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Discussion on Laceration on ankle
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Member:
Oscarvv
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Posted on Tuesday, Jun 8, 2004 - 1:09 pm:
Hi DrO,
My 4 year old, who constantly injures himself, has a cut on the back of his fetlock towards the top of it. The wound is a 1" horizontal cut which went through the full thickness of the skin.
I found the wound on Saturday morning, it had happened the day before.
I hosed, buted and wrapped with ointment. I called my vet and he had me start him on 10 Doxycycline BID. My horse is 16.3hh and at least 1200 pounds.
My vet came and looked at him yesterday and gave him a shot of IV tetracycline.
My vet came back today because his temp was 102.7 this AM and was 103 when the vet checked it an hour later. The horse is sound but I am very concerned about the fever. There is a slight pussy discharge when I take off the bandage every AM. I then hose and re-wrap.
The vet upped the doxy to 25 100mg pills BID and gave him some banamine to help with the fever.
Is the Doxy sufficent? There is heat in the tendon but minimal swelling. The little bit of swelling goes up the leg about 2 inches and there is a bit in the pastern.
My vet doesn't feel that the tendon sheath is involved.
This horse is my horse of a lifetime and I bred him. Should we be doing more?
Thank you
~Barbara
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Wednesday, Jun 9, 2004 - 7:06 am:
Barbara, whether or not the doxycycline is adequate depends on the organism in the wound, something I cannot judge from here. It is a good wide spectrum antibiotic and for more on its characteristics and dosage see, Equine Medications and Nutriceuticals » Antibiotics and Antimicrobials » Tetracycline, Oxytetracycline, & Doxycycline.
With the horse sound I don't think the fever is directly related to the wound. A infected wound that produced that fever would be very swollen and painful. I think the fever may be either an unrelated flu-like disease or perhaps an unusual reaction to the antibiotic. The fact that the wound does become pussy between treatments, you should up your wound treatment frequency so that infection does not become established.
DrO
DrO
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Member:
Oscarvv
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Posted on Wednesday, Jun 9, 2004 - 10:06 am:
Excellent DrO, thank you!
His fever was down last night and still normal this AM. I will switch to 2x a day rebandaging.
Here is a close up of the wound:
Looking at this photo I wonder if I should try to clip the hair away from the wound?
~Barbara
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Member:
Oscarvv
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Posted on Wednesday, Jun 9, 2004 - 10:17 am:
And the whole leg:
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Jun 10, 2004 - 7:39 am:
You will find scissoring away the long hairs around the wound will help you keep the wound cleaner.
DrO
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Member:
Oscarvv
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Posted on Monday, Jun 14, 2004 - 10:44 am:
DrO,
Just an update: the wound is healing as it should and the horse has had a normal temperature.
Thanks again for your advice, the 2x a day cleaning was just what the wound needed...no more puss.
~Barbara
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