My horse has scalped himself!

[Jericho]

Left my horse in his stable to eat his tea and came back to find he has stripped the hair and skin off the front of his face - its about the size of a small hand. Its not bleeding but it does look like he has taken most of the skin layers off to the flesh below as the area is very dark red (he is dark bay).

I have sprayed it with antiseptic spray as was a bit worried about smothering it with cream but does anyone have any other advice as to what I can do with it - at the moment there doesnt look like I or a vet can do anything else i.e. stitch / suture / dress / clean as it was very clean anyway and no blood - just looked like someone had peeled the skin off - ouch. (Obviously if it changes for the worse I will call the vet!)

Now off to find out how he did it - I can only think he has done it on the door frame as it is really windy and he was very spooky all day so he might have had a sudden spook and cracked his head. Stooopid horse!

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

If he's stripped a deep layer of skin off of that size, he might need skin grafts. With such a large area of open wound the most urgent problem is preventing infection. I wouldn't wait for any changes (???) I'd get the vet out NOW x

 

[Tnavas]

Active Manuka Honey - the higher factor the better - brilliant stuff, just wipe it on.
From this

filled with honey daily to this in abouot 5 weeks

 

[Jericho]

oh my crikey!!! My horse is nowhere near as bad as that. The recovery on that is amazing.

B_o_F - I am not sure it is that deep, it looked very dry this morning and he didnt object to me putting cream on so that flies dont get on it. It kinda looks like the edges of the healed wound above so I think it is just the top layer of skin.

 

[CBAnglo]

That was really interesting Tnavas.

How did you apply the honey? where did you get it from? and did the vet stitch etc or did the wound heal purely by applying the honey?

Two bays, hope your boy's wound heals quickly. Both of mine do it scratching their faces (sweet itch is lethal this time of year) and I usually just clean it and wait until the skin heals then apply megatek hair rebuilder to encourage the hair to grow back quickly. Doesnt usually leave a mark (I have a dark bay too).

 

[Tnavas]

CBAnglo - the wound was originally stitched but as per usual within a couple of days the edges broke down and the stitches were removed.

The darker area was quite deep where the muscle split. Horse hit a gate post hooning between two paddocks.

The honey is Active Manuka Honey (Manuka is also known as Tea Tree). The honey has amazing healing power, prevents scarring/proud flesh and as you can see encourages rapid healing. It is produced in New Zealand and I guess in other coutries where there are large numbers of Manuka trees. You buy it at a health food shop. It has a special rating and the 20+ is the best to use.

The lady that owned this horse heated the honey until it was runny and syringed it into the deep cuts and then all over the wound. She was back riding him after only four weeks and as you can see from the scar the wound healed amazingly. A large area of flap was eventually removed, there was no granulation and owner has told me that the wound has further reduced in size.

Emu oil is great to use to get rapid hair regrowth

 

[lily1]

my filly scalped herself yesterday morning tearing round the field and getting too close to the menege fence. Very dark red skin but not bleeding about the size of teaspoon its dry but her face is swollen today around the trauma site i'm a believer in camrosa.
TB I hope your boy is ok.