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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!
 
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#37 ·
Thank you for the tip, but I tried that a looooong time ago with Red and this bandaging process, and it did NOT work.

The lady I board with, she's been wonderful with helping me. She basically "twitched" his neck with her hand when he doesn't stand still, and it has done the trick. He stands like a good boy because he knows we mean business.
 
#38 ·
As my Grandmother would say, "Long way from his heart!"

Honestly if horses can get into trouble - they will.

Go to Resolve Wound - Home and get some of this salve, it is brilliant for healing wounds like this.

The thing I would like to say is that whoever is bandaging the wound is doing it totally incorrectly! The point of the hock should never have any pressure on it and, over any joint the bandage needs to be put on in a figure of eight. If it was the vet that did it then they need to learn how to bandage correctly.
 
#39 ·
As my Grandmother would say, "Long way from his heart!"

Honestly if horses can get into trouble - they will.

Go to Resolve Wound - Home and get some of this salve, it is brilliant for healing wounds like this.

The thing I would like to say is that whoever is bandaging the wound is doing it totally incorrectly! The point of the hock should never have any pressure on it and, over any joint the bandage needs to be put on in a figure of eight. If it was the vet that did it then they need to learn how to bandage correctly.
Thanks! I will check out that salve.

As far as the bandaging, the first picture I posted in the OP was done by the vet. :oops: I had no idea about "figure 8'ing" and he didn't say anything to me about it, even though I did specifically ask him if I need to wrapping any specific direction when I wrap it. However, he did really, really pad that leg up that first night it happened with a lot of cotton and gauze, so I don't know if that makes a difference.

Or were you referring to the most recent bandage picture? That would be my wrap job, as he's my horse and well, I'm the one who has to bandage it. I overall have avoided going over the top of the hock and leaving a space, because it just plain makes sense to me because it's a joint and he needs to move it. I didn't know about the figure 8 but I will start doing that from now on!

The new vet that I had look at Red two nights ago, I was watching her wrap (she's the lameness expert .... the first vet I had wasn't, he was just the large animal "on-call" vet that night). As I do recall, she did go around the hock in a figure 8 pattern, and I thought to myself "Oh, that's a good way to do it!" But she did see my wrap job and she said I was doing a good job of wrapping it.
 
#46 ·
This is a good video showing how to bandage a hock.
Bandaging Your Horse's Hock - YouTube

If he is getting a bit fussy about you dressing the area get someone to hold the front foot on the same side up high to the outside of his elbow.
The woman in the video does say that you should not be kneeling down which is very true!
Yes, the lady I board my horses with has been helping me by managing his "front end". Holding his head, and grabbing a scruff of skin if he is moving, and leaving him alone when he stands nicely.

That video nicely shows the figure 8. Thanks for posting!!

No, I do not kneel. I would not feel comfortable doing that!!! Honestly, how she is squatting in the video too, I would not like that either. What I do, is I stand completely facing backwards, directly next to his leg. (He can't kick at me directly sideways). And I stay very, very close to him so even if he would kick and somehow get me, he wouldn't have much velocity behind it. I just bend over at the waist, so I am still completely standing and can move quickly if I need to. And I can also keep my left shoulder pushed against his left hip, to keep him standing still against the stall wall. It's working pretty good that way.

Just to note, he's never tried to kick at me. Just plain refused to stand still! But we've got him figured out now. :wink: And hopefully my bandaging skills will continue to get better. That figure 8 design will help a lot!
 
#47 ·
How's my bandaging job now? :wink:

I made sure to do the figure 8 around his hock with my brown supporting gauze and also my vet wrap.

Don't mind all the "extra" cotton on his hock joint. I did cut slits in all the cotton padding layers so that he can have movement there.

I think he looks nice in baby blue ... don't you? (Don't mind all the blood on his lower leg and hoof. That's just left over from when the vet hacked off that extra skin chunk, and it bled like crazy.. It hasn't really been warm enough yet to soap/water and clean his leg up. The weekend is not looking any nicer either to do that.)






 
#48 · (Edited)
I would personally stay away from using the duct tape on either side of the bandage. Duct tape does not allow for any stretch and with the sensitive tendons/tissues on the leg, it could actually do some damage when your horse tries to move and is restricted by it.

