Overreach injury - Just before my week off - how depressing

[SpruceRI]

Down to yard tonight and noticed B had splashes of blood on a front and back leg. As our paddocks are like a quagmire I brought her in and hosed her off. Was thinking she must have cut her belly to get a back and front leg blood splattered, but after a while noticed blood oozed on the yard.

She's sliced one of her front heels, right where the furry bit joins the bulb of her heel. it wasn't gushing, but probably must have been. Wrapped it up and called the vet who came out and flushed it, bandaged it and given me some antiobiotics to put in her feed. Have got to take her to the vets on Weds for a check up. She'll be on box rest for a minimum of 10days and probably more as the vet said they don't heal that well.

I'm so depressed.

Haven't ridden her since falling off out hunting last week and getting concussion!! Poor B

 

[Santa_Claus]

argh not nice!

Dan did something similar a few weeks ago, brought him in realising very lame take in wash room wash off legs to find large amount of blood hidden by mud and it was still flowing. He had obviously just done it before I caught him whilst messing about in the field. I was a cruel mummy though washed it off with hibbiscrub coated in antibac spray and then had him on box rest for a day until was satisfied it had scabbed enough not to open up again when out. took him a week to become sound but after the first 24 hours waiting for it to scab up it wasn't an issue.

Why is the vet making him stay in for 10 days box rest? even with the mud that shouldn't be necessary as long as scabs over properly. I know you are saying its on the join but still if only surface over reach it shouldn't need more than a few days and if any deeper it would be heading towards ligaments/tendons and needing longer!?!?

sure your vet knows though and as always I can't see the injury itself and i'm not a vet ha ha

but if allowed take him for lots of walks as as well as stopping him from getting bored it will allow the affected area to stretch to stop it from breaking open when finally let back out in the field.

Katie

 

[SpruceRI]

Hi Katie, thanks for your reply

Vet says B must be on box rest for minimum of 10 days with NO exercise, not even walking in hand. Poor thing, she'll go mad I think.

It was hard to tell how deep the wound was because it was oozing constantly - but I don't think deep enough to damage any internal workings (well I hope not!)

Because of the position it's in, when the horse steps forward the wound opens, and then when she places her foot down it squashes closed, hence the reason for no exercise I assume to allow the tissue to join without all that stretching. Thing that really scared me is that when I take her back on Weds the vet says B may need to put in a Cast to stop all that opening and closing. Aagghh!.

Sounds like you did the right thing with yours, as my vet flushed the wound with Hibiscrub and water.

I'm having the shivers now that I might not have noticed the wound - it was only because she had blood speckles on her white bits!

 

[Stella]

Really sorry to hear that. I hope she heals well and quickly. If its any consolation, you are not alone in have your hopes dashed for lots of riding whilst off work on holiday. I've just got over an bad ear infection that had me out of the saddle for three weeks. Finally, got on my mare today and had an accident (see thread in Lounge 'D*mn and blast it, I came off'). Looks like I'll be heading to X ray in the morning

Maybe we're just not meant to ride the b*ggers!

 

[piebaldsparkle]

Hope her injury heals quickly. Annoying how they seem to know when to hurt themselves!!!

 

[Tierra]

In reference to Santa's comments, my vet also always verges on the side of caution (which I think yours is doing here also) and certainly in one instance I can think of, it paid off ten fold.

Its awful timing and I know its not pleasant keeping them in... but once she's well again and you're back riding, you'll forget all about it and just be greatful that its healed well (the silver lining I suppose, should be thats its christmas and you can spend some time with family, watching bad tv, eating too much and generally pampering yourself a little)

It is a slightly dodgy place (not dodgy as in AAAAAH! but more like awkward to heal) so at least whilever she's in you know you can keep an eye on it and nothing grim is getting into it. I'd not want mud leaking into that, particularly when you dont know how deep it is.

