Our 20 year old gelding got wrapped in some wire while being trail ridden on Monday. It wrapped around his leg that had an old injury, so I am really worried about damage other than the superficial wound, but I guess only time will tell with that. I was out of town at a show, but they had the vet out right away, and he said that it looked alright, just to keep it clean and give him butte and antibiotics (he also got a tetnus shot). I am not used to seeing wounds like this very often, so it is giving me quite a bit of anxiety, and my irrational self keeps saying the vet doesn't know what he is talking about, and the wound is horrible. It is getting cleaned and checked every day...what do you guys think?
Although it *looks* nasty, it's a pretty clean cut, which will be fairly easy to take care of, and I have no doubt it will heal well if taken care of properly. My friend's mare recently got caught up and it looked a whole world worse than this cut, and it's healed up beautifully, so don't get too disheartened! The secret is to use unpasturized (natural) honey on the cut, it will help speed the process and will lessen the scarring.
Best of luck!!
ETA - and watch for proudflesh!
I agree with JDI. It looks clean. My paint was cut couple times really bad too. I just cleaned it every day and put Horseman Dream blue cream on it (seems to work wonder).
Looking at wounds on your own horse always seems scarier than on someone else's horse The wound doesn't look horrible and it appears that there is already some granulation tissue. Keep it clean and apply antibiotic ointment to it. If it's in an area low on the leg you might want to consider adding a steroid to the topical treatment as the granulation tissue gets about level with the surrounding tissue just to help prevent proud flesh. Wrapping it would also be a good idea if it's low on the leg and thus more prone to constant contamination.
Just treat it like the vet said and if you see anything that worries you, consider calling your vet or even emailing him photos to get his opinion as it heals.
Ryle has good advice again. Don't do honey, it will only attract dirt and flies. Topical anti-biotic that you can grab off the shelf and keeping it clean will help this heal up for you. I've dealt with worse and no scar or damage resulted. It might take a while, but you're doing right.
Wow sorry, messed that one up badly!! ONLY do the honey if you're covering the wound, otherwise it will only attract flies and dirt - it is GREAT stuff though, and really does help; just make sure you're bandaging it so nothing can get in.
Thank you all for your replies! I really feel a lot better about it now. I checked and changed the bandages today again (it is covered as it is on the upper cannon and easy to vet-wrap) - it looks much better today already.
If the tissue granulation starts looking worse, meat tenderizer (that you get from the local grocery store) works really well. It takes longer than some of the more caustic powders, but it costs far less, and it doesn't sound as mean to me as putting lime etc on it. I just don't feel as horrible about putting it on my horse because it is mostly salt. But make sure to ONLY put it on granulation (which has no nerve endings), or else it could really hurt!
My brother-in-law's horse got tangled in some wire and was cut up really bad. The vet even cut some of the meat/skin off and it healed back til you would never know it. The biggiest complain was dressing it everyday with the flies.etc.
It is slowly healing. I change the dressing everyday, and it seems to be getting better every time. I have him on no riding duty until his leg wound looks all healed up (in case there was other trauma as well) - does that seem like a good decision?
i think keeping him quiet and work free for a few days at least is an excellent idea. I would feel the same-worry worry-
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