Sidelined

Taking lessons has proven to be a difficult thing to schedule for us.  The facility has a lesson horse, but the horse now has an ulcerrated cornea and needs to have some time off. I offered to haul Mazy in for a lesson and all things set for Go. She has all her shots and her Coggins is clean but the barn owner is insisting on a strangles vaccine. That is one I know she has not had. Lesson gets pushed back another week. 

I got the shots and gave them on Thursday before the holiday weekend. I figured she might be off for a few days and then we could get back to work.... Wrong! Two weeks later and I'm still dealing with it. Mazy had a bad reaction to the vaccine. 

This pic shows the swelling in front of her shoulderblade at the top up by her withers as well as down to just above the white on her leg. This was Monday- Memorial Day. She had a fever and was off her feed as well as not consuming much water. This pic she had gotten a healthy dose of banamine a full body rinse and cold hosing to bring everything down as much as possible which is why she was actually putting weight on it. Otherwise she was 3 legged lame and pretty reluctant to move at all. 

As you can see in the photo above- the next day both front lower legs were swollen. According to everything I found online- this is one of the symptoms of a bad reaction... The bonus here- she wasn't dead. Well isn't that helpful?!?! 

Mazy has gotten a bit anxious about getting her IV banamine shots since getting them once a day. Once she realizes it helps subdue the pain, she's ok with it. I was concerned she might develop ulcers but since the dose is low enough and spread out as well as getting time to free graze and then getting fed, we've passed the mark of this being a huge concern. The other thing I'm still concerned with is compensatory laminitis in the right front as well as soreness in her back and hind end. 

Thankfully I was also able to borrow a pair of Back On Track boots. These helped take the lower leg swelling down too. They're a bit big for her but still worked.  

At first I wrapped all four legs with her pillow wraps and stall bandages. Mazy was not happy about the wraps on her back legs and not only did she get one off, she tore two holes in the other one and destroyed her stall. She dug a couple Big holes in the shavings, down to bare dirt. Shavings and dirt in her water tub.... So now the front legs still get wrapped but not the back. 

Every day her knee is swollen and she still has a huge lump on her shoulder. One of the things I read about reactions- they can cause an abscess at the injection site. 

Yes that left shoulder is huge. The swelling has also come around to the front of her chest. We may be headed to the vet to see if it is in fact an abscess and if they can drain it. If that's the case, I'm sure she won't like it but once it is opened up and drained- it should feel much better. I'm really hoping this isn't what's going on, but if it is and can bring her some almost instant relief then who am I to argue?