Scratching my head - whats wrong with Bonfire?

[Tootsie4U]

About two weeks ago Bonfire came down with a severe allergic reaction where his entire back half swelled almost three times its normal size. Currently, all swelling has subsided but there are a few lingering symptoms that have me baffled.

His personality is still 'off'. He's lethargic, sluggish and reluctant to do just about anything.

I tried riding him Saturday and after about 15 mins of nice slow easy work he suddenly started to get tense and began diving to the right. Im talking about an abrupt turn on the haunches 90 degree angle dive. I thought his hocks might still be bothering him so ended the session there.

I tried riding him again last night but he did that diving thing immediately. Even if we're tracking left and in a nice correct bend, he suddenly goes very hollow, gets tense, and dives to the right.

Any ideas?

[Cheeky]

Maybe after such a reaction he is not ready for ridden work..

Perhaps, he needs a little more time to get back into the swing of things .. especially if he has potential to be sore anywhere. Try taking him inhand out for a hack, or light lunging ..

good luck

[KarinUS]

do you know what caused it? How did you treat it?

[KarinUS]

PS: I am referring to the reaction not the riding ;)

[Tootsie4U]

We (vet, friend and myself) are thinking it was a bad reaction to an insect bite (they're particularly bad this year). His hocks swelled to the size of large cantalopes. The swelling included his sheath and fetlocks too.

Vet wasn't too disturbed and just had me watch his temp. and give 1 gram bute for the inflamation and pain. She said we could have given antibiotics and steroids if he didnt get better, but he did eventually.

Im a tad worried that some greater damage was done to his back legs and he's finding ridden work difficult now. Or, I could be over-reacting and this is just Bonfire throwing a little mischief my way... what a concept! :D

[KarinUS]

Hm. That does sound weird.
DJ had reactions to all kinds of things so I keep some antihistamine in my first aid kit. He's never had something like this though. Any chance it's not an allergic reaction afterall?

[Tootsie4U]

Well, the worst of it lasted about 3 or 4 days and now you cant see any physical evidence other than an abrasion at the target site. If he wasnt so lethargic, it'd be hard to see any problem in him. In all, it really does sound and seem like some sort of allergy to something.

The real issue is; he's done this before. Very early on in his training he'd just drop his shoulder and pull to the opposite direction. That was years ago. He actually still does this at times in canter but that is purely rider error and once I fix my body, he fixes himself. When he did it last night, I really concentrated on where my body was just to make sure I wasnt messing up like I do in canter but it had no result. Thats why I ask myself if this is just him trying to be a trickster again. I got past it last time by being insistent and riding him through it (hard) but I dont want to do that to him if he's actually having discomfort from the swelling.

I could give him more time off like Cheeky said but we have a big breed show on the 30th.

[Big Ears]

don;t know about his way of giong but the swelling with fly bites I can empathise with as my donkey looks like Elephant Man at the moment.

[BeachRiding]

hmm, my horse had something similar happen recently,although not as severe, I gave him plenty of riding time of, and he went back into work well.

[cvb]

Tootsie

isn't a reaction like that kind of like a toxic reation ? He may still have toxins in his system even though the symptoms have subsided ?

Also you talked about some abrasion ... is it under the saddle ? It might be that there is some abrasion or something left there so if he "tweaks" it you get a reaction ?

(Duds developed some granulous lumps where he had been bitten - in the saddle - years ago when he was young. In the end they were cut out and he's been ok since. But in the meantime we had to find ways to keep the pressure off them. And off the site when he came back into work.)