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Discussion on Colt with knee laceration possible joint involvement
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Member:
theresab
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Posted on Friday, Jul 9, 2010 - 6:11 pm:
My 2 month old colt managed to cut his leg at the top of his knee this morning on what I have yet to determine. Unfortunately my mobile Vet lost his mother this morning and is unable to come out and take a look at it. I found another Vet that would prefer to see him in the office due to the sterile conditions. I alas do not have a truck or trailer at this point so I am waiting for one of the three rides to call me back. Needless to say, I'm going a bit stir crazy at the moment.
I have read the treatment on wound care and done what I think I can for now. He never bled very much and I discovered it soon after it happened based on the little blood that had trickled and lack of swelling at that point. The photos I've attached are the wound at about 5 hours old (yes it's taking that long to get the ride).
I guess what I'm asking at this point is the wound as bad as I seem to think? It's roughly 2 inches long. He's slightly lame on it but still pretty mobile. He came in from the far end of the pasture and put up quite the fuss about me getting it washed out in the round pen. If it wasn't over the knee I wouldn't worry so much about it.
I'm also hoping everyone can reassure me with similar stories and their foals were fine without treatment costing thousands of dollars.
You can just see a bit of the tendon I believe.
From the backside
 
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Friday, Jul 9, 2010 - 7:10 pm:
Hello Theresa,
It looks like a fairly easily sutured wound from the images and no evidence of involvement of deeper structures but that will have to be confirmed with a exam.
DrO
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Member:
theresab
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Posted on Friday, Jul 9, 2010 - 9:33 pm:
Just left the vet clinic. He said it seems to have missed the joint and stayed above the knee. They are tranquilizing him tomorrow to explore it, irrigate it, something about checking the joint fluid for conductivity and stitching him up. I'm unfortunately going to be traveling next week to get married so I'll probably end up leaving him at the clinic so the followup care can be done in my absence. I knew I should have just eloped to Vegas!
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Saturday, Jul 10, 2010 - 8:18 am:
Seems like a rather involved procedure for a simple wound but then again I have not examined it. Hope all goes well tomorrow and next week. Congratulations!
DrO
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Member:
lilo
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Posted on Saturday, Jul 10, 2010 - 10:16 am:
Theresa,
I hope you get back to a colt that is well along in his healing process.
Congratulations,
Lilo
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Member:
theresab
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Posted on Saturday, Jul 10, 2010 - 1:13 pm:
We went over and checked on them this morning. The Vet said once he laid him down, it didn't look so bad. It went across the joint and not through it. His knee joint has good pressure. He's all stitched and bandage up. He'll be on antibiotics for a week and have his bandage changed as necessary. If I wasn't leaving in 3 days I could probably handle it at home. I'm happy he didn't do any major damage and will stay sound.
Now if I could just figure out how he did it so I can make sure it doesn't happen again.
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Member:
vickiann
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Posted on Sunday, Jul 11, 2010 - 11:02 am:
Glad things are looking up, Theresa.
The ways that a horse can find to injure himself are truly perplexing sometimes.
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Member:
theresab
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Posted on Thursday, Jul 22, 2010 - 12:50 pm:
I brought Leonidas home yesterday and began his home treatment. They stitched him up but the stitches didn't hold so it's being treated as an open wound. He was on antibiotics for a week with bandage changing and cold hosing every other day.
The wound looks worse now than initially, but I'm assuming it's the healing process. There is not puss or signs of infection, it just seems larger and angrier than the initial injury. I'll try to get some pictures tonight or tomorrow depending upon when he manages to remove his bandage again. The one I put on him last night had slid down by this morning. He apparently was licking it as when I went out to feed he had blood on his muzzle and quite a bit of blood on the bandage. I hosed it out pretty good and re-bandaged it. Hopefully it will still be in place when I get home.
As for the follow-up care, the vet recommended keeping him confined until the wound is completely closed. He and the mare are in a 50' round pen because that's about all I have. I could remove the panels and make it smaller if that seems like too big of an area. At the clinic they were in a 15 x 15 stall/paddock area.
The Vet also recommended cold hosing and bandage changing every other day until the wound completely closes. Does that seem like too long of a window? I read the article suggesting daily cold hosing. For now my plan is to do every other day at the longest and hose it every time I replace the bandages he manages to sneak out of. Can it be washed too much with water? If I end up bandaging him 3-4 times because I'm not good at it (YET) should I rinse it every time as well?
His final recommendation and the one I'm second guessing is he wants me to treat it every other day with Granulex. I'm suppose to spray it into the opening until it's closed up and then twice a day after that. I could tell from his reaction last night, that stuff seems to sting a bit to say the least. I did a search for Granulex and it seems Dr. O isn't a fan of it. Should I call my usual Vet for a second opinion on wound treatment with this product?
