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  Discussion on Furizone on deep wound at front of hock
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Member:
kamibroo

Posted on Tuesday, Sep 4, 2007 - 2:13 am:

My mare got what I'm guessing was a wire cut on the front of her hock, just at the top of her cannon bone. The cut is 3-4 inches horizontal and 3-4 inches vertical (an upside down "L" with the point facing the outside of the hock) with a flap of skin. It was deep enough that the tendon is visible down the vertical edge and she had cut a vein(?) that squirted a significant amount of blood all over her other leg (and everything else in the area). This was pressure wrapped till the vet arrived.

The vet was out to clean and suture it within 3 hours of the injury. He put in a drain tube and commented that the wound was really, really dirty (e.g. he had to dig pine needles out of it).

She has not shown any signs of lameness. The stitches on the vertical section have broken free (so the tendon is exposed again), but the stitches across the top are still holding. She is being kept in a 10x10 stall and hand walked about 10 minutes before wound care to 'take the edge' off (she's used to 24/7 turnout). She gets walked for another 10 minutes after to let her get used to the wrap (stop kicking at it) and give her a little more controlled 'out time'.

She is on bute (1g am/pm) and SMZ (12 tabs am/pm) and is being treated with furizone (aerosol powder).

Furizone does not appear to be the same as the nitrofuran that you recommended (based on wikipedia.org pages), but I can't find out if it is caustic or not. I would rather use what has given the best results, so how does furizone compare to your recommendations of chlorhexidine (Nolvasan) based cremes or nitrofuran sprays?

I've been trying to find either of these on-line and can only find chlorhexidine dis-infectant solutions (not creams). I haven't been able to find any "nitrofuran" yet. Are there any brand names or different names that they might be sold under?

The other question I have is if the wound is too dry. She is being packed with a non-stick cotton wound dressing material (it comes in a 10' wide roll) and it is absorbing all the excretions. Yesterday, the packing was sort of stuck to her wound. Today, it fell off easily, but was also completely filled with excretions (easily weighing 2-3 pounds). Maybe the weight made it fall off so easily? The packing is 3 layers, about 6" x 10" and it was completely saturated (like a wet diaper). The wound itself was dry and clean looking, with a light pink at the edges. There is an oder that is only slightly more than mild (not horrific), but her removed packing seems to be the biggest source. To me, it smelled kind of like thrush. This was at the dressing change at 48 hrs out from the vet stitching her up.

I am cold hosing her for @ 20 min (because of the swelling), then spraying heavily with the furizone, padding and wrapping with vet wrap. (this is above no-bows on her cannon bone). Yesterday, the process caused some bleeding (and she was also kicking/fighting much more). Today it didn't cause any significant bleeding or oozing. The swelling and heat today is significantly less than yesterday. There is no doubt that she has had significant excretions, but it was all absorbed by the wound packing. I'm asking if it might be too dry because under your first month section you make the statement that:

"The tendency of some people to begin trying to dry up a large wound at this time is misdirected as it slows down re-epithelization and creates a bigger scar"

Any input would be appreciated. The vet is a good guy, but he is only a little over a year out of school and this is the first time I've had a wound this deep on my farm.

Thank you again for this site. All the horror stories w/pictures on your site have made me calm down quite a bit (thank you to all who posted), until I went through them earlier, I was still thinking that maybe she needed to go to the university. But she is not lame (actually getting tired of being cooped up in the stall), the swelling and heat has dramatically decreased since yesterday, and the wound did look much more stable this evening.

I'll get pictures at the dressing change tomorrow to post for others who may be panicked like I was. At this point, I'm still really desperate to avoid infections or anything that might cause her lameness. She's just my baby, so she'll never be ugly to me (no matter how scarring comes out), but I hate the thought of her in pain.

Thanks for any advice.

Kami
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Sep 4, 2007 - 8:13 am:

Hello Kami,
Changing from a dry antibiotic powder to a moist one like Furacin ointment or Nolvasan cream might add just enough moisture to keep the wound from drying out and the dressings from sticking. These should be used with the approval of your veterinarian however and should be available from him. Bleeding easily is a normal part of wound healing so should not be looked upon as an indication of a problem. Other than that in general we recommend caring for the wound as described in the article associated with this discussion.
DrO
Member:
pellis

Posted on Tuesday, Sep 4, 2007 - 2:16 pm:

UHSO, I had a similar wound on my gelding 5 years ago. Front of the left rear just below the hock - an upsidedown "U" shape about 4 inches top to bottom. Vet indicated that some of the tendon was affected, but not completely cut through. This cut was not stitched, just cleaned and bandaged. He had about 10 days of antibiotics and after the third day we started changing the bandage. We used nitrofurizone (sp?)cream and re-bandaged every two to three days. After about 2 months, we began to use silvadine (sp?) cream with the bandaging and continued to bandage for 4 months. The wound healed great and he has no lameness and only a partial scar. It was fairly costly as the bandage supplies ran about $150 to $200 per month and silvadine is pretty pricey. I had the most trouble when we stopped bandaging as it would itch and he would use his teeth to scratch it and begin to irritate it. At the suggestion of a friend I sprayed the old "cut-heal" on it - it stinks and tastes bad and that kept him from bothering it. Anyway, it's never bothered him and he's used for long distance trail riding (15 to 30 miles a day). Just stick with it and hopefully you won't have any complications.
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