| Title: | Equine Notes Conference |
| Notice: | Topics List=4, Horses 4Sale/Wanted=150, Equip 4Sale/Wanted=151 |
| Moderator: | MTADMS::COBURN IO |
| Created: | Tue Feb 11 1986 |
| Last Modified: | Thu Jun 05 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 2080 |
| Total number of notes: | 22383 |
Brenda Baer
dtn 223-5823
leddev::baer
Wind Puffs
I would like to find out all I can on wind puffs.
My horse left me in the woods one day and ran all the way home thru the
trails which were rocky and then on pavement. He ran all the way.
That night he showed up with wind puffs on his back legs. I cooled
them down with hosing down his legs and then blue cooled them
afterwards. A friend of mine borrowed my horse and they went for a
ride that was about 2 hours long, but doing nothing out of the ordinary
and he got wind puffs again on his back legs. I rode him the other day
and we did some trial riding thru mud and he again got wind puffs.
Can someone explain, why they get wind puffs, can I do anything so they
don't get them, and I doing the right thing to cure them, etc..
Thanks
Brenda
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2051.1 | This may help | FOUNDR::CRAIG | Thu Sep 05 1996 15:28 | 17 | |
"Sometimes referred to as windgalls or 'Puffs,' wind puffs are
enlargements of fluid sacs located immediately around the pastern or
fetlock joints -- front or back feet. They result from too hard or too
fast work on hard surfaces or just heavy work. Very few old horses
escape them. The size of a wind puff may be reduced by applying cold
packs followed by a liniment, but the puff will reappear when the horse
is exercised. Almost all roping horses, as well as other horses that
have been used very hard, have wind puffs. Usually, they are not
serious, and no permanent benefit results from treatment. They
indicate that the horse has been worked hard for a period of time in
his life."
-- from "Horses, a Guide to
Selection, Care, and
Enjoyment" by J. Warren Evans,
ISBN 0-7167-1971-1, page 88
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| 2051.2 | usually pretty harmless | NETCAD::MORENZ | JoAnne Morenz NPE Network Management | Mon Sep 09 1996 17:56 | 22 |
Don't worry too much about them. They are actually a little bit of synovial fluid that leaks out of the joint capsule of the fetlock, and sits under the skin. They seem to persist more in back legs and feet - I think because that's about as far from their heart as a body part can get - and the normal circulation in that area doesn't pull it all back into the bloodstream - and thus out of the tissues. You will probably notice them mostly in the morning - if your horse is kept in a stall at night. Once your horse develops them - they will reappear forever. One way to reduce the size of them after working is a nice long cool down period. As long as you don't routinely *over* work him - they will just be an ugly little wort - but they won't do any real harm (kind of like getting a scratch on your new car). I've had a couple of horses with windpuffs and one with some fluid in the hocks. With a gradual warm-up and cool down - it never affected their performance. So don't worry ;-) | |||||
| 2051.3 | Tendonous and articular windgalls | CHEFS::ELKINL | Jumping Jack Flash Lass | Tue Sep 10 1996 16:27 | 11 |
Just a bit mew info --- windgalls come in two types, articular and
tendonous. The articular windgalls are at either side of the fetlock
and tendonous windgalls are to the back of the fetlock (base of the
tendon). Once they've arrived it is impossible to get rid of them.
They can, but very rarely do cause lameness and most horses which have
done hard work develop them at some point in their lives.
Hope this helps.
Liz
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