Robert Jones Bandage

O

onebigjump

Well-Known Member
Joined
27 August 2010
Messages
179
Location
Surrey
Visit site
Recently my horse injured her knee by running through some fencing (she tore it open), She has had to have stitches and staple, and a Robert Jones bandage. I looked the Robert Jones bandage up on the internet and found it is supposed to have splints in it, my vet didn't apply splints and now the stitches have not held.

I am wondering if anyone would know whether he should have applied splints to stop her being able to move the joint so much?
 
I've never heard of splints being used with a Robert Jones bandage, in fact I thought the whole point was that a correctly applied Robert Jones bandage would immobilize the joint.
 
You certainly can apply splints with a Robert-Jones bandage, but it is by no means a necessity. For immobilising a wound it would be pretty unusual to use splints - they are generally only used to stabilise the leg in case of fracture or tendon rupture. It is an unfortunate fact of life that horses will not infrequently destroy any efforts made at putting their legs back together, regardless of how good a bandage is put on.
 
Thank you for your replys, I was just concerned that she could still move her knee quite freely, and the stitches broke down and could not be re-stitched. She is on box rest for the next few weeks so she cant run around but she can be fairly active in the stable.
 
If you are at all concerned with a wound breakdown I would get a second opinion, It's a difficult place to stitch and they probably warned you at the time about wound breakdown but I would ideally have wanted the knee a bit less mobile. Not to say your vet has done anything wrong, but to be safe rather than sorry.
 
Thought the idea of the RJ was to immobilise, so its not working, ask vet for advice and/or add more layers yourself, even with normal bandaging, you should be able to flick a finger against the vetwrap layer and it should sound like a cast. does she nibble it, some vetwrap stuff has a nasty taste to stop that.
You do need to call out the vet if wound is not healing first thing Monday morning or now if any worrying signs, if you have not done it already, take temperature twice a day to monitor status.
Get a lickit thingy to take her mind off box rest and give her ad lib hay for same reason, you can probably cut out hard feed.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top