bad leg wound? Stitches?

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kez1001

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My 4yo sustained a rather nasty cut/injury to his near hind leg last monday (9 days ago). The vets were concerned as it was aprrox 12cm long 4cm wide and 3cm deep and they wanted to xray to check for possible splint bone fracture. So xray done that night and no fracture, horse stayed in horsepital so they could ultrasound and suture in the morning also so my boy could have intravenous antibiotics and painkillers :(

Ultrasound done in the morning and nothing of note so they did wound wash out and stitched wound with some normal stitches and 2 deep tension sutures (called vertical matress stitches my vet said) but they didnt close whole wound as they wanted it to drain out so gap about 5cm left open. I got him home on wednesday last week after £1000 bill! and he had compression bandage on his leg and on strict box rest to try and keep sutures intact. Vet came to check wound on monday and stripped dressing down, she said wound looked ok but wanted to use flamizine on it as a bit sloughy and still deep at the bottom so bandages back on and advised to change today.

So i took bandages down today and thought it looked better than monday, bottom end not so deep and i could see granulation tissue, small section still sloughy so aplly flamizine again as directed by vet and re bandaged, was supposed to speak with vet to update this afternoon but she wasnt in and as not concerned i said could she call me on monday. we had previously decided to leave stitches to after sunday and then review taking out, she said i could do it, im a nurse, not a vet nurse and i think i will just get vet to do as I took a picture of the wound on my phone and in the picture it looks as though the top end of the stitch line is open a wee bit, but i didnt see that when i was cleaning it, worried now!

So point of the post is has anyone else had a deep leg wound that was stitched? how long did it take to heal? from what i have read vets dont suture legs much due to the difficulty of them reopening? is there anything i can do to help wound healing? anyone take out their own horses stitches?

i am giving my horse a balanced diet, he is still on box rest because of the stitches. just want him to get well soon. probably sound mega useless and overly worried but i lost my mare in the summer to a freak accident and am just worried for my boy and want to look after him well.

anybody with a similar experience please reassure me!
 
kez1001 said:
So point of the post is has anyone else had a deep leg wound that was stitched? how long did it take to heal? from what i have read vets dont suture legs much due to the difficulty of them reopening? is there anything i can do to help wound healing? anyone take out their own horses stitches?
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I think I stitch more wounds now than ever before as I personally feel that I have nothing to lose in most cases.

I sort of think of the stitch up as creating a plaster of the best kind and if it knits together then wounds will sometimes heal as quickly as 14days and if not, at least the overall heal time is reduced.

It is impossible to speculate on how long a wound will take to heal TBH, especially without seeing it.

Wounds do commonly break down on horses legs but this is not catastrophic by any means. If the wound is in an area of high tension, despite best efforts made to reduce this, the wound is more likely to break down. So far it sounds as if yours is doing well.

The best thing to help the wound heal is rest, bandaging as instructed, reduced but balanced feeds and antibiotics/anti-inflammatories as your vet sees fit.

I have had clients that are either doctors or nurses take out their own horses sutures without complication.

Sounds like you're doing just fine! :)

Imogen
 
Applying Active Manuka Honey to the wound really helps speed up the healing process and keeps tha scarring down. It can be applied to the wound under a bandage with no problems.

The photos below are of a friends horse following an impact injury - the gate post at high speed. First photo is shortly after it happened, second about three days later after the stitched wound broke down. Treatment then changed to just the honey and the final photo 5 weeks after original injury and the horse back in work.
Tracheostomy_003web.jpg
100_0345web.jpg
100_0431web.jpg
 
thanks imogen, im not so worried about removing the standard sutures just the deep tension ones! he is itching his leg a lot with his lips today so think it must be starting to heal inside as i have heard itching a sign of healing, though maybe thats an old wives tale! I feel so terrible for him, he is coping well with the box rest but you can tell he is bored :rolleyes:

evelyn - thats a horrific wound! i use honey on patients at work so i am aware it is good, though we dont use it where there is little tissue as sometimes its too good at cleaning wounds and bones end up exposed and thats the only thing i would worry about with his leg as the wound was so deep but thanks for sharing thats very impressive how quick it healed! :)
 
Evelyn said:
Applying Active Manuka Honey to the wound really helps speed up the healing process and keeps tha scarring down. It can be applied to the wound under a bandage with no problems.

The photos below are of a friends horse following an impact injury - the gate post at high speed. First photo is shortly after it happened, second about three days later after the stitched wound broke down. Treatment then changed to just the honey and the final photo 5 weeks after original injury and the horse back in work.
Tracheostomy_003web.jpg
100_0345web.jpg
100_0431web.jpg
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Bejesus!!!!!:eek:

Hope your horse does well Kez:)
 
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