She's a walking disaster.

I didn't mention in my last post that the day of the fundraiser event, I got to the barn and as soon as I pulled her out of her stall, I noticed her left hind fetlock was all swollen. I cross-tied her and went to inspect feeling more than a little panicky. I found no heat, and it felt squishy when I pushed on it. She looked back at me like, what are you doing back there, mom? But otherwise seemed unbothered and she obviously wasn't in pain. 


I thought maybe she'd slept on it funny and was just stocked up. I cold-hosed it for 10 or 15 minutes, walked her a little and then wrapped it with seran wrap and furazone and standing wraps to try to sweat it out.


She wore the wraps all afternoon and all night in turnout. When I got there Sunday morning, I unwrapped her legs and the left hind looked better, but was still pretty swollen on the outside. If you looked at it from the side, it looked normal, but from the front, was blatantly obvious. 


She wasn't lame at all, so I rode anyway. I believe I mentioned she was absolutely fantastic.

This week, my office was closed from Tuesday afternoon until tomorrow, because we are moving to a new space. So, I took advantage of the extra free time, and went up yesterday to ride. I hadn't been there in nearly two weeks. Above is what I found yesterday and again today (photo from today), still lurking on that fetlock. It doesn't look any better...nor does it look any worse, than it did two weeks ago. It is exactly, 100% the same.

Please ignore the cow-hocked nature of her hind feet. She's cute, anyway. :)

I had been doing some research to see if I could find anything definite to tell me if it was a.) a wind puff, b.) a need to amputate, c.) a sign of an impending abscess or other hoof condition, or d.) a need to amputate. It seems b and d can be ruled out. And then started bugging Mrs. Mom about it, when I read that it could, in fact, be the result of an abscess (most likely in the heel) that hasn't erupted yet. I also sent my barn owner an email to see what her thoughts are or if the farrier had anything to say when he did her feet. 

Mrs. Mom calmly reminded me to trust my gut. :) My gut says she's fine, and I'm being paranoid.

I also noticed today that she has several smaller lumps on the inside of her left hind. These, I think, are wind puffs...which got me thinking about an article I read this morning that said the size of them can vary greatly, based on location on the leg as well as temperature and weather conditions. 

Above is a shot of the leg after getting cold-hosed for 10 minutes today and then letting her play in the round pen. It is unchanged.

So...even though initially, I had ruled them out, now I am beginning to think these random lumps are, in fact, wind puffs. Annoying, but otherwise relatively harmless. She isn't working as consistently as I'd like, BUT she is working considerably more than she was two-four years ago, while I was finishing school...when I literally rode once a month, if I was lucky. So, the conditions fit...but I must admit, that one on the outside of her fetlock just seems too big to be a wind puff! That does mean it isn't.

I rode lightly yesterday and while she was stiff on the right and reluctant to use her right hind leg properly, she was great on the left. So, I can't see any reason to call the vet out to inspect, unless something changes drastically and she is suddenly lame or has heat in her hind leg(s). My gut feeling is...she's a walking disaster, but she's otherwise fine!


Below are a couple of poor-quality cell phone videos of her in the round pen today. Ignore my sniffling, I am out of allergy meds. :) But, you can see her lovely movement - FINALLY! You can also see that she's sound...and she's even stopped compensating with the right hind now that the stifle feels better. She'd been doing this weird little twisting thing while it was still sore.