took posession of it, and that turned her loose to fend for herself on a windy-twisty road. Since I showed interest in her, they suddenly seem to want to claim responsibility. Anyways, this is probably TMI).
I was wondering if you had front facing pics without bandages or ice packs, etc of what Bar's knee looked like early on? I'm curious to follow your treatment and prognosis to see if it might help this little mare. She doesn't seem overly uncomfortable, so I hold out hope.
I can be reached at oregonsunshine21@gmail.com or via my blog, which should be linked here.
Thanks!
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