The Horse Forum banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

Need some healing prayers for my boy Red (some graphic photos -- beware!)

19K views 127 replies 33 participants last post by  beau159 
#1 ·
So I thought I'd be good to go on major injuries, since my old horse Beau has to be put down last year due to severe arthritis and since he almost cut his own foot off in a barbed wire fence when he was 5 yrs old (completely unrelated legs to the arthritis).

Well I guess not.

I go out to check on my two boys last night (Red a 2006 AQHA gelding, and Shotgun a 2011 AQHA gelding) only to find that Red has gashed open his hind left leg.

:-(

While he wasn't super expensive (I purchased him in May), he was by far the most expensive horse I myself have ever purchased. It's always the hopeful ones that hurt themselves, right?

And the timing is impeccable. I privately board with a retired couple who have 4 horses of their own and 40 acres. Since the retired couple happen to be gone this whole week, as they are helping their daughter move. They have a good friend house/dog sitting for them, who also checks on all the horses.

My boys are kept separate with their own pasture, own corral, and own shed. The keep their place absolutely immaculate. Only round metal pipes for the corral fencing, with wooden posts. A plastic heated water fountain. Plastic caps on every T post in the pasture, with smooth wire (electrified). Very, very safe place in perfect repair!

Red must have just done it that afternoon, because the house sitter said she checked them on Tuesday night and everyone was fine. A neighbor came over to give my boys a new round bale on Wednesday morning (they normally feed flakes, but while they've been gone, they switched to a round bale fed in a feeder). And then I came out Wednesday evening to find him like that. It was still dripping a spot of blood here and there, and looked fresh. So he must have done it after the neighbor changed the bale (as I know this neighbor would have noticed and would have called me, he has my number).

I do not want to mess around with things like this because I had no idea how deep it went, and Red wasn't putting ANY weight on that leg. (Thankfully he did when I was loading him on the trailer.) So off we went to an after-hours visit to the on-call vet.


I just happened to take this photo of Red on Saturday when I was out there.



This is before the vet started working on him.



A close-up after the vet worked on him. You can see that the tendon is exposed (the white vertical thing on the left of the wound). Thankfully, the vet said it wasn't really damaged so he should heal up fine. The vet could also feel that the joint capsule for the hock was intact (there was still fluid pressure in it, like there is supposed to be), so that didn't appear to be damaged. It also didn't seem to be a slice type of cut, so while the bone was basically right there, it was more of a superficial blunt injury, so hopefully the bone is fine.




And here was are in one of the stalls in the big barn for the night, as they have heated water buckets in there. My shed for them isn't equipped to have the cords hidden, so he can't stay in there.




I have NO idea what he cut himself on. The only thing that is about the right height and could have possibly hurt him was if he somehow got his back leg into the round bale feeder. There are no sharp edges on it (only squared edges) but I supposed if he yanked hard enough, it is metal, and would take off tissue and skin.

So he's on stall rest for at least the next week, with bandage changes every day. Plus antibiotics and painkillers.

The vet didn't say anything about cold hose therapy, but that would be a little unrealistic anyway since it is supposed to be -20 below over the weekend.


I will take a picture every day to watch his progress!! Will keep every one updated.

Pray for a full recovery!
 
See less See more
4
#4 ·
Thanks guys.

It's just so danged hard to tell sometimes on "close quarters" to vital structures. I'm crossing my fingers (and toes!) that that tendon was truly undamaged.

I was a little put off yesterday too, because I called the Vet clinic shortly after 5:00 and was able to talk to the lameness vet initially about what I should do. He was kinda like "Well, you could clean it up and keep it wrapped. If its on the cannon bone its probably fine. Or we could suture it for you if you want to bring him in." :shock: Honestly, I felt like he was blowing it off. He's a great, great vet and all, but I wasn't real pleased with the phone consult, I guess.

A different vet was on-call, since we didn't get there until after hours. And I felt like he did a nice job. I trust his diagnosis.

So we'll see.......
 
#5 ·
I doubt you'll ever figure out what he cut himself on. Horses are sneaky like that. Poor thing, I hope he heals well for you. I'll keep watch on your thread, please continue to post updates.
 
  • Like
Reactions: loveduffy
#19 ·
I doubt you'll ever figure out what he cut himself on. Horses are sneaky like that. Poor thing, I hope he heals well for you. I'll keep watch on your thread, please continue to post updates.

