How to Bandage a Horse’s Leg for Swelling
Swelling in the horse's legs can come from many different factors and has multiple forms. The most common forms of this are stocking up and edema due to injury. Stocking up occurs due to impaired circulation, resulting in a pooling up of fluid. Although this may look alarming, it is normally not too serious and resolves itself quickly. Horses in the wild travel big distances, but domesticated horses often spend long periods of time standing or moving very minimally.
Because of this, horses that are stalled overnight or ones that are in smaller paddocks tend to stock up more easily. Horses with allergies, hoof care changes, obesity, dehydration or minimal exercise are prone to stocking up more often. Using standing wraps is often a useful way of helping the swelling to go down.
Standing Wraps: What do I need?
Pillows (No bow Wraps) or Large Gauze wraps, make sure your wraps are wide enough to go from the bottom of the knee to just below their fetlock.
Standing Bandages (often the shedrow ones work best), or vet wrap.
You may also use a liniment under the wrap, as long as there is no wound.
How to Wrap:
Start with pre-rolling your no bow wraps or large gauze pads up.
Place the end of the rolled up pad on the inner part of your horse's leg, with the bulk of it facing outwards.
Before you start to unroll your pads, make sure to always go forwards towards your horse's head, from the inside part of their leg first.
Start to unroll the wraps with even pressure, making sure there are no wrinkles or folds in it.
The finished No bow wrap/ Gauze pads, should be smooth and even.
Next, place the Standing bandages on the inner part of the horse's leg, with the bulk of it towards the outside, going forwards towards their head.
Ideally the placement of this should be about a quarter to a third of the way down from the top of the wrap. If the bandages are short then you can start closer to half way down instead.
Unroll the bandage, going downwards as it unravels. Always make sure you start on the inner part of the leg and go forwards first. Use gentle and even pressure, gently tightening every time you get to the cannon bone. Do not tighten the wrap as you go over the tendons (hind part of the leg) as you do not want to have too much tension and damage their tendons.
Overlap each wrap around by about a third to half of the width of the wrap.
Once you hit the bottom of the No bow wraps or Large gauze wraps, start to go back up the leg.
As the wrap comes to the end, make sure to keep the top of it even as you velcro it together.
Pitts, Laurie. “Standing Wrap How-To.” Practical Horseman, 14 Oct. 2020, practicalhorsemanmag.com/health/standing-wrap-how-to-14725/.
