Problem with wound healing

shell2

shell2

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Hi

My mare was kicked on the hock about 7 weeks a go, x-rayed and scanned and all clear. However the wound is not healing and she has gone in for an operation today to remove scar tissue and try and get the wound to close.

Does anyone have experiences of this kind of thing?

Many thanks
 
Honey can be used to close a wound. Not because of any alternative medicine Mumbo Jumbo. Honey an antiseptic and is hygroscopic which means it will attract moisture. It will pull moisture from the wound without allowing it dry out and will remain flexible. If conventional methods don't work. Give it a go. All honey is suitable. It needs to be reapplied at least twice a day to keep the moisture 'wicking' from the wound.

Manuka honey is no different from other honey it's all marketing. Cheap oil seed rape honey will do fine.
Please let us know how you get on whatever you do
 
Thank you.

She is back up on her feet which is good and apparently they have managed to close the wound to about 0.5cm with stitches which is loads better than it was and now is on box rest for a couple of weeks.

I tried Manuka honey last time round but will probably try it again. I think the issue last time was it had gone chronic so nothing was happening.


Fingers crossed it will heal nicely this time and I can get back riding:) Why is it the most innocuous thing seems to cause more problems.
 
Have the vets talked about skin grafts from "punch" grafts taken from under the mane? Friend of mine's horse tried unsuccessfully to jump a 5-bar gate and trashed his legs. After months of it not healing, they gave him a skin graft which eventually did the trick.
 
I'd second manuka honey, we use tulles impregnated with cod liver oil and honey and have had great success with wounds the vet wanted to use a skin graft and plaster on. The secret is to actually leave the dressing on at least 48 hours, that way it gets a chance to work properly.
The most difficult was a broken splint bone injury, I was dressing it for three months and still finding slivers of bone up to 8 weeks , but it healed perfectly with hardly a scar. The tulles seem to stop proud flesh forming too. Not sure if the chap is still making them but there are other versions on the market you can get.
 
lazybee said:
Honey can be used to close a wound. Not because of any alternative medicine Mumbo Jumbo. Honey an antiseptic and is hygroscopic which means it will attract moisture. It will pull moisture from the wound without allowing it dry out and will remain flexible. If conventional methods don't work. Give it a go. All honey is suitable. It needs to be reapplied at least twice a day to keep the moisture 'wicking' from the wound.

Manuka honey is no different from other honey it's all marketing. Cheap oil seed rape honey will do fine.
Please let us know how you get on whatever you do
Click to expand...

Lazybee - not so - Active Manuka Honey has far more healing properties in it than your ordinary honey.
See this link - Waikato University research on Manuka honey. No marketing ploy here!
http://bio.waikato.ac.nz/honey/special.shtml
 
Evelyn said:
Lazybee - not so - Active Manuka Honey has far more healing properties in it than your ordinary honey.
See this link - Waikato University research on Manuka honey. No marketing ploy here!
http://bio.waikato.ac.nz/honey/special.shtml
Click to expand...

This comes up from time to time. This is down to trying new ways to market a not very good tasting abundant honey source. In new Zealand, honey farming is BIG business (Manuka $100million per year). The Manuka industry is rife with false claims and has been exposed many times. All honey has anti-bacterial properties.
I am a beekeeper and have been reading about this subject on and off when it comes up in beekeeping magazines. The general opinion in beekeeping circles is basically honey is honey it's the way the bees treat the nectar that give it most of it's useful properties. not the fact it comes from some mystical bush. I'm quite sure if the British government spent enough money on research they could come up with equally convincing claims for 'Scottish heather honey' or 'Norfolk sea lavender honey'

I normally use silver spray first anyway :p
 
Is the wound being kept covered?? We are currently having huge success using Covidien Anti Microbial dressings on a horrific leg wound. The horse came to us with a gross ulcerated lump of proud flesh. It is now nearly healed...we got rid of infection then cut off proud flesh and now bandaging with flamazine and the Covidien dressings and they are really working. They are expensive though
 
Another manuka honey fan! I get it from health food stores and it has various strengths. Over 12 is recomended for horses, also available in a cream.I had a problem with proud flesh on a small cut and manuka honey was the only thing that healed it.
 
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Another cut hock been scanned and joint all fine but would not tolerate stitching - we're using manuka honey too as recommended by vet. Was coming on really well but had to have more AB shots and bute after local infection set in yesterday:(. Much better today though - fingers crossed!!:)
 
Another thing that you could try, with advise from the Vet is potassium iodide. You actually feed it to the horse.

I was recommended it by Derek Knottenbelt many years ago when I too had a leg wound that refused to heal. Your Vet would need to work out the right dose, but it fairly made a difference. I knwo someone else who used it recently on a shetland that had a face wound that wasn't healing.
 
Has anyone used hydrocolloid dressings on horses? I used them on a dog this year in lieu of stitching (it was borderline, the dog is not insured and vet and I figured it was worth a try as worst case, he'd just end up being stitched) and was quite frankly amazed. It was a bit "messy" to look at because you can see the gel under the adhesive and every thing in you says it looks "wrong" but it healed up quickly, he didn't worry it at all and there is no scarring. He was even less procribed by the dressing than by stitches as he didn't worry it so didn't have to cover it and it's water resistant. Even the vet was surprised (and a bit grumpy :)) by the result.

The only problem was pulling it off against the hair, which the dog did not like at all! :eek: If I did it again I would re-clip every time I changed the dressing and would not change it as often. In the dog's case it was impossible to bandage over but I would likely do that if possible.
 
Box_Of_Frogs said:
Have the vets talked about skin grafts from "punch" grafts taken from under the mane? Friend of mine's horse tried unsuccessfully to jump a 5-bar gate and trashed his legs. After months of it not healing, they gave him a skin graft which eventually did the trick.
Click to expand...

My Boy has had this recently and it worked a treat after he got tangles in cut barbed wire (thanks local idiots). The wound was almost 4 inches long and approx 1.5 inches wide and he had removed all the sking from it so it would take longer to heal (looking at 4 months). He had a punch biopsy and he's 2 weeks or so from having a complete covering of skin over it in 2 and a half months.

It is dressed by the vet (as he needs to be sedated as he doesn't like the plaster dressing at the top and bottom being removed) once every 5 days with some special dressing and manuka honey ;) Both the vet and I are super mega pleased with the speed of it and worse case scenario is that the biopsy would take or not many would and he would have to heal normally, it turns out 8 out of the 14 took. He's been on box rest and allowed to hand graze as movement disrupts the biopsy taking.
 
Completely different tact here, and depends on whether or not you are insured (or rich would do equally) but I highly recommend hydrotherapy for wounds, both after surgery (tendon sheath infection) and sethered tendon.

My vets refered both mares and they are very very clean after healing.

Also had a surgery wound heal without hydrotherapy, it too longer and the scarring is far worse.
 
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