Bad cut on dock

[Erray]

Hi My horse got a really nasty cut under his dock about 6 inches long, he lost alot of blood and the vet stitched it up. Under the vets orders I have been re dressing it every other day using a dry animalintex dressing and antiseptic powder from the vet so it doesn't stick too much to the dressing. It has been 2 weeks now and not healing very quickly, he had a 7 day course of antibiotic and is on bute. He seems very cheery and not in too much pain.
Is there anything else I can do to aid the healing? Vet says it will just take time.
I would be very grateful to hear any comments.
Thanks.

 

[Rana]

Not sure how deep the cut is, but what about something like Intrasite Gel, or Equine America's Dermagel? I tend to find creating a moist environment for the wound to heal is slightly quicker and causes less scarring. Difficult to do around the dock area though, as I guess you can't easily bandage a dressing on...

 

[Erray]

Cut is very deep, I am keeping it dressed, working quite well with animalintex and vet wrap which grips the tail well so doesn't slip down and also isn't too tight.
I'll look up both of those, Thanks!

 

[Rana]

In that case, I would use Intrasite to "pack" the wound, then cover in a melolin dressing and good old vetwrap. Once the skin starts to fill in the wound, you can swap to Dermagel to fill in the last of the hole, then once it's pretty much filled in, just something to keep the flies off.

Hope that helps

Can you tell I've seen a few nasty deep wounds?!?! lol

 

[silverbreeze]

I find the opposite to Rana, sometimes wounds take longer to heal if they are too wet as the new tissue never manages to establish itself, especially if covered. I have a horse who damaged his dock a few years ago and it wasn't healing well and it was bandaged. His wasn't as deep as yours sounds but I found Savlon dry antiseptic spray a god send and no bandage.. It helped the wound to dry up and heal in no time, I just made sure it was kept clean. His was on the side so sat on his bum cheek rather than his actually bottom so never actually got poo on it or anything.
Is there any way you could leave the dressing off for even a short while or does it get covered in cr*p?

 

[Tnavas]

Clean with saline solution - 1 tsp to a pint of water. Then slather with Active Manuka Honey - cover with dressing and bandage.

You will need to get the honey from a Health food shop - it must be 'Activated Manuka Honey and have a high rating.