Leaking c-section wound

S

SharonBirt

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Hi my mare unfortunately had a dreadfull foaling, started labour 3 weeks early, had a malpresentation ended up with a embriotomy (part butchering of dead foal) and having to have the rest removed by c-section. My poor mare managed to survive this ordeal but
the resulting wound is leaking yellow/clear discharge which is a shame as shes just had her staples out and is being very difficult for me to keep it clean.
Has anyone else had experience of leaking wounds and the time this is likely to dry up and wound heal??
My vet has given me instructions to keep it clean and keep an eye on her temperature which Im doing.
 
So sorry to hear about your mare and foal. What an ordeal you're going through.

I don't have a directly similar experience, but one of my mares developed an infection at the site of the 12 inch long incision into her ventral midline when she had colic surgery a couple of years ago.

She had been on antibiotics for a week after the surgery, as a normal precaution. Within 2 days of coming off antibiotics, a discharge started from her incision. The vets swabbed the incision to test which antibiotic would work best on this infection and she went onto norodine antibiotics at that stage. They did try flushing the incision out to help clear some of the discharge, but mainly it just carried on draining as yellowy drips.

She still had the staples in when the infection developed, and the vets removed some of the staples to help the wound to drain more easily.

At one stage they injected a different antibiotic into the wound, and they carried on flushing the wound with povidine/iodine (she was still at horspital at that time).

It took about 10 days for the discharge to reduce significantly, and to become clear rather than yellowy,

She was ultrasounded a few times to check how the wound was coming on. The scan showed clearly any remaining pockets of fluid, and thankfully showed no signs of hernia (which can develop whilst the muscles either side of the incision have still not knitted together properly).

In the end she was on antibiotics for around 5 weeks in all (including the week of routine antibiotics immediately after surgery).

I used to take her temperature and pulse two or three times a day when she came home, because if her temperature went up a little it was probably an indication of infection flaring up again. So well worthwhile, and easy to do.

Rose had a programme for gradually starting work again, starting with only 10 or 15 mins of gentle inhand walking - the idea being to introduce a little gentle exercise to help the scar to remodel and become more flexible when it's reached a certain stage.

I don't know how much of this, if any, will be relevant for your mare but thought it might help to at least share some of the timescales for dealing with the infection.

Hope that spring and summer will see you both starting to enjoy things again.

Sarah
 
Thanks Sarah for that, just grateful for an indication as to length of time this is likely to go on.
The surgery was done 10 days ago and I picked her up on friday 6 days after op. Luckily she didnt show signs of toxeamia which could have been much worse and I know that a wound has to drain and usually its at the lowest point which this is.
Shes been on Norodine since she came home and I realise by looking at the pockets of fluid on each side of the incision that there is still an amount to dissipate.
Just need a hand to clean twice a day which isnt going to be easy as normally do everything myself.
I also had a gelding that had a colic op several years ago. He had huge odeama, but never leaked from his wound luckily.
The yellowy cream discharge forms a sort of stalectite (cant spell that) and drips from the end it isnt smelly which is lucky and shes not showing a massive deviation from the norm body temperature wise, although I know during the day this varies anyway.
Thanks again so much for telling me your experience, it does help me to cope!
 
Oh, just remembered another couple of things. Whilst there was still discharge, I used to take a photo of the incision pretty much every day. I felt it would give me an objective way to measure whether things were improving or worsening, and it was certainly quite helpful to me in putting my mind at rest that the infection WAS getting better. Easy enough to do, just pointing a little digi camera up towards her belly button.

I never had to clean the incision, as my mare was still at horspital while that was ongoing, but from what I understand, all they really did was dab it in a fairly minimal way with a swab, just to take the worst of the discharge off. Rose definitely wasn't keen on it, and it was a matter of them just reaching under calmly but quickly for a quick dab before retreating!

I'm afraid I can't remember how the wound was flushed out, but I think that was with Rose in the stocks and sedated.

Best wishes

Sarah
 
Ive tried again this evening to clean it and she really objects, but vets say I must keep the leak site clean. Ive been using dilute detol but think this is probably really stinging her and resulting in her objecting so much. Im going to see if i can get something that doesnt sting tomorrow. Shes running a temp this eve, which I know is inevitable but she doesnt appear unwell at the moment as shes still eating reasonably well.
Shes only on her 10th day of anti b's so can see us going on for some time yet. Thanks again for your experiences. Will prob get my camera out tomoz as I can then email it to the vets if necessary. What a good idea! Thanks Sarah :-)
 
Maybe one of the horspital nurses would give you some tips on how best to clean the wound? They'll probably have a lot more practical experience of it than a local vet.

When I thought my mare might come home before her infection cleared up, I tried to think how I could clean the wound easily if Rose was objecting. The only idea I came up with was trying to use a kind of arm extension (plastic spatula, riding crop, something like that? Something that would be quite forgiving if the horse kicked up at it) and finding a way to fix a soft flexible end to it that I could stick a swab or dressing on, so that I could be a little braver about reaching under her belly with minimal risk of being kicked. In the end I didn't need to put that into practice, so never worked out the practicalities of it, but maybe you could find something similar if she won't let you any nearer?

Rose's temp was always a little higher in the evenings. She was usually about 37.5 at breakfast and around 38.1 at teatime.

Sarah
 
Just remembered something else....

One time I had to use norodine with a different pony. I started off using norodine paste and giving it like a wormer. Then one of the receptionists at my vets asked if I was using that for a particular reason, because the granules work out much cheaper - I think they were about a third of the price of the paste. I switched to using the granules instead, and just mixed a sachet up with 20ml water and poured it into a syringe with the pointy plastic end cut off. It was as easy to give, and saved me ££££.

S
 
Thanks so much......what a brill idea for the extention arm. I do have a pony whip with a flat hand shape on the end, that should work well, think it is parked by a field gate so will go and hunt it down in a min! My poor helpful unhorsey husband got stepped on last night trying to hold her still!
Will look up the F10, and in the meantime will stockpile the Savlon wound spray as I know that doesnt sting, (just a bit pricey for constant use!)
She ran a temp yesterday of 38.8 which was worrying and the vet said to get back to them if it got to 39, which it didnt luckily and this morning its down to 37.9 phew!!
Fingers crossed!!
 
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