I think we did figure out what he got himself on.

Stupid me never even bothered to walk the fence line because it is a HOT smooth wire fence (4 strands) with the top wire and the third wire being the hot wires. So they leave it alone. Plus, they don't go out a whole lot (even though it is open) because they are usually stuffing their faces in the round bale.

Well one of my boarding people noticed yesterday that there was a clip missing in the "alley" that leads to the two far pastures. He investigated further and while the wire was not torn, there were 7 posts with the holders pulled off the T-posts (every t-post is capped with a plastic cover).

Since my two guys regularly buck, rear, kick, and play with each other, I'm guessing they were goofing around on their way in or out to the pasture, and Red got his leg caught.

:?

You try so hard to keep them in a perfect environment but they'll still always manage to get caught in something.

At least now I know what he got caught on, although doesn't help matters any.
 
#6 ·
Well, he was NOT fond of me re-wrapping his injured leg last night. I can see that this is going to be a struggle for the next 7 to 10 days.

I was really happy to see that his leg wasn't all that swollen, so that's good. He seemed in good spirits and didn't mind being in the stall too much, but I could kinda tell he would rather be outside.

I gave him his sweet feed mixed with the powder bute and antiobiotics from the vet to occupy him while I cut off the old bandage. Which of course, he managed to spill half of his feed, medicine included. :evil: At least he licked most of it off the ground, although I'm sure he ate some sand in the process (they have sand in their stalls instead of shavings or mats). Oh well! I'll have to be more careful with that next time. The bucket hook isn't as great apparently in that stall to keep it from flipping over.

I could see that the wound hadn't bled or oozed too much either, when I took the bandage off. I had a bucket of warm water from the house to wipe off what did ooze off his leg. I didn't really touch the actual wound much at all with the warm water or rag because it looked nice and clean and good.

And I guess I feel like I have always been told never to pick off any scabs or things off of the wound, because that will inhibit healing. Sound right?

Then he stopped standing nice and still. So I grabbed his halter and tied him up in the stall, next to his hay that I just gave him so he could still munch and maybe stay occupied. He was having none of it.

Right then the house sitter got there and she kinda helped me a bit. (Tonight my husband should be able to come with me and maybe help.)

I got the non-stick gauze pad with the silver sulfate ointment on it on his wound and he did not like that. I suppose that smarted a bit. I tried getting the big soft gauze pad around his leg, to start wrapping the soft brown support wrap around and he just wasn't standing still. FInally ...... once I was able to start wrapping the brown wrap, he stood nicely. Granted, my big soft gauze pad was horribly lumping, but I wasn't about to try to fix it when he was standing nice. I was gonna take what I could get. And he proceeded to stand nicely for me to get the Vet Wrap on over the top of that.

Whew! Once he moved the first time, he did kind of kick his back leg out a few times, as if something was uncomfortable. :? I suppose it felt differnent being wrapped different???? And then he laid down for maybe 20 seconds, kinda looking at it with his head, and then stood back up again. Then he seemed to be fine. Not sure what was up with that, although I'm sure my lumpy wrap job didn't help. Grrr .... hopefully I can do better tonight.

And then later, before I left for the night, I took a glance at him to see I hadn't gotten my wrapping high enough and it was starting to fall down. :shock: Dang it!!!!! I could start to see the shaved hair area, as the bandages had slipped under his hock. I am praying the gauze pad with the medicine on it directly over the wound hadn't shifted too much. I grabbed another gauze pad to put on the shaved area, and wrapped another roll of Vet Wrap around it, and much much higher on the hock this time.

I just hope the wound pad didn't shift. It was such a battle to get it on, I didn't want to press my luck doing it again.

I snapped a couple pictures of it. It was kinda dark the way I had him tied, so it's kinda hard to see. But of course, just being day 2, it didn't look a whole lot different that yesterday (day 1).






 
#7 ·
Stupid photobucket!! Sorry folks. They deleted the "good" up close picture on my OP because they said it "violates their user policy". I'm trying to get it back......
 
#8 ·
Photobucket "deleted it in error" they told me.

Geesh.

