Keep swelling down on horses fetlocks?

If he is stocking up every day and if it is taking an hour or longer of exercise to eliminate the swelling, you may want to discuss it with your vet. The best treatment is prevention, and that means doing whatever you can to get him moving around more.

If horses have no motivation or room to keep moving around the way they do when they are kept grazing in large pastures with other horses to chase around with, then most horses will just stand around idle unless they are forced to exercise.

If you compress the legs with wraps to prevent stocking up, over time the vessel walls and valves become progressively weaker and less competent as a result. Eventually the limbs will immediately swell as soon as the wraps are removed, and stocking up will be a chronic condition. If you do use wraps, they should not be on for more than 12 hours of each day. If swelling is not brought down with exercise, poulticing with epsom salts may be effective, but you should probably consult your vet on that. Ten or fifteen minutes of cold hosing after exercise should be a matter of routine in order to cool the tendons and prevent swelling.

On the other hand, if you do nothing and allow the swelling to continue as is, it is likely to progressively worsen since the continually stagnating blood and lymph eventually distends, stretches, and damages the vessels and connective tissues of the limbs and can lead to fibrosis and thickening of these tissues that obstructs the flow of blood and lymph, so that increasingly more fluid will pool in the extremities, the swelling will become chronic, and the damage can progressively worsen over time. As the horse ages, lymphatic efficiency wanes anyway, so the older the horse gets, the more pronounced stocking up may become.

Horses that are prone to stocking up benefit from being put on a diet that mostly consists of roughage as in grass hays, and if concentrates are needed as an extra energy source, choose a low starch, higher fat pelleted feed. Legume hay such as alfalfa should be avoided, and so should cereal grains. Keeping your horse's weight down and providing adequate nutrients without feeding a high percentage of concentrated feed in the ration will help to reduce the volume of fluid accumulation in the limb tissues. Again though, the best prevention comes with getting him moving around as much as possible.

Stocking up is usually caused by too little exercise and/or too much food.

First question: does the swelling go away when you exercise him? If not, it's not just stocking up and you need a vet.

If the swelling goes away with exercise, then the first thing to do is reduce his grain. More hay if necessary, but definitely less grain.

Then, when you've exercised him and the swelling has gone away, cold hose his legs - not a little, do it for at least 15-20 minutes. This helps thoroughly cool his legs, which will reduce the probability of fluid pooling in warm legs.

Make sure you thoroughly dry his legs after cold hosing - you don't want to develop skin conditions.

You don't need any kind of sport boot on him - they hold heat in his legs, and make him more likely to stock up.

I'd recommend against standing bandages - they're hard to do properly, take a lot of effort, are irritating to the horse, and can do real damage if done wrong - but they do sometimes help.

Other than that, I'd recommend you do things to encourage him to move in his pen. Put small piles of hay in different places. Put his water at the far end. Best would be a large pasture with other horses 24/7, but failing that try to get him to move more on his own. Even a companion who moves around would be helpful - I've seen horses follow goats around if there is no other company.

Advice from the vet would also be good.

individually i could call the vet to get the diagnosis in the past treating, the farrier will possibly no longer have the means to grant you the solutions necessary if her swelling is in the fetlock she would have harm a muscle or a ligament, in case you do not have the money or the time to have the particularly vet come out supply the vet a decision and supply them as plenty element on the priority as available they might supply you some suggestion on what to do, individually if this became my horse i could shop her prove customary purely have her in a paddock the place it isn't any longer too muddy or rocky via her self or with another pasture dwindled, positioned slightly extra bedding in her stall, chilly hosing works great for swollen legs yet another situation you're able to do is take a bucket with some Epsom salts possibly 2 enormous handfuls and 2 gallons of water and soak her leg 2 situations an afternoon as nicely i additionally like witch hazel rubbing that on sore or swollen legs does help very much, i would not holiday her until the swelling is going down and visual show unit her intently if this does worsen call the vet out asap, whilst the farrier comes out to trim her enable him comprehend of the area and characteristic him study her foot good to verify if she has any bruises or abbesses as nicely yet as i pronounced call the vet and get their suggestion

I'd talk to your vet and have your horses legs examined to find out EXACTLY what is going on. Your vet can make the best recommendation on what to do.

my firends horse is like this but she has her horse out in the paddock and she put tuff rock on her fetlocks and then polo warps her horses legs and then she is normally fine

Yes, overdue for the vet to visit.

Matter of fact, if you're riding him too hard, you could be contributing to the swelling.

my horse has the sameee problem. except hes off too :( and he lives out so i dont really know whats going on. but what i did was 10 minutes cold water from a hose, and i have him Bute (idk how to spell it) to help with the swelling. maybe just get on or even hand walk him around for awhile, but just walk. just to help his circulation to get going. is it hot ? i deff think you should call a vet and see whats going on. good luck ! (: