wound on the knee HELP (pictures)

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noggin123

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My horse managed to slice his leg open just above his knee and a little to the outside of his leg last Monday (he had a flap of skin basically). The vet was called and he had antibiotic injection, local antibiotics injected into the wound before he put four stitches in it, he didnt seem overly concerned about it and said stitches may or may not stay in. He said horse could be turned out as normal as he wasnt lame and it would keep the swelling to a minimum.

Overall the wound is a little over an inch long and looked to be healing well...until today.

My horse has not been rolling because it must have been too sore to bend down that low but today must have been feeling better as he had rolled and as a result the stitches have come open.

Ive cleaned the wound up as he had got plenty of mud in it and also removed the stitches (all 4) that were now just sitting in one side of his cut. It is now clean there is no sign of infection and all swelling on his knee has gone apart from a small area just surrounding the cut but that may be where the skin has been pulled open again. It just looks so ugly because its open (not bleeding at all, there was no blood on his leg or around it from when he had rolled and opened it).

What do I do now to help it heal quickly? He has three sachets of norodine left too.

This was it tonight when he came in (before cleaning, all the brown is mud once that was out it was just pinky red flesh)

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I would give the vet a call and maybe show him/her the photos to get an opinion?

If it was mine I would be flushing it out then keeping the horse in on box rest until the wound was more healed, with some hand grazing if you have time. The fields are so filthy atm so any rolling could send you back to square one and the risk of infection.
 
Personally I'd remove any left over stitches ( they're jist foreign bodies to harbour bugs now). Clean and flush really well. If I was happy that it wasn't too deep I'd spray with antibacterial spray and loosely cover to keep it clean. And repeat daily until it's scabbing over cleanly. However if you're not confident dealing with wounds then def get the vet out to have another look for peace of mind.
 
My filly cut the front of her fetlock, nasty wound and not possible to stitch. Six weeks of dressing with specialist dressings and bandaged there is next to nothing to see, no proud flesh and a tiny flat scar that I am very hopeful will hair over.

Anything near or on a joint must be dealt with properly and promptly for the best outcome to be achieved. I think the wound on the knee wants covering and your vet needs to advise you. Make sure you finish the antibiotic course as that will be helping fight further infection, the vet may want to extend the treatment seeing as the wound had opened and got dirty. Good luck with it.
 
Thankyou for a quick response everyone. I have cleaned it up and taken out all of the stitches as they were all broken/coming out the pictures were taken before cleaning it just to give you an idea of size etc. It is now clean and just pinky red flesh there was no pus or fluid at all. Will give the vets a ring in the morning as its free call out day too so can always get them to pop in to see him. He wont be going out now until it has healed. :)
 
tb any vet that let that wound stay unbandaged and in a field I wouldn't be having them back. Needs a good clean and probably a firm bandage applied to limit movement of the joint and box rest from what is visible here.
 
The reason he was allowed out was because 1. Hes safer out than in. Literally a donkey in the paddock..aside from rolling and 2. He needed the swelling to go down to allow it to heal.

His leg was huge when it first happened. It is now normal size. The stitches and wound were healing so so well until this afternoon when he rolled and opened it. He was and is still totally sound and not sore hence why we decided against a huge bandage that would go from elbow to hoof. Which would also stress him more.
 
Ah, so it was owner pressure that meant he went out? Some times for their wounds to heal they need to be treated differently-if he needs swelling to go down, bute and walking in hand, and bandaging are the answer. This wound is always going to be difficult due to the area of it-now he will be in for potentially longer. It will take twice as long to heal with moving, and potentially put up a lot more proud flesh. Of course the pics may be magnifying it so it's hard to tell but I think more could be done.
 
Agree with suzieT I would have kept him in and given him some sedalin if he was stressed,it would have been almost healed in about a week if left in I would imagine.
 
I did in no way pressure my vet into saying turn out! I asked how long he would need to be on box rest for and was told he could go into a small paddock as he would be better off moving around quietly. This is where he has been in a 20x30m grassy paddock no puddles or wet except a little mud in the gateway but he was fine out eating so no need to stand there. Id rather that than him cantering around his stable. Im not asking to be critisied for what has already happened but how best to treat this leg now so it heals quickly and doesnt get infected..he also has had a bute shot and his leg went completely down after two days anyway and was never lame so no reason to give him anymore of that as he was on anti bs.
 
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