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Discussion on Does it sometimes *never* go away?
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Member:
Kandace
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Posted on Monday, Jan 26, 2004 - 9:47 pm:
Hi ... I'm just wondering if there are wounds which never close or heal properly due to proud flesh.
We have been fighting this now with my gelding for nearly four months. The wound is from an old injury on his knee (severed tendon) which healed beautifully, no scar or disfigurement, but then re-opened nine months later and has been open ever since.
I've cut it back every few days, the vet came out and carved it out pretty extensively, we've limited his movement (small paddock), kept it soaked and wrapped in a mild bleach solution per vet's recommendations, scrubbed and flushed and scrubbed and flushed some more. He still has a dime-shaped hole on the front of his knee which refuses to close, and now the hair is coming in white.
We're in regular contact with our vet, so I'm not looking for veterinary advice per se. I'm just wondering ... is it possible that some wounds never close?
Kandace
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Tuesday, Jan 27, 2004 - 7:49 am:
I think in time this one will too. I wonder if the bleach is inhibiting the new skin. You might want to try something a bit more tissue friendly as suggested in the articles.
DrO
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Member:
Kandace
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Posted on Thursday, Jan 29, 2004 - 8:47 pm:
Thanks, Dr. O. Quick update, we now know why the wound hasn't closed. He has what appears to be a bone fragment working its way out of the wound. Our vet feels that when he injured himself originally he must have damaged the cannon bone and a small piece of it died. That small fragment has probably been working its way out for the last several months.
Currently it's protruding about 1/2" straight out from the knee and is about as thick across as the lead part of a pencil. The wound looks clean, no signs of infection. The horse seems to be unaffected and is 100% sound, content and happy with life. Good attitude, I guess. 
So now we just wait for it to finish working its way out. Do you know how long something like this would take, depending of course on the size of the object? In total we've been dealing with this injury for 13 months now ... it's wearing a bit thin.
Kandace
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Friday, Jan 30, 2004 - 8:00 am:
There are too many unanswered questions to answer your questions. With a piece of fractured bone sticking out of the wound I would radiograph it to find the extent of the damage and personally would remove any dead pieces of bone surgically. The history is a little odd: has this wound continued to drain, you do not mention that in your first post and a critical fact in dealing with wounds. The lack of lameness is surprising also.
DrO
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Member:
Kandace
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Posted on Friday, Jan 30, 2004 - 10:17 am:
No, there's no drainage, no heat, no swelling, no indication of pain. In fact, the wound already looks smaller than it was a few days ago. It seems to be healing and puckering around the fragment as it "pushes" it from the knee. Our vet says that the horse's body likely sequestered it as it tried to find a path out of the body. I looked at it this morning and there did seem to be a little blood present, but no pus or other drainage. The fragment is really pretty small, about the size of a whole oat.
I can't believe he's sound, either ... looking at it, I'd expect him to be lame. But he's moving around quite happily and doesn't seem at all affected by it. I pulled him off work in late October when the wound re-opened, but until then he was working very well at 60 - 90 minutes a day, including ringwork and trail rides, all three gaits. He never took a wrong step.
I'll be following up with our vet every couple days to update him. I just hope it doesn't take weeks or months on end to work its way out. I am so ready to be done with this! The x-rays are a good idea ... luckily we're close to a large-scale vet hospital that can do those if necessary.
Thanks --
Kandace
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Member:
Jjet
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Posted on Saturday, Jan 31, 2004 - 12:37 pm:
Not that this will help you but I thought I'd share this story of a similar injury that happened to our youngest horse right after he turned two. He was turned out in several acres with six other horses with access to a lot creek frontage and granite outcroppings around the creek area, long story short, he came in one afternoon with the worst leg injury I had every seen in terms of tissue damage. The bone looked ok according to the vet but the entire front of his right hind was torn from hock downward nearly to his ankle with a large section of the upper part torn completely off. The tear also went to the outside and included the tendon area. No doubt he was in pain but never during the entire year recovery period did he ever limp.
A few months into the recovery, he also had a migrating piece of bone (which had looked perfectly fine, though completely exposed) work its way through the wound. Our vet said it was much larger than a chip and that he had to be kept in a small pen because until it filled in he was in danger of a complete fracture.
The wound healing did progress a little faster after that came out, the xrays showed no further damage, but it still took a whole year for the skin to grow back over the wound and it included occaisonal granulation tissue removal till the skin could catch up. I feel like a regular vet tech now, with a solid year of daily bandaging and wound care experience.
The bad part is, though he's never been lame, after the thing closed up the nerve regeneration/reconnection went awry and he was left with a bad case of stringhalt. The better news is that about two months ago (he is now 4 yrs) there was a sudden, unexplained improvement in the stringhalt gait and now it is much milder, not normal but much, much closer. I think I will go ahead and try him in what he was bred for (cutting), and of course he can always be a trail/pleasure horse. There was never a more cuddly, trusting guy ever born. Sooo smart, cooperative it takes him about two seconds to learn anything.
Jan
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Member:
Pvanwie
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Posted on Saturday, Apr 30, 2005 - 6:27 am:
Thank goodness I finally found an article on a splint with a bone fragment. Same thing happening here. She bruised her cannon bone and has was appeared to be a small splint. Over time, it's gotten worse, not better and has opened up and is draining. Going to the vet today for an xray to see if there is indeed a small bone fragment in there swimming around.
Thanks for sharing.
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