IF at worse, they do cast it up, just try and remember it's to keep it closed and nothing else. It can be terribly upsetting to see your horse so heavily bandaged up but it sounds to me like the vet is being ultra careful and she's in the best possible hands.

How old is she? My horse got kicked and it penetrated through his tendon shaft (upper leg) resulting in a little over two weeks box rest in September. He coped amazingly well to be honest! We made sure there was always another horse in his block with him by rotating the turnout hours a bit and the other people on the yard made an effort to pop in and see him with carrots. I think by the end of it all, he felt rather special sporting a god damn HUGE full leg bandage thingie (not a cast.... but was very very close). On a good note, he healed 100% and yet a horse on the yard down the road with exactly the same injury had a different vet who took a much more laid back approach. That horse is still having issues with the leg now and it's never healed properly at all (horse belongs to a part time groom on our yard so we could compare the progress).

Really hope your horsey is feeling better soon and try not to let it get you down too much. Personally I think you deserve a pat on the back for noticing it!

 

[SpruceRI]

Thanks everyone - I know I'm being silly.

It's just that a decade ago this week another lovely chestnut mare I owned broke her 2nd Pastern joint in the snow.

She had it operated on and wore 2 different casts for 6 months, was on box rest for a total of 9 months and after 18 months things weren't good and I had her PTS.

B is a Chestnut mare, same age (11), same size (15.3hh) and full of promise like Gem was.

So when the vet said they might have to cast her foot, it just brought back those awful memories.

Casting those thoughts aside ('scuse the pun!), B was fine and dandy this morning. My Shetland is going in at night, next door, so she gets some horsey company, and Rosie has just come back into work after a 2 month holiday. I clipped Rosie this morning outside B's stable. B's really nervous of being clipped so hopefully she learnt something when she saw Rosie dozing off.

B's got her Readygrass, Decahedron treat ball and loads of hay to keep her amused. And she can see the other ponies from her stable plus any comings and goings from the house, so hopefully she won't get too bored or over-wrought

I've got to change her bandaging tonight, so will be interesting to see what it looks like.

 

[SpruceRI]

Changed the bandage again today and the wound doesn't look too bad. Has oozed a bit as you'd expect but not really bled much.

She'd managed to ruck the Vetrap up but luckily the Softban was still covering the Animalintex and wound, so I've re-dressed it and wrapped Tank Tape all round to give it more protection. She likes to paw the ground a lot!!

She still doesn't seem too bothered about being in which is really good news. She's quite a pig, so the treat ball and bucket of Readygrass are, well, going down a treat!!

 

[cariadssogreat]

I had a mare do the same a couple of months ago. I cheated. Had bute anyway so buted for the first 3 days as she was lame. Picked up anti biotics from the vets. Cleaned and dressed daily. Bandaged fairly well to restrict movement - as you say as soon as they step forwards it opens up again. Left the mare on restricted turnout. Didnt put the horse in as I didnt want to increase the risk of swelling. It did take 4 weeks to heal - but we got there. I think its always a bugger there tbh. I'm sure she'll be fine in time - its just one of those really really tricky spots.

 

[henryhorn]

Depressing though it is the horse will heal quicker if left in and not opening the wound up by walking about.
I would however say after a week you should be ok to mooch along and allow it to pick at some grass.
On wounds like this one we always use a honey and cod liver oil burn dressing tulle, you dress the wound, cover and leave 36 hours before touching. A cut there in mud would always get anti biotics too as a precaution. We have had great success with really awful wounds with this stuff.
I would do your damndest to keep the area covered and stable for at least three or four days as then it will get the chance to start healing . If you move about too soon it may take up to a month to heal I'm afraid.

 

[SpruceRI]

Took her back to the vets on Weds for a check up and the wound is healing well. Bearing in mind how much mud she was standing in at the time, there's no infection which is great.
She's taken to the box rest really well.

They said I should now only change the dressing every 2 - 3 days to allow it to heal over without being disturbed.

How do you make a "honey and cod liver oil burn dressing tulle"

Thanks