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Discussion on Healing shoulder and foot wounds
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New Member:
techie
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Posted on Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008 - 11:55 pm:
Buster punctured his right shoulder and cut his left foot on Mar 3 2008. The vet came out because Buster could not move his right leg and the left foot was gushing blood. The vet reached in the puncture wound pulled a 3 inch piece of wood from the shoulder and put a pressure bandage on the foot to stop the bleeding. He requested I haul Buster to his office the next morning for further treatment. Buster could only drag his right leg so I had another vet come out to treat Buster instead of hauling him to the vet clinic. This vet left the flap hanging on that shoulder. It is now dried and black. Does this need to be cut off now or should more healing take place before cutting it off? I am currently hosing once or twice a day, flushing with Nolvasan solution and recently starting spraying with Furall. The vet was out last week and put Animax on the foot, wrapped with elasticon and told me to keep it dry and leave bandage on for a week. The bandage got wet after a few days and I took it off and went back to hosing once a day, flushing with Nolvasan solution, dabbing with Furozone and wrapping with Vetwrap. Based on the Mar 19 pic, what course of treatment should I follow? Should I use the Animax the vet left for me or does anyone know if it increases or decreases risk of proud flesh?
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Mar 20, 2008 - 6:31 am:
Welcome techie,
To directly answer your questions:
1) No, Animax is not know to promote proud flesh but nitrofurazone based ointments do (see article for more on this. I avoid in such large wounds do to cost and I am not a fan of using corticosteroids on open wounds, though it has been recommended for decreasing proud flesh.
2)As a general principle I usually remove tissue whenever it is dead.
3) Without examining your horse we cannot recommend specific treatment for your horse.
I would like to comment that the foot wound appears to have already formed proud flesh around the margins of the wound. A question I have is are you using the hose water under pressure to clean the wounds as described in the article?
Study our article on how we recommend long term treatment and for the care of proud flesh. Then discuss these principles with your veterinarian. Proper care requires you work together on this.
DrO
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New Member:
techie
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Posted on Sunday, Mar 23, 2008 - 2:22 pm:
I had not been using water under pressure because I was concerned that I would start the artery to bleeding again. After reading your response I did haul Buster to the vet to have the proud flesh removed. The vet suggested that we put a caste on the foot to eliminate some of the motion and help the wound heal faster but since we had a bad experience with casting the wound on the other foot in June I was hesitate to do that and he understood. I did hyDrO the foot under pressure yesterday and will continue to hyDrO and wrap every day. I have been unable to find any Nolvasan cream locally. Is the product on the market now? The vet also x-rayed the shoulder at my request. The puncture reflected on the x-ray is still about 1 and 1/2 inches wide and approximately 6-8 inches long running toward the shoulder. Do you know of any tools other than MRI that would allow us to see if any wood splinters still remain in the shoulder?
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Member:
zarr
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Posted on Sunday, Mar 23, 2008 - 9:21 pm:
Yes it is, Nolvasan is carried at my local Ranch n Home store; short white jar usually closer to cow stuff than horse but I would never be with out it! It is also carried thru Valley Vet and KY Vet supply! It has healed many an ugly wound here . Good Luck, Cindy
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Monday, Mar 24, 2008 - 8:01 am:
Bandaging a wound clearly increases the rate of proud flesh formation but so does a dirty wound, that makes the decision to bandage foot wounds difficult. Once well granulated in if the environment fairly clean and dry try uncovered with aggressive hosing and dry topical sprays.
I have always found that careful exploration and allowing such wounds to heal open has solved some rather remarkable wood contaminated wounds. In short splinter contaminated wounds will not heal so if you have an odd draining track that does not heal you follow it to its origin. But it is always amazing how much foreign material the body is able to extrude from an open wound.
DrO
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