On and on and on it goes

On Sunday afternoon I headed to the barn to go through the ritual of unwrapping, icing, waiting, icing, and rewrapping Spring's leg. She gave me a dirty look and proceeded to be extremely rude about the whole ordeal, picking her leg up and threatening to kick and generally just being a less-than-ideal patient. (To be honest I'm glad that even though she's clearly in pain, she still has her normal personality quirks)

I noticed that Spring seemed to be breathing more quickly than usual for a stalled horse and that she felt kind of warm, so after hunting all over the barn for a thermometer I took her temperature - 101.7. Not alarmingly high, but the mare's getting 2g of bute 2x a day so it seemed odd that her temp would be elevated. I had my trainer look at her, and since she was behaving normally and eating her dinner we decided to just keep an eye on it. Trainer called me later that night after she left the barn to say that the breathing seemed back to normal. 

Monday I was at the barn at 6 am to clean stalls and the first thing I did was check on my mare. Her temperature was now 102.1, and she was breathing heavily again. Her leg looked more swollen and was definitely pitting. Suspecting cellulitis, the vet had me pick up some sulfa and set up an appointment to come out the next morning. The swelling at this point had reached the hock, so Trainer, BM, and I wrangled the mare into a stacked set of standing wraps to try and keep it under control.

When I pulled the wraps this morning they felt damp, which seemed odd. My vet got there early and poked/prodded Spring's now oozing leg with concern. Cellulitis usually doesn't cause yellow drainage, but lymphangitis does. The weird sores are another symptom, along with the fever, breathing, and decreasing appetite. It also explains the sudden onset, and why it's gotten worse with stall rest. 

Spring got taken off the sulfa and put on Excede. She's also getting a daily IV injection of a second antibiotic, and we're continuing the high doses of bute until she starts putting weight on the leg. She gets to walk for up to 10 minutes a day to increase circulation and take the stress off her RH, which is starting to look a little rough (she's been standing on it for five days now). Both legs are going to live in standing wraps, and she can be cold hosed 1-2 times a day.

There is a possibility that the lymphangitis caused an artifact on the ultrasound and that she does not have a suspensory injury. There's also a possibility that she has both illness and injury. I am planning to have a different vet come out to re-ultrasound whenever the swelling finally goes down. Aaaand I think that's it. There's always something.

Also, I'm looking for a pair of ice vibe boots and a set of BoT standing wraps of anyone sees a good deal somewhere on the internet ;)