So this picture belongs with my OP with this description:

A close-up after the vet worked on him. You can see that the tendon is exposed (the white vertical thing on the left of the wound). Thankfully, the vet said it wasn't really damaged so he should heal up fine. The vet could also feel that the joint capsule for the hock was intact (there was still fluid pressure in it, like there is supposed to be), so that didn't appear to be damaged. It also didn't seem to be a slice type of cut, so while the bone was basically right there, it was more of a superficial blunt injury, so hopefully the bone is fine.


 
#9 ·
Ouchies, silly things seem to enjoy hurting themselves, don't they? But it does look like a nice clean injury, so given time it should heal up nicely.

As a suggestion, if he continues to be "dance-y" have your helper hold up one of his front feet while you wrap the bad leg. It usually helps them stand still and keep the weight on the one you are wrapping. Doing that shouldn't cause any added pain since he is standing still and just balancing, and the pictures show him putting weight on it on his own.

Good luck, sending healing vibes your way!!
 
#10 ·
Well I have good news to report thisorning! He stood SO NICE for me last night!!

He even knickered when my (non-horsey) husband and I walked into the barn. Most likely because he was out of hay, but hey a girl can pretend he was actually excited to see us, haha.

So I got my supplies ready, tossed him some hay, and went to work. Didn't even need to tie him up (had his halter and lead on though). My husband just kept distracting him, hand feeding him hay. He stood perfectly for removal and application, except for greatly flinching when I applied the gauze and medicine directly to his wound.

So proud of him! He did great.

Didn't even snap any pictures because I was so appalled!

I may have to change his bandage myself tonight but we'll see how it goes.
Posted via Mobile Device
 
  • Like
Reactions: nvr2many
#11 ·
Well I can't say I have too much to update at this point.

He's continued to be a good boy and stand nicely, for the most part, for me to change and re-apply his bandage.

I can tell he's getting antsy about being cooped up in a stall 24/7, but I've consulted with a second vet and she says the exact same thing --> stall rest until that tissue starts filling in.

It is starting to look more "moist" in that I think some tissue will start granulating and growing in soon (if moist makes any sense, haha), and I hope so! Because this bandaging and medication is getting old quick.

Aughggggg, injuries!
 
#12 ·
Okay, so Red has been getting harder and harder to bandage every day. He's getting sick of it, and I don't blame him. But it has to be done!

The last few days have been a terrible wrapping job by me, because he hasn't been standing still, so it's been falling down every day. :evil: My non-horsey husband has been trying to help, but Red is a strong and big boy. My husband doesn't exactly know how to handle him and I sure don't want him getting hurt.

On Sunday, the bandage had fallen down completely for the first time, and it was full of shavings and was dirty. Since it was decently nice outside (30 degrees), I got my boarding lady to help me cold hose it off. To my surprise, Red did not move an inch. Couldn't believe it! So we got it cleaned off well. But..... the wrap job sucked. I even had her try to help hold him for me but he still just wasn't having none of it. So again, got it wrapped, but not very good. And of course, it didn't stay up.

This is the wound on Sunday (day 12 of the injury) after we had hosed it off.








And then these pictures are from last night. The bandage had fallen down completely again, and he must have banged it on something because it was bloody. This (obviously) was before I cleaned it up.










I'm really tempted to cut off that hunk of skin hanging there ..... so I just emailed a picture to a vet. She isn't the one that took care of him the night it happened, but I am goingn to have her look at it in person in the next week or two when they make their usual trip to my area.

It took 3 people last night (God bless my boarding people for helping me) but I got it wrapped the best I have yet last night, and she informed me this morning that it is actually still on his leg! Even after him laying down at night, and rolling in his shavings. :wink: as he always does. If it is still intact tonight, I will not change the bandage, as the vet told me I could go every other day.

But this is just a SLOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW process. And he's a pill to bandage now, but at least we didn't have to twitch him or anything yet. (and hopefully not)
 
#14 ·
What may help you in your bandaging is sanitary pads the maxi kind and a knee hi nylon. Put the pad on the wound, the knee with the toe cut off over the pad and vet wrap the top and bottom of the nylon. The nylon will let it breath and keep most of the dirt out of it, the pad will catch all the yuck draining. And it's much cheaper than buying bandage material, and if the wound is bigger than the pads you can use disposable diapers.
 
#15 ·
Interesting thought!

