'scalping' part of face, with flap of skin and flap of bone - experiences?

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mystiandsunny

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My horse has hit her face on something tonight, above her eye. She's basically scraped down something (the stable door we think) with sufficient force to almost cut loose a flap of skin, and underneath this she's loosened a flap of bone (no idea how). Vet says can either heal fine with no intervention (if no infection), or might have to have the skin/bone flaps removed and let it heal that way. We can't get to the clinic for x-rays (snow) but will as soon as we can.

Just wondering if anyone's ever had anything similar happen, what were the stages of healing and about timescales really.
 
My beautiful palomino show horse took a huge flap of skin off her face and it had already shrivelled up by the time I found it so must have happened after morning feed. I cut it off with some sterilised scissors and covered in in vetilintex/hydrogel. It has healed up really well.

The flap of bone might be a different issue though because it could surely stop the healing process. My old girl had a kick and had chips of bone in her fetlock which stopped a wound from healing. She ended up having to have an arthroscopy to remove them and is now fine. Cant your vet remove the bone chip?

I hope your horse is better soon. It is really scary when you find them with a facial injury.
 
mystiandsunny said:
My horse has hit her face on something tonight, above her eye. She's basically scraped down something (the stable door we think) with sufficient force to almost cut loose a flap of skin, and underneath this she's loosened a flap of bone (no idea how). Vet says can either heal fine with no intervention (if no infection), or might have to have the skin/bone flaps removed and let it heal that way. We can't get to the clinic for x-rays (snow) but will as soon as we can.

Just wondering if anyone's ever had anything similar happen, what were the stages of healing and about timescales really.
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I'm guessing it's not stitchable then? That'd be my preference but if the vet examining said not poss then most heal really well IME.
I wouldn't sweta too much about the xrays being done later as it won't really change you plan for treatment.
Precautionary ABs and painrelief if required is usually enough with a clean up of the wound each day and the vet suggests.
The wound will granulate to heal as it's not been stitched which will heal slower but fine. Difficult to give time scales with no idea of size of wound, but often you'll be looking at a few weeks.

HTH
Imogen
 
I had one smash her skull just below the forelock on an RSJ (metal girder!) Found her within an hour, stitched beautifully and back on work in 3 weeks. Scary initially though.
 
head wounds heal really well if kept clean (gently wash and clean) as they have a very good blood supply which is why they always look so gory! give her hay on the floor til healed to save hay dropping in/on it. good luck, shame it couldnt be stitched. mother nature is very good, but only time will tell. hope it heals soon.
 
Thank you for the replies :). Vet did manage to put a few staples in but had to leave the bottom part open to drain as she couldn't get it clean enough to be happy closing the whole thing. She was working in a field in the dark - fair enough! The antibiotics seem to be doing their job well, although she's still feeling enough pain that her appetite has suffered. She's allowed out for walks in hand to try to stimulate this, so we went and investigated the snow once it had stopped, and she ate her dinner (or about half of it), across the fence from the ponies.
 
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