This article first appeared in the June 2022 digital edition of Equestrian Life. To see what’s in the current issue, click here. 

Usually with peri-tarsal cellulitis, it is just around the hock, however it can progress to involve swelling of the entire leg.

© Fox Run Equine Centre

Peri-tarsal cellulitis calls for quick action

By Dr Maxine Brain

Peri-tarsal cellulitis is a unique syndrome that often presents as an emergency due to the severe painfulness of the condition. Basically, it is a cellulitis that starts in the tissues around the hock.

Cellulitis is an infection in the soft tissues under the skin and can occur in any area of the body but is more common in the hind limbs. Often there is a point of entry within the skin for bacteria to gain access to body, and this can be a small wound, an abrasion, or a fine crack in the skin. The unusual aspect of peri-tarsal cellulitis (PTC), however, is that the infection presents as a similar swelling around the hock in all horses affected by the condition and an entry wound for bacteria is seldom identified.

One theory put forward to explain why the hock is predisposed to this condition involves the pattern of the blood vessels that supply the hock and how this predisposes the area to bacteria becoming lodged in the soft tissues, however, this has not been proven.

Horses with PTC present with a sudden-onset severe lameness that, on initial presentation, is often confused with a fracture or an infection of the hock joint because of the swelling localised around the hock joint; it is painful to touch or palpate, with no visible signs of an injury present. Within hours to days, the swelling spreads up and down the leg, resulting in a grossly enlarged hind leg with the

Read the full article in the June 2022 issue of Equestrian Life magazine.