I use Elastoplast to keep the top and bottom in place and secure. It is just as sticky and strong as duct tape but it stretches a lot and allows for swelling/movement. The only time I use duct tape was on robbie's cast to decorate haha and a little strip on the velcro part of the stable bandage to keep it from coming apart.
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Edit: just to add that if you absolutely MUST use duct tape, make sure it's fairly loose and just drape it around his leg. But I'd reallllllly suggest getting some elastoplast.
 
#51 ·
I would personally stay away from using the duct tape on either side of the bandage. Duct tape does not allow for any stretch and with the sensitive tendons/tissues on the leg, it could actually do some damage when your horse tries to move and is restricted by it.

I use Elastoplast to keep the top and bottom in place and secure. It is just as sticky and strong as duct tape but it stretches a lot and allows for swelling/movement. The only time I use duct tape was on robbie's cast to decorate haha and a little strip on the velcro part of the stable bandage to keep it from coming apart.
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Edit: just to add that if you absolutely MUST use duct tape, make sure it's fairly loose and just drape it around his leg. But I'd reallllllly suggest getting some elastoplast.
Thanks for the tip on the duct tape, which makes sense, although my vet said I could use it. She did say the elastic tape was better (when she saw him 3 days ago, she used hers to wrap him up) but that duct tape is a lot cheaper and gets the job done too.

I do not normally put duct tape around the bottom of the wrap, but my Vet Wrap didn't go as low as I would have liked. So I just wanted to have another layer of something holding my padding. I didn't make it real tight on the bottom.

I do have at least 3 layers of cotton wrap under it all, plus some soft 6" brown gauze wrap, so it's got some cushion under it.

I definately have to use duct tape, as my bandaging never stayed up until I started using it.

His leg only has a very small amount of swelling, so that's good at least.
 
#50 ·
When it comes to proud flesh, I have had no greater success than with Equaide. My barrel mare got her foot hung in a loose strand of barbed wire this past summer and sliced the back just above the heal bulbs completely open from one side to the other over an inch into the flesh. Every time she took a step, it gaped wide open. I started out with Underwood which allowed it to start healing from the inside out and I was actually told NOT to wrap it since the way you use it creates a "crust" so to speak. It did an amazing job keeping infection out and producing healthy clean granulated tissue which was necessary for things to fuse back together. BUT, proud flesh did kick in with a vengeance since it was a "below the knee" injury. That's when I switched to Equaide. That stuff is amazing on proud flesh. You do want to wrap with Equaide if it's a leg injury but it heals with amazing speed. My vet told me it would take 4-6 months for her to recover from the injury she had and I was riding her at a walk again within 11 weeks. It's been 6 months now and I'm running her on barrels again which the vet had her doubts she would ever do. And as far as cold hosing, it does aggravate proud flesh so I took an empty mustard squeeze bottle and filled it with distilled water that you buy at the grocery store and just kind of cleaned things up that way between bandage changes. If you opt for the Equaide, you'll want to just very lightly scrub it some with a soft tooth brush and get the proud flesh to bleed slightly. Proud flesh loves to bleed so it won't be hard to do. And then you just paint it on there with a little brush. I used a maxi pad to cover it, held it in place with gauze, and then went over that with vet wrap. By the way, you can get boxes of 18 or 36 rolls of off brand vet wrap on Ebay for way cheaper than the 3 or 4 packs at Tractor Supply. Anyway, just sharing my experience. We managed to heal my girl up with Underwood and Equaide without so much as a stitch. Really wishing you all the best and so sorry you're having to deal with this especially with it being so cold right now. :(
 
#52 ·
I was tempted to get buy some Underwood, but if it doesn't help with proud flesh, that won't help me any!

I was just told of the Equi-ade earlier today too.
 
#54 ·
Seriously .... now what????

So I had an unpleasant surprise when I went out to check on Red on Saturday.

HE GOT INTO HIS BAG OF SWEET FEED.
:shock: :shock: :shock:

Great. Just one more thing I needed.