I don't care too much about the bandaging costs, as I will buy what I need to do it right. But the maxi pads would be nice to have it physically stuck to my cotton padding, so it doesn't slide down.

Right now I"m using non-stick gauze pad I got from the local pharmacy (10 pads are only like $2.99). I like the non-stick ones because they don't leave the wound full of fuzzies and they don't stick to the wound.

Then I went to the fabric store and bought some yards of clearanced quilt batting. I like a big roll of something soft like that to wrap around the entire leg to cushion it.

Then a layer of soft brown wrap (this is the only thing I keep buying from the vet, because I have found an "alternative" any where else).

And then I just bought a ton of Vet Wrap, which probably was the most expensive part, but it just sticks so perfectly I really don't want to use anything else. Plus, I do like the compression aspect of having the Vet Wrap wrapped tightly, since his lower leg is a tad swollen, but not bad.
 
#16 · (Edited)
I like to use the maxi pads on larger wounds, they are nonstick and hold more of the discharge so you don't have to change them as often. If you have a problem with the gauze sticking to the discharge you can put Vaseline around the wound in the skin not in the wound.

The big hunk if skin hanging down if you decide to cut it off I found that if you put a tooth ache medicine on it to numb it up it will help alot, if you leave it it may leave a big scar. Looking at the wound I don't really see any way of sewing it up any where. I would ask the vet about cutting it off.
 
#17 ·
I will be calling the "on call" vet that actually worked on him tomorrow, as that's when we decided I would check in next. I will see if I can text or email him the photos to get his opinion on it.

But I did already send photos to the other vet that I am going to have take care of him from now on (she's going to be his regular vet), to get her opinion on what I should do with that hunk of skin.
 
#22 ·
Okay! I think I'm set up with my "new" vet for Tuesday so she can take off that hunk of skin, and make sure he's healing along.

I myself haven't been out there did 2 days because his bandage has stayed up and because I have the flu. :-(

But I'll be forcing myself out there tonight because I can't go 3 days without changing the bandage.

I hope it looks good when I take off the bandage!!
Posted via Mobile Device
 
#23 ·
I'm surprised actually that your first Vet has advised you to change the bandage every day. When we have wounds like this, we use a compression bandage (as per your first photos), and leave for about 5 days. Horse is on antibiotics twice daily, and a little anti-inflammatory paste. Unless the compression bandage came off (too loose), then that bandage would stay on for about 5 days and then the next bandage change would be about 3-4 days later. Multiple changes will irritate the wound, and the horse.

At the stage you're at now, we would use disposable baby nappies/diapers over the wound, then bandage over the diaper. As with the maxi-pad, the diaper absorbs excess fluids that are seeping from the wound.

Your horse's wound now looks rather dirty :( Very best of luck with the new Vet & wishing your horse a very speedy recovery!!
 
#24 ·
Hmm, I had even asked the vet if I should leave his first wrap on for more than a day, but he said no, and to change the bandage every day so I can moniter and wound healing.

When I checked in with him a week later, he then said I could change it every other day.

Well I was still changing it every day anyway, because I wasn't doing a good enough job of getting it wrapped tightly, so it would fall down. But! Now we finally got it figured out (or I do anyway) so that we're getting him to stand still, and I"m getting it nice and tight.

Dirty? I didn't think it was all that dirty ... mostly just bloody. Although I do agree it tends to look that way in the photos, which is never the same as seeing it in person.

So we got him bandaged good on Monday night, and we changed it last night. So it was on for 3 days. I was actually home sick with the flu during that time, so I"m glad it stayed! But last night was COLD!!! The air temp was -12 below, with a -50 below windchill. Even inside the barn where we changed him, that was about the fastest bandage change I have ever done. My fingers were instatly cold when taking off my gloves, and you just can't bandage properly with gloves on.

The wound was somewhat smelly and green-looking last night, which I did NOT like at all, but I wasn't going to go a heck of a lot with it when it needed to be changed and it was -12 below. So we just re-did all the bandaging.

And the maxi pad idea worked great! He'll have some nice padding and absorbing over the wound this time.

It is supposed to be a normal temperature tomorrow, so I got some betadyne and some saline wound wash, and we'll clean it up good tomorrow and re-wrap it.

