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RE: [RC] the healing process and proud flesh - Libby & Quentin Llop DVMSome guidelines: I see many more over treated horses than under treated. Usually when an owner complains about a non healing wound, if I can persuade him to leave it alone, yes I mean no treatment at all, it heals fine. The rule of thumb in the old days was: nothing on a horse's wound, that could not be put in your eye. 1) Initial wound treatment: gauze over cotton soaked in 15% betadine solution diluted with saline with Vetwrap over. This I change every other day until a granulation bed is formed. (Usually 4 wraps are enough.) 2) once granulation bed covers wound. 90% of wounds heal fine with no further treatment and no antibiotics. The granulation tissue is very resistant to infection: topical treatments only irritate it and create proud flesh. The crusts that form on the granulation tissue restrain it from becoming exuberant. 3) Departures from the above plan, when dead tissue present, needing trimming; drainage from deep with in wound; flies are a problem. Quentin -----Original Message----- From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of spiritwood@xxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2004 11:32 AM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] the healing process and proud flesh Hi, I am looking for some helpful advice on the best way to help a slow healing deep cut wound on the front of a rear ankle. For background, this mare cut the front of her ankle the last weekend in June. Vet came out and stitched it up on both sides but couldn't do the middle as a piece of skin was missing. Wound is right over the ankle where it bends on the front. Well, for 5 days horse got SMZ antibiotics and ankle looked good. WHen the medicine was finished, things started to go bad. We were able to keep the wound wrapped and clean but it seemed to be oozing and looked like it was starting to swell. After another day or so, ankle was visibly swollen and vet was called out to recheck it. By the time vet came out ankle has swollen enough to have popped most of the stitches out. Now horse(mare, need I say more), was having no more of all this messing with her now very sore leg. We were able to remove the rest of the stitches, hose out the wound and squirt betadine in the general direction of her now kicking foot, but are no longer able to wrap the leg as she has had enough! Vet did put her back on the SMZ for 10 days this time, with injectable Gentamycin once daily for 5 days which the horse doesn't mind. Now we are on the last day of the SMZ and the leg wound does seem to be healing from the inside out but very slowly. Mare has been kept in since we couldn't wrap her anymore, with twice daily hosing of wound and betadine, now followed up by some Wonder dust powder to help keep things dry and hopefully prevent some of the proud flesh. Flies don't seem to be bothering the leg either. Now I am trying to figure out the best way to manage this horse. My questions are" Would it be all right to turn this horse back out on pasture when its not muddy since she does allow us to hose and clean the wound daily! What is the best way to continue treatment and help prevent or limit the amount of proud flesh? What is the best product to use on the still open area that will probably take some time to completly heal shut? Should I ask the vet(new grad) for any additional antibiotics since the wound is still open? Help, my daughter is driving me nuts as this is her endurance horse who has done one very tough 50 and now is so out of shape and continuing to loose weight as she is missing out on most of the grass since she is still staying in the stall. Becky and Rave (a very opinionated mare) -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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