New Horse Kicked In The Face

We have a young new horse that got kicked in the face by one of our older horses for the second time. This time leaving a pretty UGLY gash (hole) in his face. I need to know what to do about it. My husband just lost his job and I am a stay-at-home-mom so we don't have the funds to take him to the vet right now. It looks pretty gross! We have pulled the new horse out to care for him. I have been told to rinse wound with warm water and antibacterial dish detergent; apply baking powder inside the wound; dilute peroxide and rinse wound; cover wound with non-stick gauze/pad. In my opinion, even if we took him to the vet, it could not be stitched!

Photo?

FYI - peroxide - after the initial cleaning - will harm new growth/healing tissue.

Absolutely right mls. Waiting for pic? Please? I would suggest also that Wyoming Grandma has lots of great (unfortunately) experience in wounds, and has had a couple of pretty good successes-hopefully she will chime in.

This thread should be in the horse health care section.

Sunny just had a VERY nasty gash on her neck. She has it daily flushed with water, rinsed with Betadine, and has a cream(can't remember the name) applied. We also got an antibiotic powder added to her food that we got from the vet. All of this cost less than $50.
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Use Dettol, its great I use it on all my animals. I only take my animals to the vet in extreme cases. Between my self and my family we can do almost any type of vet care including staples or stitches.

Good Luck.... Hope it all goes well

As already mentioned, don't use peroxide on wounds. Truthfully, it should be reserved for puncture wounds.

Pictures would definitely help, but basic care for wounds includes keeping it clean by using a product designed to be used on wounds --betadine, chlorhexidine or other wound wash--and apply a simple triple antibiotic ointment. Bandaging or covering will depend on location, size and type of wound. You want to concentrate on keeping it clean and using products that are not going to slow wound healing by damaging healing tissues.

Even if you can't afford to take this horse to the vet, you should at least call your vet. He may be able to give you advice over the phone based upon your description of the wound.

A good basic article: http://www.thehorse.com/pdf/factshee...wound-care.pdf

Oh yea, have had two rather nasty wounds on horses this summer, one to my daughter barrel horse, Left Eye, and one to my granddaughters barrel horse Ginger. You can see photos I posted today of Left Eye healing and Ginger just starting out.
I have used lots of products on both horses, but to be honest, this time exactly a week ago(Ginger was hurt almost two weeks ago) I decided to try Underwood and WOW have I been impressed with the results in just a weeks time. Already there is granulation filling up the nasty hole and the edges are pink and showing signs of granulation. You can buy it online or alot of stores seem to carry it(not where I live of course, I had to drive 120 miles one way to find it) and start using it. The directions say to spray it on at least two times a day and then powder lightly with baking powder. You just keep putting it on like that, over and over. Its hard not to clean it up every day, but according to the people I have talked to who have used it, the hardest part is not cleaning it up daily.
I admit I did clean Gingers wound today, I needed to pull the rest of the stitches that did not hold when she was sutured for the third time and were causing trouble. So, I hosed it off, then retreated it with Underwood and paking powder and left it alone. I was amazed how well it is starting to heal so quickly.
I used Shriners on my husbands horse last year for a nasty hindquarter wound. It did not even begin to heal this fast, it took months before it started to granulate, so I am sold on Underwood.
You will be told by some folks on this forum not to use it, and that is your choice. I was a bit skeptical at first, but am totally impressed by this product.
Its not real expensive, about $24. For a bottle and it goes along way because you spray it on. Of course, baking powder is really cheap these days also.
And I have not had ONE fly on this wound since I started treating it last Saturday.
Good luck, pm me if you want any more help with it.

I agree with Wyominggrandma on the Underwoods. I used it on my horse for the first time last year when he had a terrible, deep gash on his neck. It healed quickly and with no proud flesh.

Thanks for sharing. After researching the web, that is exactly what we've been doing. Our neighbor is very experienced in this area as well and came over with antibiotics/meds to help treat the wound. Once getting it cleaned up I realized that it looked much worse than it actually was. Also, turns out the gash was from him hitting his face on a t-post. The kick just compounded things. It was still pretty bad, but he's doing well and healing good.

Thanks again for all of the input. This site is great for new horse owners like us.