From what I've read (and please correct me if I'm wrong) it seems cold hosing once a day, betadine wash when needed, and neosporin or nitrofuran treatment followed by a bandage to keep the flies at bay seems the way to go.
The Vet recommended I keep it bandaged until the hole closes which I'm on board with then cold hose twice a day and treat area with Granulex (not so on board with the Granulex).
I hate to second guess the Vet that treated him but to be honest I haven't any experience with this Vet so I'm not sure how much I trust him.
Thank you in advance!
T
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Member:
vickiann
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Posted on Thursday, Jul 22, 2010 - 6:29 pm:
Have had a Vet recommend Granulex for a deep wound and have used it with success more than once over the years.
I think though that a wound needs constant monitoring as to what is the appropriate treatment with adjustments sometimes being necessary.
If it is too moist, dry it. If too dry, use a treatment that moistens it.
Aim for normalcy. It's a process.
When the weather is hot and humid treatments that are drying can often be what is needed, in my experience. Consider the difference between Furazone ointment (which moistens) and Furall spray (similar acting as to ingredients, but more drying).
I've been glad to have the Granulex in my wound-healing arsenal.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Jul 22, 2010 - 7:13 pm:
Granulex's strong point is the trypsin that may help with breaking down dead tissue. The balsam oil is mildly irritating to healthy tissue. As Vicki notes above, you can get most wounds healed with this or really just about anything but I believe my recommendations maximize the rate of wound healing and minimizing scar formation. I cannot make specific recommendatinos on what is best with your wound without an exam.
DrO
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Member:
theresab
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Posted on Thursday, Jul 22, 2010 - 7:39 pm:
I guess I'll keep an eye on it and as long as it's improving I'll stick with the Vet's recommendations. The Vet suggested the hole would still be present in 2 weeks and would like to do a follow-up checkup. I'm hoping it won't take that long to close up. The bandage I put on this morning seems to be holding so no pictures tonight.
Thank you for the information and I forgot to say thank you for the congratulations!
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Member:
rtrotter
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Posted on Thursday, Jul 22, 2010 - 7:59 pm:
Theresa,
Knees and hocks in particular are very hard to bandage. I know Diane has had good luck with Swimmies on hocks I wonder how well it would work on knees.
When my mare had her accident, I had to keep her confined and bandaged for about a week, but she went out and worked every day from the day after the accident. Your colt needs to be able to move to get the fill down in his leg so the wound can start to close up and heal. Can you ride the mare and have the colt follow along?
I'd be hosing this forcefully, a couple of times a day to clean out the exudate and crud and keep it moist. Like I said, its a hard place to bandage, but what I did when my mare had to have bandages was to do up the bottom with a no bow bandage, wrap the knee with another no bow bandage and then wrap the whole thing with vetrap. You have to make sure he can bend his knee with the wraps on so he can get up and down, but in general while they may fall down a little the lower legwrap keeps the knee wrap in place.
Then there is always a spider bandage, but thats another story and the old standby elastoplast.
Good luck with the little fella, babies are hard to deal with when they are hurt and need nursing care.
Rachelle
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Member:
scooter
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Posted on Thursday, Jul 22, 2010 - 8:52 pm:
The swimmees worked excellent on the hock, I'm guessing they would work on the knee also...just get the right size and they are so easy to apply, my mares hock sore was gone after 1.5 weeks in the swimmees.
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Member:
theresab
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Posted on Monday, Jul 26, 2010 - 4:46 pm:
Next time I'll try the swimmees, thank you for the suggestion. I'm using a size 2 diaper on the knee and vet wrap and athletic tape. My husband has been helping with the wraps, all his years of being an athlete are paying off.
I have given up on the Granulex, the sting of it was making him hard to handle and catch. After a rough start he's now realizing we aren't going to inflict pain and he actually dozed up against me last night while changing his bandage.
The wound seems to be healing pretty well. I did notice some thin yellowish material on the surface last night prior to the cold hosing. We hosed for a good 5 minutes and it looked pretty good, put some neosporin on it to keep it moist and bandaged him back up.
He's been running around, bucking and kicking in the round pen so he doesn't seem to mind the knee much at all. Right now I think he wants access to the 6 acres more than anything.
Still no pictures. I keep forgetting to grab the camera before we go out to work on it. Hopefully at this rate, by the time I get around to a photo there won't be anything to photograph other than a healthy spry colt.
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Member:
vickiann
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Posted on Monday, Jul 26, 2010 - 6:17 pm:
Glad to hear that it is healing pretty well.
With the Granulex it is necessary to try to keep it off of the surrounding good tissues.
Maybe with bandaging that is difficult.
When I used it we treated the wounds open rather than covering.
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