injured leg

Question
My gelding injured his front left leg about 4 days ago.  I have him in a paddock with panels.  I think that he might have laid down and got his leg under the panel, but I'm not sure.  Anyway, he was limping pretty severely the first day and had some swelling at the medial inferior portion of the cannon bone just above the joint.  I suspect that he has maybe stretched or injured his suspensory ligament, but I'm not sure.  On the second day I administered Bute P.O. 4mg and am continuing this regime.  As of today, (day 4) He seems to be in less pain and the swelling has decreased some, but is still warm to the touch.  Am I doing all I can?  Please advise.  I appreciate your willingness to help.

Answer
Carey:

The best you can do for this is to get an equine vet to evaluate the leg. Its really impossible for me to know what injury is sustained without seeing it happen and/or having the opportunity to examine the leg. My "gut" feeling is that this is a minor injury and does not necessarily involve the suspensory ligament. I would palpate the suspensory ligament to feel for pain or thickening of the medial branch and the main body of the ligament, but since I cannot do this I cant tell if it is involved. A good equine vet who has an opportunity to examine the leg can. He/she may then find it necessary to ultrasound the injury to dertemine its extent and severity. I would keep the horse on bute and keep him stall rested and hand walked only. On the positive side, it sounds like he is responding to rest and bute. Ultimately, the main therapy for ligment or tendon injuries is rest and antiinflammatories. However, you never know what youre dealing with if you dont have it examined and if you dont know, you might see improvment clinically and return him to exercise or work, and damage the tendon or ligament much more severely- because they take very long times to heal completely, depending on the severity of the initial damage. Be very careful with this if you are not going to use a vet through this. I do reommend an equinve vet look at this for you. If you dont employ one to guide you, Id be very cautious and conservative with how you approach the therapy, time off and return to exercise. good luck. Happy new year to you and yours.