So Digger has been working amazingly with no issues at all for quite some time. He is on Adequan and sometimes warms up a little stiff in his left hind, but has been super sound for quite some time. My trainer witnessed, last Tuesday, him and his buddy gelding galloping all out to the fence line and then attempting to slam on the brakes, which usually works (makes me cringe every time though), but it is like monsoon season here lately so his hind end slipped up under him until he was sitting like a dog. That evening he was slightly off on the lunge at the trot and clearly not wanting to use his hind end in his normal popping up off the ground upward transitions. I checked that left hind leg and there was a small swelling and some heat in his left hind on the outside about 6 inches below his hock, however, after standing quietly on the cross ties for about 10 minutes, the heat went away. It was too late then to buy poultice, but I did the next day and attempted to keep him wrapped and in a stall with a run in. T
Thursday the bump was feeling more "squishy" and less hard like a knot, and the heat had not returned. Friday morning he started to hate being in all the time and got loose and galloped around like a madman, and the barn owner had to call me out of breath at 10am to tell me that he mysteriously escaped and she had been chasing him around the property for the better part of an hour. Since then he has been out at night when his buddy is in so he quietly stands by the barn and then he goes in during the day. He is wrapped with a clay poultice then cotton and standing wraps (I have been polo wrapping his right hind so it doesn't get sore from him favoring it). When he is wrapped he moves MUCH better, but he continues to be short at the trot. It will be at least a couple weeks before I can have a vet out, as I just spent $500 on my shepherd last weekend. I was researching about splints online, and that is what it seems to be, but they say it is very uncommon in older horses and in the area where the lump is.
The common suggestion seems to be 30 days trying to keep him quiet.I am wondering if he maybe could have gotten a splint at a young age that occasionally gets inflamed? I would definitely love to have a vet out as soon as it is feasible, but am wondering if, in the interim, anyone has experience with something similar and what the outcome was. Thanks!!!