On top of it, my husband, his dad, and his aunt came with because they had just wanted to see the horses (we just got done having lunch with them). I open up the shed to take a look at Red and the inner gate was open .... where I store my sweet feed, Equine Saver supplement, and loose salt (among other things). Both of the bins that I keep the feed and salt in have the covers torn off, my Equine Saver spilled all on the ground, a couple of my poles (for pole bending) tipped over, and just a huge mess. And Red was like "OOOOO! Someone to give me more hay!! I'm hungry"

I could have shot him right then and there.

Thank God he only ate like a 1/4 of the bag (which of course, was a full brand new bag ... why wouldn't it be?) and not the whole thing. I still called the vet on the spot just to be sure what I should watch for. I've already read about colic and foundering in magazines and such when horses do this, but I've never had a horse actually get into his feed.

So she told me to give him banamine for 3 or 4 days as a precaution. Now trying to make sure my memory serves me correct on what she told me: If he's going to colic, she said that would happen probably in the first 24 hours. However, he could founder up to a week after the fact. She said since he didn't eat the whole bag, he probably would be fine, but of course, we should still watch him.

He's had normal bowel movements since then and no symptoms, so I think it is safe to say we are out of the woods for the colic, but we'll still have to keep tabs on the foundering possibility.

As if I didn't need to spend more $$$ on meds for him, and more time worrying!!!

I have no idea how he got that inside gate open. The latch is on the backside. It honestly never even crossed my mind that he would get in there, but it's now being double held shut with an extra rope around it.


And THEN to top everything else off on this trend we've been having, I get out to the horses yesterday, because we changed Red's bandage. I get out there and one of my boarding lady's horses is in the corral with my Shotgun. :shock: :shock: :shock:

We had talked about putting Newt (her horse) in with Shotgun when I sent Red to the reining trainer, just for the purpose of keeping him company. She always tells me everything they do before they do it, so she would have told me that she put Newt in there. All the gates were closed. The fences were fine. And Newt looked "okay" although I didn't inspect him closely. She was going to be out in a few minutes to help me, so I figured I'd just wait until she got out there, as Newt and Shotgun were doing fine.

She gets outside and she's like "what the hell is going on?"

She had just been outside at about 1:00 to check on everyone. This was now about 2:30. Newt wasn't in my corral at 1:00 so it must have just happened.

She looked at Newt closer and saw that he was missing hair under his back legs, with a small amount of blood, and hair missing on the front of his hind cannon bones. In the corral, they have wooden posts with small round metal pipes as the railing. So clearly he tried to jump the fence and didn't quite make it. :shock: :shock: :shock: He looked okay at the moment (wasn't limping profusely or anything) but I imagine he'll be quite sore in the next few days.

I swear. I don't know what else could possibly happen right about now.

This is insane!!
 
#55 ·
I did snap a few photos yesterday (Sunday).

His lower canon bone and ankle seemed a lot more swollen than it has in the past. However, I haven't been wrapping as low as I used to be, so I wonder if that has something do to with it? The swelling isn't too bad, but it is more than it used to be.

The green stuff on his leg is from the ProudsOff I used. The maxis pad slipped down a bit and smeared it. The photos are from before I cleaned off his leg. This time I decided to just used hydrocortisone where he needed it for the proud flesh, like the vet said to. It's not as caustic as the ProudsOff.

So yesterday was day 26 after the injury.







 
#56 ·
Alrighty! I'm liking how it looked last night for a bandage change, although we still have a long way to go.

I also wrapped his pastern with a polo wrap (to save on bandaging that low) a couple days ago to help control the stocking up and it worked wonderfully. His leg was back to normal as far as the swelling is concerned. So I will keep doing that. At least it's a washable bandage, instead of actually using $$ bandaging to wrap his entire leg.

My maxi pad has slipped down ever so slightly, so I think that's why the top part was bloody from rubbing on my cotton pad. I try so hard to get it smack dab in the center where it needs to go, and then to get it to stay.




I definately like how the hydrocortisone took care of the bump out when you look at it from the side. It sucked it back nicely! I still needed to apply some on the inner side of the wound, as it wasn't quite flush with the skin. But looking pretty good as far as the proud flesh is concerned. We're keeping it under control.

