Wound related wwyd?

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Sameru

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Scenario -

Horse comes in with a 'not fresh' wound on the outside of his hind canon bone (potentially 12-24 hours old- long story :( ). 2 small grazes and a slightly deeper puncture with a good amount of localised swelling around the injury.

How would you attack it?

I am being criticised by YO for 3 days of cleaning, dressing, cold hosing and bandaging when in a night. Am I really over reacting? Would you have left it open to heal, even with the heat and swelling? Last night was day 3 and the swelling has almost completely gone so I will leave it open tonight with some Alu spray or similar on it.
 
I'm not a vet caller as a rule but a puncture wound has me lifting the phone because you just do not know how deep it's penetrated especially over a bone and with the best will in the world, if it isn't cleaned out properly it won't heal and could become a bigger problem. I'd rather a wasted call out than risk it TBH.

The grazes I would just have cleaned off and smeared with something like what was Dermobian or blue spray and left alone to heal Without seeing them, I wouldn't have been repeating anything or covering them up, they will heal better with some air to them and if you smear them in the evening bedding won't get into them, it will stick to the cream which you just wipe off in the morning.

Is he up to date with his tetanus jabs?
 
A puncture wound with swelling especially would have had me reaching for the phone, too.

I made the mistake of not calling the vet once, with a puncture wound, and it was a very, very costly mistake.
 
Does not sound as if you are over reacting tbh, I think you have done the right thing.
If there is no pus on the animalintex after two nights, I would think it can be left open, any infection would have materialised by now, hosing cleanses and cools, the only time not to do this is when the flesh is open and torn, so that the tissues could adsorb water and swell up, this is one reason for having two packs of sterile saline in first aid kit. I also have a single use [mushroom shaped] gel [hydrogel, or similar] for puncture wounds.
Ask vet for it, it can be used for any wound, but is the only thing you could use for getting in to a deep wound.
Tetanus must be kept up to date, some are two years and some are three, but there is no harm in re-newing before that.
 
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amymay said:
A puncture wound with swelling especially would have had me reaching for the phone, too.

I made the mistake of not calling the vet once, with a puncture wound, and it was a very, very costly mistake.
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agree with this I would call the vet you just have to look at all the stories in here of puncture wounds. Its not worth chancing it, let us know what happens.
 
Agreed with above posters that I would always call the vet for a puncture to get anti bs just in case. Would always rather a wasted vet fee than the consequences which can be horrendous.
 
Maesfen said:
I'm not a vet caller as a rule but a puncture wound has me lifting the phone because you just do not know how deep it's penetrated especially over a bone and with the best will in the world, if it isn't cleaned out properly it won't heal and could become a bigger problem. I'd rather a wasted call out than risk it TBH.

The grazes I would just have cleaned off and smeared with something like what was Dermobian or blue spray and left alone to heal Without seeing them, I wouldn't have been repeating anything or covering them up, they will heal better with some air to them and if you smear them in the evening bedding won't get into them, it will stick to the cream which you just wipe off in the morning.

Is he up to date with his tetanus jabs?
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Totally agree......puncture wounds are not to be trifled with. Vet every time.
 
If it's not near a joint, then i'd probably do as you have done. Sounds like it's well on the mend now. As for YO, well it's nothing to do with her
 
The nastiest puncture wound I saw wasn't near a joint either. Vet was called immediately but pony still ended up in hospital, leaving it a few days would have ended very badly. Imo they're a bit like colic, mild cases an experienced owner can deal with, but just like mild colic its very difficult to see initially how severe it is. And I for one don't have a full course of anti-biotics to hand for infection.
 
Thank you all for your input. the swelling was almost completely diminished this morning after dressing and stable bandaging for the 3rd night. I will get him in tonight and assess. It is open today so we shall see what happens. I have intrasite that I have been using but I wuld love to do some more showing with this little man so I will be slapping on the manuka honey if it is looking on the right track tonight.

thanks again guys, very much appreciated :)
 
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