Skip to main content

Unlikely Horse Trailer Injury (Graphic)

Two days ago my trainer was working with my mare to help her get over her fear of the trailer. We have a trailer with the double bar cam lock. 

As she stepped down, she caught her leg in the cam latch thingy (the one on the right), and it is a nasty- deep wound.  luckily, she was putting weight on it and there was not tendon or bone damage, and she was not limping. We had several pieces of advice on the wound, most of whom determined that stitches would not do so well, and it was better just to maintain. Here it is after irrigating it right after it happened.  We irrigated, used Vetericyn and a salve (Bag Balm), wrapped it over night.

 


 Day 2 - This is what it looked like after we removed the bandage. Again, we irrigated, until it bled again. We let it air dry and this time we used Vetrecyn and Neosporin, then wrapped again. She is being stalled at night and hanging with the horses during the day to stretch it out.

 More updates as we bandage her.  I have never dealt with a severe wound fortunately, so any comments are appreciated!

Here is Day 3:  We did not irrigate today, just sprayed with lots of Vetericyn, and redressed. Planning to irrigate again and give it some time to air out tomorrow (day 4). 

Over the last few days, I have gotten so many various pieces of advice on how to manage this wound. I thought I would share the instructions I have received for anybody interested:
90% say to useVETERICYN!!!

Professional horse trader:  Irrigate ONCE, use blue cream (horseman's dream) and wonder dust, bandage, and change/dress daily.

Vet 1: irrigate, once then, Vetricyn and salve daily keep it bandaged for the first few days

Vet 2: irrigate, neosporin, bandage - check again in 48 hours. irrigate every day, or every other day and switch to vetricyn or underwoods.

Long time horsewoman: Irrigate daily or twice daily depending on depth/size, vetricyn, stay away from wonder dust- bandage and don't stall.

Another long time horsewoman who runs a rescue: Echinacea for antibiotics, and underwoods spray (or vetricyn) bandage- dress and change daily

One thing I looked into about vetericyn. They sell an eye wash, and wound care. The eye wash is a bit cheaper (like $20), while the Wound spray is about $32 at Tractor Supply. I examined the labels of both (as I have purchased both) and look closely at the ingredients and percentages. Am I crazy, or are they exactly the same? The one on the right is eye wash, on the left is wound care.

Update: One week later, the injury looked like this:



A few days later, (pre-irrigation) it is starting to drain. After I irrigated this one, it became very red so I started her on Echinacea (natural antibiotic) and it looked and smelled much better today. 


Day two of being on Echinacea, the wound looks much better, I am still using Vetrycyn daily, but added iodine yesterday and today to ensure any infection doesn't take over. I also hesitantly, used a little bit of wonder dust. I have heard such mixd reviews from very trusted horse people. I was unable to irrigate it today because our water was frozen over, so I figured that anything I could add, would help. She is really starting to hate the Vetrycyn spray sound and feeling.. I hate that my girl has to go through this :-(
UPDATE:

A week and a half in to this and about 5 days of echinacea, the wound looked much better, but it was still very moist. I switched to underwoods and have been using that for 5 days. Today I pulled the scab of (on accident), and put more underwoods on.the wound is about 1/3 of the size that it was. Once I started using underwoods, I stopped irrigating it everyday and it started to look much better.

UPDATE AGAIN:

She healed up PHENOMENALLY! I will post a pic asap, but she had no proud flesh, and hardly any scarring. I think she will have hair back in the next month. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DMSO, Analgesic, Epsom Poultice; When to Use Them

There are so many products on the market today, I felt like some clarification could be used to determine how to treat your horses injury. First off, you must identify which leg is lame. Have somebody else lead the horse at a trot towards you. in a straight line on level ground. Watch the front legs, The head will bob DOWN on the sound leg, and up on the lame leg. If you suspect it is a hind leg, then have somebody trot the horse away from you, and watch the hips, determine which one hikes up higher than the other. That is the lame leg. If you have a difficult time determining which leg, you can use white tape on the horses buttock to help you determine which side is lifting. " Heat on one side indicates possible inflammation. To assess tendons (on the back of the lower portions of the legs), flex the leg and feel the layers of tendons (should be three) for any bumps, sources of heat or breaks." ( Read more at :  http://www.ehow.com/how_2165863_do-quick-effective-lameness...
Post a Comment
Read more

Horse Camping in Texas (near San Antonio)

Maybe you are looking for your first trailer with living quarters, or perhaps, you like to rough it in a tent, but who cares, you are with your horse camping under the stars and living the dream! So you might be wondering what do you need to bring to be prepared for your first camping trip and what considerations must be taken into account. Some Considerations: Where will you be staying? Will they have electrical hookups for your trailer and water (remember you need water for you and your horse, and they drink a lot when they are being worked on the trails) Places to go in Texas: Zhan Road, on the beach near Corpus Christie: Zhan road in Chorpus Christy is the only place (as far as I know) in the area where you can camp with your horses or even ride on the beach. There are two roads that lead to the beach, the first is Zhan road, and the second is just north of Zhan road at the second entrance. The first, Zhan road is north past the large Stripes gas station  about a mile to the ri...
Post a Comment
Read more