You also can see the perfect circle edge of where the maxi pad was on his leg (which is why the top of the wound wasn't covered perfectly), as I took the picture before I wiped off his leg hair area.





Yay the swelling is better!!!!






This will be our LONGEST time frame between bandage changes over the weekend, as I am leaving today to go on a ski trip that's been planned since before December. I won't be back until Monday night, so it will be changed then. But that's 5 days, so hopefully that should be okay. It's been looking good with not too much discharge so I think we should be good to go longer just this once.
 
#58 ·
When I was working at a breeding farm, we had a horse who kicked up and over the stall and did this to her hock. Luckily, the vet JUST HAPPENED to be there to get coggins on another horse and told us what we already knew. Also told us it would take months to heal, like your boy. Two weeks later the owner starting pushing me to ride the horse and I refused. About two weeks after that she came down with her daughter while I wasn't there and lunged her hard before putting her daughter on, who promptly got bucked off.

The leg ballooned up...after all of my effort to get back to where it was. I quit the next day when I found out (way more problems with the farm than that, it was just the last straw). "Months to heal" means months to heal! I know its sometimes hard to comprehend but come on!

It looks like he is making a good recovery. I'm glad you are doing everything you should be and its showing in your progression photos.
 
#59 ·
And we are on day 34 since the injury.

This was the longest the bandage has been on (5 days) from the 13th to the 18th, as I was gone over the weekend.

It looked okay, but I think the next time I change the bandage, I will use my ProudsOff on the inner/inferior portion of the wound, because it is actually a bit MORE raised that it was for the last bandage change. The cortisone didn't seem to do the trick as well this time.




There was a bit more ooze on the bandage this time, but then again, it was on longer.




I didn't clean his leg up very well last night, because a "feels like" -26 below zero is just too cold to be doing that. I'm sick of these cold spells!!!

My maxi pad must have slipped a tad (or I didn't get it high enough) which is why the top of the wound is scabby/bloody looking.

I also got my new cast padding bandage wrap to use under the vet wrap. It worked so great! And he's still rocking his tiger-stripe polo wrap for the stocking up (which is working great)





 
#61 ·
Nothing like a bad injury to make you a pro at bandaging and wrapping..haha.
Yup. Pretty much.

My bandaging skills were pretty sorry in the beginning. Now that sucker never falls down!

Although I would have rathered just staying being bad at bandaging .... which means he wouldn't have gotten hurt. :sad:

Oh, and I forgot to mention on the update, that now my 2-yr-old Shotgun has a massive lump on the side of his face. :shock: I'm sure he whacked himself on something. It was dark last night so I didn't take a picture, but hopefully the swelling will get better on its own because I don't want another vet bill.
 
#63 ·
Said it earlier already, but that is what we initially thought happened, until we found a section of fence where the smooth wire (4 wires total) that was the second from the bottom, pulled off all the fence clips for a long stretch.

So this is a wire injury.
 
#66 ·
Well I let Red out of his stalled area for the first time last night.

#@$%^&*@#*%#$^%^%^$

was his reaction, as expected.

I wasn't smart enough to start recording from the beginning, and I missed some of it. And my hands kept getting cold (it was only about 8 degree air temp, with a below zero wind), so I just got a few clips of that idiot.

I put Shotgun (my 2 yr old) into the shed, so that he wouldn't encourage Red's crazy running around. You can see him poke his head out on the second video.





There's a pretty good buck on this one.




I came over to stand in the feeder, because that little $h!t was bucking and jumping right in between all those 3 things. Seriously? Go buck in the open where you won't get a leg caught!

 
#68 ·
He is CERTAINLY not lame! LOL

Just a matter of getting that dang wound to heal and close, which is just a slow slow process.

Can't wait to try my Wonder Salve when it gets here!
 
#70 ·
You can't really hear it on the video (the 3rd one), but he will "blow air" out of his nose like a dragon roar ... Is the best way I can describe it. He does it when he's all hyped up like this, or if he is scared of something (make himself sound stronger???). It's so funny when he does it.

Snorting dragon.....
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