This is what my boy did to himself - don't look if you are squemish!!!

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squirtlysmum

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This is just the back of the injury, it went right up to the front of his leg (8" long) and was 6" deep, had to have five layers of stitches which took 3 1/2 hours to close.
The vet could place his entire hand into the wound upto his wrist.
He had the skin stitches out yesterday and has been allowed out, drugged up, in his field today

Willsinjury.jpg
 
i do hope your boy is doing ok, just remembered an event which might help give you some hope, it happened about 15 years ago, but...
i saw a similar injury on a friends mare... she was turned out 3 fields away from a stallion when she came into season. she then proceeded to jump hedges and fences to get into the field with him (she was 17 at the time). he turned on her and in her panic she went to jump out of the field, got it wrong and slit her belly from between her front legs almost to her groin.

fortunately someone happened to be driving past and saw it happen, caught her and took her up to the farm, calling the vet on the way. she had 'only' cut the skin and part of the muscles so there were no vital organs spilling out, but the skin was starting to peel away from her belly and hang like curtains.

it took the vet 3 hours to stitch her back together, with 4 rows of stitches on each side of her belly to help the skin adhere properly. bless her she just stood (mildly sedated) in her stable whilst he did it. - and whats more she kept the foal, who is now 15 and the most wonderful hunter you could want. mum is now 33 and still as fit as a fiddle, no signs of the injury except one teat doesn't work as well. she had her last foal 2 years ago and is now retired properly.
 
Oops - big wound. Looks like he did it on a nail or something. One of my mares did a similar silly thing last year, not as big as your boy's though and we packed it. I was, yet again, impressed at how quickly it healed up.

Do you have pictures of it now the stitches have been taken out?
 
He did it on wire (not barbed) on his fence, somehow managed to put his foot and leg over the fence and sliced his armpit,. Thats just the back in the picture as it was eight inches long and 6 inches deep, absolutley foul! I'm not squemish but it made me feel distinctly queezy, probably the thought of the impending bill!
I takes some pickies of the mended site.
 
EEEE - I know you said he'd hurt himself; but my god that's big. Well done you for coping with that. How long ago did it happen? I'd love to see some progress pictures and hope everything is going ok.
 
I hope he gets better soon.Looks painful.
Hope you dont mind me asking but arent you worried about infection if he is turned out.We had a mare with a puncture wound and she had to be kept in for that reason.I prefer turnout myself Im not a great fan of total box rest unless absolutely neccessary just wanted some feedback ,your vet obviously has good reasons for letting him go out.Would be interested in his opinion just for future reference.
 
He had his stitches out yesterday and the wound looks incredible and certainly isn't open anymore, in fact its hard to believe it ever looked like it did, I clean it everyday and give it a massage to help with circulation back into the wound site and he's sound as well.
He had two weeks total box rest with the first two days cross tied as they thought he'd managed to fracture it as well so he had an RJ bandage on too but he got a clean bill of health for that. Suprisingly he actually loves to be in his house and is one of those neds who doesn't like getting wet but he has no choice as he really needs to move about as he became very stiff in his neck and back due to somersaulting another piece of fence after doing the original injury. He couldn't actually put his head down a couple of days ago as he had a reaction to all the jabs he's had in his poor neck so putting it down to graze is obviously helping with stretching it out. Poor man has really been through the mill!
 
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