HELP! How to Keep a horse away from a bad wound?

[risingrainbow]

labsblackdogs said:

Once you have got the device in place to stabilize.What do you use for the wound? I sold Wound Care dressing to hospitals and nurse homes and can give suggestions.Of course nothing approved on horses but works on humans including infected wounds.

I will have to check with the vet to see what kind of ointment he is putting on there. I know the ones that I have done I have used novalsan because that's what I had here and had to make due. I'm certainly open to suggestions. This is looking like a long term thing.

The Equi-Aid we are using to de-breed the wound. It works great but makes a mess of the dressings. It's hard for me to resolve in my mind the clean dry dressing with the gunky thing it becomes from the Equi_Aid. But I guess if the vet isn't worried about it, I should not worry so much.

Because this wound is on her forearm, the dressing is very difficult to keep in place. It wants to inch its way down toward her knee. There isn't enough room above the wound at the top of the forearm to tape directly onto her leg to hold it that way. Running a sling from the dressing up over her wither isn't working either. But the shin guard contraption is keeping her from being able to get to the wound.

Last night I did a dressing change without a sedative for the first time. So that's good I hate to be giving her drugs all the time.

She has lost considerable weight. I'm going to have to figure out a "quiet" way of getting her some more calories. Her regular processed feed was making her too hot to be staying in the stall, so need something else to try. Ideas here would be appreciated as well. In this 10 days or so she has gone from a near plump filly to seeing ribs. And of course, the condition of the wound has gone downhill but I think our last 24 hours with the shin guard has made a difference in the appearance of the wound.

I'm going to begin a series on my blog about this filly and her injury today. Hopefully, it will help other people dealing with such injuries.

[Blacklabs]

Left you a PM,

[Steph @ Elements]

risingrainbow said:

She has lost considerable weight. I'm going to have to figure out a "quiet" way of getting her some more calories. Her regular processed feed was making her too hot to be staying in the stall, so need something else to try. Ideas here would be appreciated as well.

Hey! I really feel for you as I had a similar problem several years ago! We use a product called "Radiance" as a fat supplement that absolutely does NOT make the horse "hot". www.horsetech.com/radiance.htm#Quick%20Links%20to%20Product%20Pages

Steph

[traceyclydeowner]

calf manna is an old trick to add calories and fat without making them hot or having to increase grain ration..you just add 1/4 cup daily to feed and slowly increase to a cup over the course of a week at each feeding ..it does not look like much but it really works great..it is a product of manna pro..an old jockey friend of mine told me about it years ago ..they used it at the thoroughbred farms to keep weight on the stallions during breeding season,without making them crazy and hot..it works great and gives a beautiful coat to boot..not to mention 50 lbs is about 23 dollars...have you tried elizabethan collar like they put on dogs..i know they have some really large ones that would help with chewing but not rubbing..so sorry for your delemma...it seems from your post everything you try draws more attention to the wound and something new to play with...i kinda think like the one post that maybe just letten her out to pasture will take her focus off the site and give her something else to do..some horses will do that kinda stuff outta boredom...i wish you all the best..i know how frusterating this kinda thing is....good luck

[amby]

What grain was she on?? Casper was ALWAYS hot, until we put him on Strategy!! He was then on oats and LOTS of oil and supplements.
We have since placed him JUST on strategy, no supplements (except garlic for flies and antihistamines for allergies) just 1/4 scoop of strategy twice a day, and here it is only 9.99 for 50lbs!!
I hope you find something....if you don't want to change grains, you could try rice bran oil we did a cup of that twice a day and never got hot-just very fat.

[Blacklabs]

Here's link with some suggestions, also has horse care.

www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=97748

[emma]

Hi,
I know you won´t believe it, and you wouldn´t be the first one to try it out of sheer desparation, because it cannot get worse. Get some Underwood fast! One thing I have witnessed to work with a few of the worst injuries I have seen in the online community is Underwood horse medicine. It does not sting. Any cover you put on there will also prevent air from getting on. How to work with it is on the page. And maybe a muzzle for a few days, but it helps the "side effects" of the wound pretty fast I have heard. And don´t forget to take pictures as it heals.
www.underwoodhorsemedicine.com/
Good luck,
Emma

[bndranch]

I personally will have to second the underwoods!!!! MY neighbor a vet tech of 30+ years swears by the stuff and it does work GREAT!

I wanted to add that I got a brown swiss dairy calf about 3 years ago. She had gone down in the dairy and had holes in her hocks all the way to the bone. Maggots had made a home in her wounds and we needed something done FAST! We tried EVERYTHING. Nothing worked and my calf was going down hill really fast. We started using the underwoods with her and she did an AWESOME comeback! She is lucky to be alive. All she has to show for her wounds now is two scars on her hocks! I would recommend this to anyone!

[risingrainbow]

Thanks again for all your input. I had forgotten about Calf Manna. I used to feed Strategy but my yearlings don't do well on it, so I"ve gone back to LMF. I will check out thewound treatment and the Radience. I hadn't heard of either of these before.

The shin split is working to keep her from picking at the wound. Today is the first day since it happened that it appears better instead of worse. Hopefully, it will continue to improve.

[risingrainbow]

We didn't put Echo in the crossties for the night last night and she did pretty well. She didn't do any damage to her wound so maybe we'll be able to keep her out of them. She's also acting like she feels better too. She's hanging her head out wanting attention instead of heading to the back corner every time someone walks by.

I'm going to redo her dressing this evening so we'll see if the part under the dressing looks as "good" as the part that's exposed from the dressing sagging.

[patty dukes]

I feel for you and your filly.

I hope everything goes good with her. I know when my kids or animals are sick it makes me sick.

[Blacklabs]

any updates as to how she's doing?

[risingrainbow]

Echo is doing much better. The wound is all filled in now but we are struggling with the proud flesh. Keeping a dressing in place is just not working and she isn't helping with her wiggling when trying to apply the dressing. She's had it and I can't say as I blame her. It's a daily struggle but we're working on it. Will try to post pics but she doesn't even trust me enough right now to stand for the camera either. Every time I'm near her she pulls that leg up trying to hide it from me. Poor girl.