Proud Flesh After Small Cut and Whole Lower Leg Irritated

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Mithras

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My 16 year old horse sustained a tiny cut which didn't seem deep and hardly bled on his lower near fore, halfway between the knee and cannon bone, on the outside. It has been 4 weeks now and it has got bigger and bigger. He has had two sets of antibiotics and vet says it is not infected but is proud flesh. Its now like a mini golf ball under the skin. He is currently on Fuciderm steroid to try and reduce it.

Has anyone any experience of something similar, and did it cause problems in the future? Vet says the location shouldn't cause too many problems, but the horse's skin all around the lower leg is inflamed and irritated and with raised bits of skin. The horse had circular bands of white hair, allegedly from a too tight bandage (he is from Germany and a showjumper) which covered bare bits ie no hair at all. Hasn't caused any problems until now, but its worrying. He is not lame.
 
I always use manuka honey with any cuts because it encourages the wound to heal fully without any proud flesh which seems to especially be a problem on the legs. I was half way through treating a cut for my mare and it was healing ok but proud flesh was evident so I tried the manuka and it healed amazingly. Im not sure if it will do anything for you now but for future reference it might be worth a try:)
 
My horse sustained a kick to his hind cannon bone recently. This was a deep wound, much deeper than originally thought. My vet was instantly worried of the wound over granulating so he was kept on box rest (the more friction over the wound the more likely it is to get over growth of tissue) for almost 4 weeks with substantial bandaging to keep some pressure on the wound; I also used Manuka honey and the results were amazing! Two months on, he's fully sound, the wound has completely healed and the hair hasn't grown back white.
 
manuka honey is great stuff! my Shetland decided to try and kick a cow through his fence and managed to rip a hole in his leg, 2" of cannon bone showing, three inch wound. Bandaged with manuka honey and bone covered in two weeks and then he was back out in field in three weeks. Ive used it a few times but this was amazing new healing on every bandage change- 24 hours
 
Without wanting to sound like scaremongering, is it possible this has turned into a sarcoid? might be worth considering - if you haven't already done so.
 
Our horse had to have it trimmed three times bled for England but now fully recovered, till she thinks of something else to do!
 
another one for manuka honey. we had a yearling last year with a 30" cut across her side. We rinsed and cleansed with salt water and put manuka honey on it . The wound looked terrible as the area around it swelled considerably. The healing process can make it look a lot worse than it is but when the swelling and proud flesh reduced the wound knit perfectly. I never would have believed the Manuka honey thing if I had nt seen it with my own eyes! I do have some pretty gruesome photos of the wound as it healed but don t want to post on here as its not my horse!
 
Thanks all, I'll get some Manuka honey for two days time once the Fuciderm has to stop. Fingers crossed its not a sarcoid! The skin in that whole leg seems irritated by whatevers happened to it in the past.
 
Manuka honey is great for healing but will not get rid of proud flesh.
If you want the proud flesh gone you will have to get the vet to come and cut it off and then bandage tightly or put a special compression bandage on it. Our vet lends these out don't know about others. It may need to be debrided a few times though.

Good luck.
 
I used something called Equaide on my mare who had a really deep over-reach injury, and it healed beautifully, not even a white hair.
Impossible to say what would have happened if I hadn't used the product, maybe it would have healed well anyway, but I was very impressed with it.
Wound couldn't be bandaged because of where it was, so just applied Equaide as advised and kept horse in. Took a few weeks to heal, but now you would never know she had ever had such a nasty injury. Might be worth a try :)
 
Patterdale said:
Manuka honey is great for healing but will not get rid of proud flesh.
If you want the proud flesh gone you will have to get the vet to come and cut it off and then bandage tightly or put a special compression bandage on it. Our vet lends these out don't know about others. It may need to be debrided a few times though.

Good luck.
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This ^^

I'm afraid once proud flesh sets in you need to be careful with wound gels and honey. Your vet will have prescribed the steroid cream to slow healing down to inhibit proud flesh. Quite good that they did this as IMO hydrogels are far too quickly used in wound care with horses. I'm a tissue viability nurse and proud flesh in people is less common. We refer to it as over granulation. If you google this it will give you more info. Proud flesh is most likely to appear in horses in wounds below the hock and knee as they horse has very little tissue in that area. And they have evolved to heal as fast as possible - in essence they heal too well.

Anyway long term slow healing is best in lower leg wounds. If proud flesh is evident the equiade product mentioned above can work well. However if may need sharp debridement but not always. I've had good success with foam adhesive dressings with iodine used underneath.

Hope your horse heals well
 
Ive also had success with equaide, one was a livery who had proud flesh cut off several times and was on box rest for 5 months with what started as a small
wound behind the knee, the other was my own mare who cut her hind leg on wire fencing quite badly, it started to granulate so i used equaide and it healed although she does have a scar.
 
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