Lymphangitis

[Austins Mom]

My 12-year-old TB gelding was diagnosed with lymphangitis about two years ago. He is on 24-hour turnout quite happily, with an active herd. He is on a high quality free choice hay and balanced grain diet, as well as access to water all the time. He is a healthy horse; shiney coat, good weight, sparkle in his eye, etc.

His trigger is that he'll get a bit of mud fever on the white sock of the bad leg and that will trigger swelling, or if he's kept standing for too long (long trailer ride or stalled).

I am really good about wrapping his legs if there is any chance he'll be standing for extended periods of time, so that isn't really the issue.

However, I do everything humanly possible to keep the mud fever off .. but it still comes back!! The most affected areas are clipped shorter in the winter, to allow air to get to the skin to prevent the mud fever, as well his legs are kept clean of mud and scabs. His turnout is a little wet sometimes, but nothing horrible.

I am having to give this guy antibiotics almost every other month, to keep the flareups under control. It'll work, mud fever will go away ... then a few weeks later, its back!!

It is nuts and I KNOW all these antibiotics can't be good for him! Plus I am dreading the day that he starts to become immune to the antibiotics I am currently giving him, since this IS a chronic condition :-S

So I was pondering; would giving him a supplement help?

Then comes the question of "chicken or egg:" Do I supplement for immune support, since its the lymphatic system not being able to take the toxins away from the leg efficiently? Or would supplementing something for coat/skin be better, to help prevent the mud fever?

What are your thoughts? :) And if anyone has any specific suggestions to supplements, that would be great!

And if anyone who has experience with lymphangitis has any other helpful tips, I'd love to hear them!!!

Thanks

[ladipus]

My 12-year-old TB gelding was diagnosed with lymphangitis about two years ago. He is on 24-hour turnout quite happily, with an active herd. He is on a high quality free choice hay and balanced grain diet, as well as access to water all the time. He is a healthy horse; shiney coat, good weight, sparkle in his eye, etc.

His trigger is that he'll get a bit of mud fever on the white sock of the bad leg and that will trigger swelling, or if he's kept standing for too long (long trailer ride or stalled).

I am really good about wrapping his legs if there is any chance he'll be standing for extended periods of time, so that isn't really the issue.

However, I do everything humanly possible to keep the mud fever off .. but it still comes back!! The most affected areas are clipped shorter in the winter, to allow air to get to the skin to prevent the mud fever, as well his legs are kept clean of mud and scabs. His turnout is a little wet sometimes, but nothing horrible.

I am having to give this guy antibiotics almost every other month, to keep the flareups under control. It'll work, mud fever will go away ... then a few weeks later, its back!!

It is nuts and I KNOW all these antibiotics can't be good for him! Plus I am dreading the day that he starts to become immune to the antibiotics I am currently giving him, since this IS a chronic condition :-S

So I was pondering; would giving him a supplement help?

Then comes the question of "chicken or egg:" Do I supplement for immune support, since its the lymphatic system not being able to take the toxins away from the leg efficiently? Or would supplementing something for coat/skin be better, to help prevent the mud fever?

What are your thoughts? :) And if anyone has any specific suggestions to supplements, that would be great!

And if anyone who has experience with lymphangitis has any other helpful tips, I'd love to hear them!!!

Thanks

My horse got lymphangitis about 2yrs ago-it presented w/ him acting lethargic,and dragging his hind toes a little and stocked up hind legs....he also had a 104 fever...the inside of his thighs-up near his scrotum was also burning hot to the touch...we treated him w/ Oxytetracyline IV for a few doses,along w/ naquazone,and banamine initially...then switched over to doxycyline,dex,and banamine...he was 75% better w/ in one day of treatment,and fully better w/in a few days.

He hasn't had it ever since...only thing i could think of was he had some minor "scratches" below his fetlocks/pastern area-and their was a lot of morning dew from being turned out on overnight turnout in the summer...he also had some tick bites previously as well-which the vet said could have possibly triggered it.

[Melyni]

So I suspect you need to look more carefully at the place he is in to see what could be triggering it.


A therapy laser can be really helpful in reducing the inflammation but it's gonna take antibiotics, at a high enough dose to get rid of it.
Good Luck.
MW

[Melyni]

look for something with a high copper and zinc content. Both minerals are involved with skin/immune function. I suggest LinPro, 4 oz per day.
Also try putting him on 4-8oz flax seed, either whole or fresh ground, the Omega 3s will help reduce the inflammatory cycle.

