bruised thigh

[JeanneB]

we had the vet look at the injury after the horse had fallen on ice last week.
The thigh took most of the impact. The thigh has/had two wounds with a great deal of swelling. We have been applying topical meds and oral antibiotics.
The swelling was initially huge and has gone down considerably.
I hose the site daily and apply topical antibiotics and dermaplast.
My concern is the following:
The horse has a large hard area that is slightly swollen but very hard.
The vet said to start walking the horse but the thigh is so hard it scares the dickens out of me.
The horse walks easily to the wash rack for its hosing /medical session.
The x-rays were clean .
The initial swelling that fell to the lower limb has all been reabsorped but at the impact site has some slight swelling and is very hard. It is swollen to one side and hard on the other half.
Do I hose with warmer water..... the wound is still open and draining.
I placed a call to the vet asking how do I deal with this hard thigh.
THere is no lameness issue for the walk to the wash rack.
I guess felling this hard mass on the thigh every time I apply the ointment makes my stomach churn.
ANd when I do apply the cream to the area that is very hard he fliches thus i think maybe we whould wait a day or two more before coming off of stall rest.

[M. O'Connor]

Sorry your horse is injured.

Horses don't have "thighs," however. If you could look here,

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=parts+of+the+horse&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

and refer to the part that's injured, people might find it easier to offer advice and help.

But generally, movement is very beneficial in alleviating swelling. Horses are not designed for confinement; for this reason, if at all possible, most try to avoid having to impose it.

[JackieBlue]

It's a good bet that by "thigh" the orignal poster means the gaskin. That area is called the "thigh" by many horseman (and women ;)) even though it's a misnomer. I would think that technically a horse does have a thigh since they have femurs and the same associated musculature in that area that those of who definitely have thighs do. It's just that the area that some call their thigh actually isn't. Their true thigh is the portion of the hind limb between the stifle and hip, just like ours.
Very much like the common misnomer of "ankle" for fetlock. A fetlock is not an ankle. Technically a horse's hock is the same (homologous) joint as our ankle + heel, so if they had an ankle, it should be their hock. But I guess because a fetlock on a horse is in a similar place in the limb as our ankle is for us, many of us choose to call the fetlock an ankle. And in most circles, thigh and ankle are perfectly acceptable terms for the horse's anatomy.
OP, I'm sorry your horse had a fall and that it resulted in an ijury. It's very encouraging that he's not lame. Is your vet concerned about the hard area? You can ask if hot packing the area might help. Since it's been a few days replacing the cold therapy with heat may help to disseminate the products of inflammation a little faster. Keep us posted on his progress!