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  Discussion on Infected wound and swelling
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Posted on Monday, Sep 18, 2000 - 11:42 am:

Hello,

I have a mare that has a cut on the point of her hock. She received the cut when we went camping and I think the cut was from barbed wire, but I am not sure. When I noticed the cut I cleaned it and applied furican ointment. At that time there was a little inflamation. The next day, when we got home there was more inflamation and the mare was obviously sore on that leg. I had the vet look at her leg and she seemed to think it was a puncture wound and the tendon sheath was puntured. She then gave the mare a tetanus shot and and we cleaned and flushed the wound, applied furican ointment to the cut. We then mixed furican and DMSO and applied that mixture to the swelling around the cut and wrapped the leg from the hock down. We gave the mare 30 cc of penicillin for 5 days and continued to cold hose, clean the cut, apply furican, and wrap the leg. I also gave the mare 1 gm of but twice a day for 3 days. The swelling started to go away and the mare was no longer lame. After the five days of penicillin the swelling was almost completely gone. The vet gave me the go ahead to take the wrap off, but she told me to continue hosing the cut and to keep the cut moist with the furican ointment. The leg looked good for maybe two days and then the swelling returned, but the cut was still healing very well (from the inside out). So, my vet suggested that maybe since I had been turning the mare out that moving around was aggravating the cut(due to the location of the wound) and she said I should keep her inside. So, I wrapped the leg back up, continued the whole process, except the shots, and left the mare inside to two days. On day one the swelling seemed to have gone down a bit. On day two it really swelled back up and know I am ready to pull my hair out! The wound is still healing very nicely and the mare is not lame. Why does the leg swell and then seem to get a little better than swell again ? Is this part of the normal healing process ? Or is infection setting in again. My vet seems to think it is not infected. Thank you in advance for your advice.

Sincerely,

Holly

Posted on Tuesday, Sep 19, 2000 - 6:31 am:

While the wound heals there is still inflammation that results in fluid accumulation. When the wound becomes infected it will be painful and your horse will become lame again. Without seeing the wound I do not know whether you are better off bandaging or not, but if a synovial tendon sheath is really involved great care to keep it from becoming infected.
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Sep 19, 2000 - 12:42 pm:

Thank you for your quick response. So, your saying we are not out of the woods yets as far as infection goes. It is really hard to keep a bandage on the leg. I turned the mare out in a round pen and left the bandage off. I hosed the leg and applied nitrofurozone spray yesterday. The swelling looked a little better. The cut is filling in really well. I would say it is almost ready to leave alone. But, the swelling is bothering me. What I got from your response is swelling is normal in the healing process, but infection is still possible.
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