Good Luck
MW

[Austins Mom]

I tried him on ground flax for 8 or 10 months and it didn't make a difference on him.

Thanks

[Melyni]

I tried him on ground flax for 8 or 10 months and it didn't make a difference on him.

Thanks

Then try the whole flax, if it is the pre-ground stuff it loses the omega 3s very quickly (matter of hours) even if it is stabilized it does not protect the Omega 3s.

But in any case increase his copper and zinc.
MW

[flyracing]

Sounds like your horse has the same type of "lymphangitis" as my horse has which is actually vasculitis which is an autoimmune reaction that causes symptoms of lymphangitis. What happens is a harmless amount of bacteria enters under the skin during a scratches or other skin breaking episode and the body attack the invaders, however, it over shoots and also attack healthy non invader tissues which overwhelms the lymphatic system and waste fills in the leg. Antibiotics are helping to rid the body of the initial cause which is in and of it self harmless, but does nothing to treat the root cause which involves an overactive immune system. Giving him immune boosting supplements will either do nothing or maybe make the condition worse. The only treatment I am aware of for a flair up is steroids (dexamethazone) and for a chronic case add a diuretic. I use animax topped with therafugazine oxide ointment to slow the bacteria that starts the cycle on my horse from getting into the skin. This alone has kept my horse flair up free for almost two years, but before that we were doing steroid treatments every couple of month to prevent him from permanently damaging the lymphatic system. The steroids would clear up the problem with in 72 hours for a really bad flair (the first two, when we didn't really know what was going on) and when I would catch it early (same day) it would be 24-36 hours before the legs would return to normal. My horses treatment for a major flair up:
Day 1,2: 40 mg dexamethazone
Day 3,4: 20 mg dex
Day 5,6: 10 mg dex
Day 7: 5 mg dex
Day 1-6: Standard dose of doxycycline (my vet said this was for the "just in case.")

We also made sure he never had a fever.

Let me know if you need more info.

[fivehorses]

My horse also gets cellulitis/lymphangitis.

I am super careful about mud with her, since it initially started with scratches.

I now keep her clipped, turnout in the driest paddock, and pasture.
Also, if the conditions are muddy, before she comes in for the night, she gets hosed down and dried off.

She is also on Omega horseshine. Melyni, are you saying that the omega horseshine loses its omega 3 too? I use it for the omega 3 anti inflamatory benefit as well as the cleansing benefit.

This horse also has a compromised immune system from battling bastard strangles so I am a bit more hawkish with her than I am with my others.

She has always had a temp with the cellulitis/lymphangitis bouts. First time I sent her to the hospital, NEEMS. Next time, I caught it within hours, and treated her with cold hosing every 4 hours for the first 24 hours, and then every 6 hours, and also put her on tucoprim and banamine, and she was good to go in days.
I believe the cold hosing and catching it within hours of developing clinical signs helped.
I have not used dex, nor did they the first time when she was hospitalized. I think they did naxcel and banamine.

I watch her very carefully, and check her quite frequently for scratches.
I so wish in hindsight I had been more proactive on the scratches when she was younger. I just thought it was no big deal, clean it up, apply desitin/calamine and good to go.

I now know, scratches is not something to take lightly.

[flyracing]

Yes, if the horse has a fever, I would NOT treat with dex until a tissue biopsy came back confirming vasculitis and the vet was confortable contributing the fever to the immune system over reaction, however, for my horse, his first episode was cellulitis and he had a fever of 104+, two weeks later he had his first vasculitis episode. No fever, but legs ended up swelling so badly they wept with serum and scalded the legs even though I washed the with soapless baby shampoo every two hours (all day and night long for 3 days). The dex saved his life, literally, his case was that bad. the immune system was eating his organs. The OP is more lucky that her horse's problem is limited to a limb at this point.

[Austins Mom]

Interesting, thank you guys. I feel some research coming on, which means I'll probably come back with more questions later ;)

He has never had a temperature during the flareups.

If I were to do a tissue biopsy, do I need to wait for the next flareup, before I can do it? Or is it something that will always show up ... ? Would the tissue biopsy be able to definitively say whether it is lymphangitis vs vasculitis?

Off to do some reading ... ;)

[Austins Mom]

So I had a "duhh" moment!! We had the horse fluoroscoped and CT-scanned by the vet and actually got to see the blockage, which gives it the definitive diagnosis of lymphangitis :)

So back to supplements ... Would it be safe to do an immune support and a skin/coat supplement at the same time I wonder?

Thanks!