puncture wound on stifle

[coen]

My horse came in from the field with a large puncture wound on his stifle, the vet stitched it and gave a course of antibiotics. For the first week it healed well then became swollen with yellow discharge. When the stitches were removed it healed over quickly but the swelling around it remains and he is lame. I have tried a course injectable antibiotics but its no different. Any ideas what may be causing this?

 

[BeckyDiamond]

Could the infection of entered the joint capsule? Depends on location of wound and how deep it was. You may not have been able to detect synovial fluid leaking if there was some discharge anyway

I would probably now ask for an x ray if it were my horse. If there is some infection in the joint capsule, it's definitely something that needs treatment sooner rather than later.

Sorry if I've worried you, hope your horse is better soon

 

[brightmount]

Ditto the above. I had a similar scenario with a gelding I had some years ago. The joint had to be flushed in horsepital, but he ended up having to go to Rossdales as the bone got infected and a bone chip had to be removed under general anaesthetic.

It was touch and go if the joint would heal but further x-rays showed the hole in the bone closing and he eventually made a full recovery but it was a long, expensive, stressful process, involving box rest and then rehabilitation livery as he needed a horse walker.

This is a worse case scenario but I would take every precaution with a puncture on the stifle joint.

 

[kellyeaton]

call vet back out!

 

[Happy Horse]

I'd definitely suggest an Xray, there may be a bone fragment causing the problem or an infection in the joint, which would need a joint tap.

 

[CBFan]

Yep, echo the others. Sounds like there could be a bone chip in there... a gelding I used to share got kicked on the eyelid and it just wouldn't heal (we're talking weeks), one day i saw a little while splinter poking out of the hole, so I gave it a bit of a tug and out came what only couldve been a piece of bone. It healed within days of that

 

[coen]

I called the vet back out and he scanned the area, only found small pockets of fluid which he thought was best left alone to be reabsorbed into the body. He couldn't detect a bone chip and said the joint looked ok.
Hopefully he is right and it clears up soon, guess il have to wait and see how it goes.

Thanks for your help.

 

[geraldgiraffe]

My horse had a very similar story to yours and it wasnt until she went to horspital and had a more detailed scan done that it revealed significant damage to the lateral patella ligament - if your horse is still lame i would def be contacting the vet again, sorry.

 

[coen]

Thanks to everyone for the advice. Luckily he is now sound and has been turned out all week so I think it probably will go down on its own but may take a while.The vet thinks I should start riding him again so hopefully the problems solved.