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Discussion on Stalling 2yo w/stitches in shoulder
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Member:
Kami
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Posted on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 2:19 am:
Today, my 2yo ripped (blunt force trauma) his shoulder open in pasture somehow. I believe I saw it almost immediately after it happened and the vet was there within 4 hours of the event. The tear appeared to come from something about 1 inch in diameter, is about 4 inches long and through the first layer of muscle. The vet decided to stich the wound. He placed a drainage tube in his shoulder, stitched the muscle, then stiched the skin. He cleaned the wound A LOT. Then he advised keeping him stalled. The 2yo is used to 24x7 turnout with a herd. The vet said his concern was that the tube might be pulled out by another horse (my 1yo was pulling at the wound) or rubbed out against a tree. My concern is that the 2yo has never been stalled for more than a few hours. The vet said isolating him in a coral was okay (but he seemed to lean toward the stall). The 2yo also was very agitated today, and when I initially tried to clean the wound w/a hose, he reared. Then when the vet tried to sedate him, he again started rearing. Rearing is new for this horse and he actually was striking out toward me a few times. Durring this same period, he reacted to ANY fly as if it were causing emense pain just by flying near by kicking extremely hard.
My question is, with the stitches in the shoulder how much movement can he be allowed? The wound is at the front of his shoulder. He's been very docile since the vet, but is also still slightly under sedation. He's been stalled for the night and I'm hoping that the agitation was from pain. I'm keeping him wiped with fly spray and sheeted to keep the flies off. He's on bute, anti-biotic, and a anticeptic spray on the wound. THe drain tube will stay in at least 5 days (possibly longer). The coral is 40' in diameter and I feel like he'll do better getting out durring the days and hopefully will be less stiff. But I've never had a wound like this to deal with.
I want to thank all those that have written about wounds on their horses. Today has been so hard. I feel like the worst horse owner ever, between the wound and his rearing/striking today (this is not his norm and he was dangerous to both me and the vet). I hadn't realized that others might feel the same way. I am still searching for what ever it is that he ran into to make sure it doesn't happen again. Just as you all have said, I'm suddenly second guessing everything.
The vet doesn't expect any permanent muscle damage, it wasn't deep enough to cut the nerve in his shoulder. I also read the articles about leaving a wound open when there has been blunt force trauma, so I am trying to make sure that I do all that I can to optimize his recovery. I think the vet cleaned the wound as much as possible and it is draining.
Also, will the sheet interfere with the healing? I have two so that I can wash one (from the drainage) each night. But would he be better with more air on the wound (despite the flies)? My instinct is that the flies can introduce infection or worse.
A also want to say, thank you for this web site. The first thing I did was to check your first aid section. My first instinct would have been to use a powder called 'wound dust', but after reading your site I decided against it. After finding that I wasn't going to be able to flush the wound by myself, I sheeted him to keep the flies off and kept an eye on him until the vet arrived.
Thanks again to everyone who has written before and for this site.
Kami
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 6:54 am:
Not being able to see the exact location and nature of the wound we can only guess but in general wounds on the front of the shoulder are put under a lot of stress when the horse moves around and turn out will sometimes result in stitches being torn out. I would ask the vet about the sheet, if it becomes soiled and rubs against the wound it may do more harm.
DrO
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Member:
Chrism
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Posted on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 12:18 pm:
Is a horse stalled next to your horse while he is in? When I've had to keep my lively older mare in, I've made sure she had company, alternating the baby sitters.
I also tend to cut back on her concentrate feed, and give her hay more frequently to break up the boredom.
You may want to ask if hand grazing a couple of times a day is okay, again to break of the boredom.
Don't take horse injuries personally - often they just happen regardless of how careful we are about pastures, fencing, etc. Some horses are more accident prone than others.
You should be proud that you noticed it fairly soon after it happened and you got the vet out quickly.
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Member:
Dreamsox
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Posted on Friday, May 21, 2004 - 7:11 pm:
HI Kami.. I just want to offer support as I had a two year old who was running in the pasture and bumped the other horse and fell against a open gate. THe gate was the safe round tube metal, but the small hinge had turned and was sticking out just a inch or so. It made the worst wound I had ever seen, a very large V on her shoulder. I called the vet promply, he stitched, and stitched and stitched and I stalled her for about 2 weeks. It sluffed off icky material from the damaged muscle tissue in about a week. The body is an amazing healer,,, She had only a very tiny scar and turned out to be a champion jumping horse. Hang in there,, It will heal !!!!! Lynn
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Member:
Kami
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Posted on Monday, May 24, 2004 - 11:04 pm:
Thanks for everyone's support. I did stop using the sheet. In the early days, it accumulated a lot of drainage, caused him to sweat, and the anticeptic seemed to put off flyes from the wound.
I did cut back on sweet feed (10% protien). Unfortunately, my hay is alfalfa that tested around 25% protein and it took me for a day or so to remember that... about the time he was becoming a massive ball of energy.
He's seems to be healing okay. There's still a large lump in the area, but no lameness and he's back to his old personality (now that I've cut down on the jet fuel).
I finally figured out how to get all of his meds down using a cofee grinder to powder all the pills, then mixing it in with pancake syrup to make it stick to his grain.
Thanks again for the encouragement. I know horses can manage to get hurt no matter what the environment. It just sucks that horses can't understand well enough to explain that all the wound treatment stuff is meant to help. I imagine he thought it was adding more torture on top of the pain. But he's learning. Before the accident, he was an extremely non-spooky, curious (has to taste test everything) horse. Now, he's standing quietly to be cleaned and treated.. and even wants to check out the stuff before I use it.
Thanks again for this web site Dr O. It has helped me many times over .
Kami
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