laceration aftercare

[ameeyal]

My youngster came in yeasterday with a 4" open skin laceration on his chest, it has gone through two layers off skin its a clean cut, i rang the vet to see if it needed stitching, he said no leave it as it was, im putting suda a cream on his skin below the wound to stop any weeping burns, ive bathed the cut in mild salted water, ive left the flap on, is there any thing else i could do to make it heal with out proud flesh, or to make healing quicker i have some derma gel is that any good.

 

[soloequestrian]

My mare had a cut like this on the point of her shoulder a few years ago. I stuffed it full of hydragel (get it from the vet, it didn't need a visit or anything) regularly and other than that, left it alone. There was a huge, scabby mess there for a while which looked awful, but there was no heat or other indication of infection, so I purposely didn't clean it after the initial clean. It healed really well, and the scar is miniscule and covered by hair.
I saw another horse with a similar injury that had been stitched, and it took much longer to heal.