Problem with my horses front shoulder/leg join

Question
My horse is 26 years old.  We had a flood last week and he was going through the pasture, slipped and as he caught himself he tried to pull his leg back and the mud held it.  It is his front right leg and there was quite a bit of inflammation and some swelling at the join of the leg to the body, more to the back and outside then the inside.  He does not want to put any weight on it, he will if he has to.  He can walk but it is obviously extremely painful.  He limps a lot and holds the leg forward of his body as often as not.  I have been giving him bute and using linament on the leg, shoulder and under the join so that I can cover everything.  He does not seem to have pain elsewhere.  If you have any ideas as to what I can do to help him, could you please let me know.  He may be old, but he has been with me a long while and I would like it to be longer.  He does not need to be ridden ever again, I am happy to just have him around.  Thank you very much for any assistance that you might give.

Answer
Linda;

you need to get an equine vet to look at him. It is not in your horse's best interest for you to be trying to treat this yourself. There could be a very serious injury to this leg, including a fracture or severe soft tissue and/or nerve damage. It is not appropriate for me to tell you how to manage this as I could not possibly have any idea what the problem is without ever seeing this horse. Presecribing something to do could potentially damage this leg even further if it is the wrong thing to prescribe for the problem. Without a diagnosis of the problem there is no way for anyone to answer if he will be able to be ridden again. You need an equine vet out to examine this horse immediately to minimize the potential for something to get worse. I strongly urge you to do this the minute you finish reading this reply. Your horse's soundness and possibly even its life could depend on your swift response to this.
Good luck with this and feel free to contact me again, but please have someone look at this immediately to be sure this is an injury that does not require much more intensive intervention that bute and linament.