The vet will be looking at it on Tuesday, so if he needs any further antibiotics (if it really is infected), we'll get it taken care of them. But betadyne usually does the trick.

And I'm just so happy he was a very good boy standing still last night, in the sub-freezing weather! I think he understands now that Aunty boarding lady and Mommy Brittany mean business, when we've got to change that bandage, and he is not to move! He gets his sweet feed and medicine after, so he's a happy camper anyway.
 
#25 ·
Okay, it is DAY 17 after Red's injury.

We re-did his bandages today and here's how they looked:


This was before I cleaned it up.




Then I used water first to get some of the "goop" off (which is mostly the wound cream), and then we used betadine to gently clean the wound a bit, and then rinsed with water. I had planned to rinse with saline solution, but the saline I purchased had the spray top missing....:evil: So water it was. But it still worked okay.




I actually think it is looking GREAT compared to what it was looking like before I got this bandage-to-stay-on business.


And here is Mr Happy Red in his "stall". He actually prefers staying inside (the little stinker) so he's got no problem going back in when we are done!





Can't wait to see what the vet says on Tuesday!
 
#26 ·
The vet came out on Tuesday night and we have a good report!

:happydance:

Although it is still going to be MONTHS until this is completely healed.

The vet was late (figured that, as things always run behind when you are one of the last appointments of the day) so while I was waiting, I thought I'd give Red a little space outside in the open, since he's now been cooped up for 3 weeks, and he is a high energy horse.

Oh lordy. I so wish I had someone video'ing! It was hilarious. I took him over to some snow (so that he wouldn't slip on the ice all around) and I just had him on his lead rope and halter. He kept going through these little crow hop -- buck in place -- throw my head -- little spaz episodes. All while being on the end of the lead rope and never taking the slack out of it. When he's be done with his little "rant", he'd stop and look at me, walk to me, and wants some scratches.

He was just BEGGING "Mom please let me go so I can run around and play and buck in the pasture, puuuuleeeeezzze!!!"

It was so funny. But the vet said at least one more week of stall rest, at the minimum, so he'll just have to wait.

And I guess encouraging that that leg is not bothering him in the slightest, if he feels good enough to jump around on it.

I did need the vet to cut off a lump of tissue that was near the bottom of the wound. It'd never heal that way so it had to get cut off. He does have a little bit of proud flesh starting, so of course cutting that tissue out BLED like crazy.

But I learned something new --> COLD HOSE TREATMENT IS NOT ALWAYS GOOD FOR A WOUND. As it can lead to worse proud flesh.

In Red's case at this moment, since tissue is filling in, the vet told me that you should NEVER cold hose the wound at this point, nor even touch or rub it at all. Any stimulation to the current tissue and current proud flesh will make it grow even more. This is news to me because you always hear about the old cowboys saying "cold hose a wound". The vet said that before the wound fills with tissue, yes! Cold hosing is great. But once it starts filling in, then you have to stop the cold hose.

She said just to keep it bandaged yet and I can continue to email her photos and we can keep tabs on his progress.

She also said what ointment to put on will vary. If I see the wound raised higher than the surrounding skin, that's proud flesh and we need to suck it back. If the wound is flat to the skin, then I can put on the silver sulfate.

Eventually, she said we'll do a dry bandage (no ointment at all) to help transition to using no bandage at all. She said we do want the wound to "dry up" because that is how it heals.

So there was a lot of new information that I'd never really heard before, but she is fresh out of school from a great lameness vet clinic residency, so I trust her word 100%.

I will be changing the bandage tonight and maybe will get some photos up!
 
#29 ·
Yea, I was totally surprised about the cold hosing thing. I think I'm going to make a general post about it, because it's certainly worth spreading the word!

And yes we did finally figure out what he got himself on. My two horses stay in their own corral. The is one pasture directly off of it, and then there is an "alley" that leads to two more far pastures. All of the pasture and "alley" fencing is smooth wire, 4 strands, plastic caps on the T-posts, and we kept it HOT the whole summer. Again, very "safe" for horse standards!! (But never safe enough........)

Well, we found a lot of clips off on the 2nd to the bottom wire in the alley, and noticed it last week. The wire was not broken but tons of clips were off. I suppose Red and Shotgun were goofing around like they always do, and I'm guessing Red maybe kicked out in play and got his leg in the fence.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top