cellulitis

[john plowden]

Any one have experience with Cellulitis causing lameness?
John

[Carl Russell]

What do you mean by cellulitis? I’m not sure that I have heard of that. Carl

[416Jonny]

Hmmmm…..cellulitis? I don’t know about making a horse lame, but the unsightly rash could make a mare not want to be seen in something as skimpy as a harness……

Wikipedia defines it as:

“Cellulitis is an infection of the deep subcutaneous tissue of the skin. Cellulitis can be caused by normal skin flora or by exogenous bacteria, and often occurs where the skin has previously been broken: cracks in the skin, cuts, blisters, burns, insect bites, surgical wounds, or sites of intravenous catheter insertion. The mainstay of therapy remains treatment with appropriate antibiotics. Skin on the face or lower legs is most commonly affected by this infection, though cellulitis can occur on any part of the body.”

The dangers are:

“Horses may acquire cellulitis, usually secondary to wound (which can be extremely small and superficial) or to a deep-tissue infection, such as an abscess or infected bone, tendon sheath, or joint. Cellulitis from a superficial wound will usually create less lameness (grade 1-2 out of 5) than that caused by septic arthritis (grade 4-5 lameness). The horse will exhibit inflammatory edema, producing a hot, painful swelling. this swelling differs from stocking up in that the horse will not display symmetrical swelling in 2 or four legs, but only in one leg.

This swelling begins near the source of infection, but will eventually continue downward the leg. In some cases, the swelling will also travel upward. Treatment includes cleaning the wound and caring for it properly, the administration of NSAIDs, such as phenylbutazone, cold hosing, applying a sweat wrap or a poultice, and mild exercise. Veterinarians may also prescribe antibiotics. Recovery is usually quick and the prognosis is very good if the cellulitis is secondary to skin infection..”

That’s what I came across. I think what they are getting at is that this kinda stuff happens to horses that have already had an injury of some sort.

Jonny B.

[Anonymous]

Having experienced cellulitis myself on my own leg, I can testify that it indeed causes lameness in a horse-logger, so logically would in a horse as well. It was probably the worst prolonged pain I’ve ever experienced.

I contracted it via an accident in the woods, actually. I was logging some big aspen, but doing all the work ground-skidding with a team. I decided to try to take out a tree-length skid, which meant 7 sticks, or 60 feet of log. My team was doing fine, but the skid trail was not well suited for that long of a log. Snow was wet, I didn’t have caulked boots at the time, and I slipped jumping over the log as we made the turn at the landing. A 60 foot log pivots a lot sharper than what we had been pulling, and I got wedged against banked up snow hardened from skidding, and the entire log ground along against my shin and calf.

As much as it hurt, I had a hard time getting over the fact that my horses didn’t respond to my “WOAH!” Thinking about it later, I’m sure my voice inflection was panicked and nothing like the firm command they usually responded to so well.

I ended up getting out of there fine, and didn’t break anything as I was sure I had. But a couple days later the cellulitis set in from the extreme contusion, as is described in Jonny’s post. Hurt like h…e…double hockey sticks. I was totally lame for a week before the antibiotics kicked in and then slowly recovered. So yeah, a horse with cellulitis is probably hurting.

Nothing sold me more on getting a logging arch than that accident. I would have been free and clear from that log, well rested from not tromping through 2 feet of snow all day, and the horses wouldn’t have been working so hard to pull the log and would have been more relaxed. The woods can be a hard place to learn lessons. And painful.

[Author]

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