lymphangitis

[Claudius]

Please tell me your success stories with this infection. Do you bandage, how do you bandage, do you sweat??? Which atibiotic worked for your horse??

[talloaks]

If the legs are swollen and weeping fluids I wrap using Gamgee and Coflex. If the leg is involved all the way up I may do 3 sets up and double them like a cast. Only antibiotic that works on my mare, is Baytril. Always hose down and wash the leg if it is weeping lymphatic fluid. I use a burn cream on the legs before wrapping with the gamgee.

[lovemyoldguy]

There have been a couple of really great threads on this already, so you might want to search for them - tons of useful info.

My gelding had it at 17, lived to be 35, needed constant maintenance. Initial occurence was terrible and took him a year to recover; flareups after that were bad but caught early every time and treatable. During the episode itself, we treated with Naxcel IM/Banamine IM or oral/Gastroguard. Cold hosed as often as possible and hand walked when possible. Wrapped with gamgee during the 'weeping' phase of the episode, and in a standing bandage all other times.

My gelding's hind leg stocked up very badly, so we kept that leg wrapped from hoof to hock unless he was under saddle. (If you're going to turnout in wraps, even for a short time, make SURE they're tight and secured with pins/duct tape.)

[Gry2Yng]

Have one gelding that has several bouts. Always successfully returned to work. Last was 2 years ago. They gave him a 10% chance and he pulled thru. We had to use chloramphenocol (sp) WAY expensive and has to be dosed every 4 hours.

[Maryanne Nicpon]

One of my old mare had chronic lymphangitis for the last four years of her life. We tried all sorts of combinations of therapy. Naxcel seemed to work for a while. She lived in wraps on both hind legs. The best thing for her was 24/7 turnout. If she was kept in a stall, even for a day, the swelling increased, her mobility decreased, her pain increased, etc. Being able to move around constantly, even if it wasn't a lot, really helped. Her wraps had to be changed daily, especially when it was muddy out. I think I ended up with 10-12 complete sets of wraps and quilts for her. Ultimately, she began to develop abscesses in her fetlocks. They would rupture and bleed. We got control of it once, but the second time we decided it was time to let her go. She was 24.

[ToN Farm]

My mare had it in one hind leg that became infected from a small cut. In one day, the swelling went from the cannon all the way up to the groin. She stayed at the clinic for 7 days. They gave IV-OxyTetracycline and Game Ready therapy. The leg was wrapped when I went to visit her, but I don't know the things they did during the day. After the treatment, she was fine and hasn't had any problems since. That was last year at this time.

[Soldier06]

Quick run down of what we did:
Give him as many meds in the cabinet short of killing him :yes:

When he was found I was pretty convinced the vet was coming to put him down, non weight bearing, shaking, sweating, extreme muscle spasms, and would not move. I thought he had broken his leg. At this point there was no swelling (his LH pastern has always been boggy from scar tissue and it was maybe slightly boggier, but not much) and very low fever, maybe 101.

He got:
Naxcel (20 cc 2x daily IM)
Genticin (35 cc 1x daily IM)
Naquasome (1 packet)
5 mL dex (1 daily either IM or oral)
Metroprodinzole (30 pills, 10 3 times daily)
2-3 grams bute
1000lbs banimine (split into 2 doses)
10 Robaxin

He lived on those meds for about 3-3.5 weeks, followed by 2 weeks of SMZ's. In addition we had a massage therapist work on creating drains/channels in the leg every other night, he stood in the Game Ready as long as possible (started at 15 minutes 2x daily worked up to 1.5 hrs 1-2 times daily). He lost all the hair till mid cannon, rotted off the top inch of his cornet band and weeped serum out of his whole leg/sheath with the exception of outside of his stifle. The inside of his stifle and sheath weeped, and he grew a huge edema of serum on his stomach, which grew probably day 10 into this all and lasted about 2.5 weeks. His leg bled, and weeped, I would wash it with Castile soap and it would be clean and by the time we got back to his stall it'd be yellow again. :eek:

I stack wrapped him from the cornet band/hoof up to the top of his stifle. He got either topical Panalog/animax or Vet Dream Cream (BEST STUFF EVER works great on human sunburns too). He literally soaked thru standing wraps with serum, I threw 2 out and one has permanent stains. In the AM when I'd change his bandage the leg would steam, he was literally burning. :no:

He was lame for 3.5 weeks, lost about 150lbs and horse showed 5 weeks after the initial day. He had severe muscle atrophy on the left side, right side looked like a racehorse left was weak. However he got handwalked/t/o as much as possible, and I rode him and even when he was still very lame (though not nearly as painful, you could touch the leg) he trotted. Working and staying in his "routine" helped him. I would ride him up to the ring (maybe 1500ft) and get off and handwalk, but he thought he had been ridden and was much happier. The biggest risk we ran with riding was other injuries to other legs because of compensation, I was very careful not to push him but also keep him mentally happy.

He gets wrapped every night and the leg gets washed every night. At the smallest sign of a cut he gets SMZ's. I keep at least 2-3 antibiotics on hand in addition to SMZ's, right now Doxy and Naxcel. He has no sensation in the left leg, you can clean a cut with straight alcohol and he won't move but try that with the right leg and he practically falls down.

The cost was about $3500, not including SMZ's and minus some vet fees (wonderful vet :))

ETA-If we had been able to bring him to NEE we would have, but we feared he wouldn't be able to stand/balance for the trip.