Struggle with Sutures

So… Rio’s sutures did open up in the left hind like we (vet and I) were anticipating. I’m sure his trailer loading antics didn’t help, but what is done is done. The plan is to just let it heal up on it’s own, not re-suture them. I’m kinda bummed because this area didn’t heal well the first time around- but hoping that with diligent care and wrapping we can do better this time.

 

opened area where a wound revision was performed (medial LH)

 

Good news is his other leg (RH) looks amazing. This was the spider bite leg at it’s worst (in case you are a new reader), this was late May:

 

This was it recently, pre-breaking his splint bone and re-opening the wound:

 

 

And here it is after the surgery, all sutured up. It looks really nice, and the surgeon expects it to heal very well with minimal scarring, if any!

 

Rio is thankfully really good for the bandaging process, because it is quite a task lol. Here he is all bandaged up and looking colorful:

 

He also got a really good grooming, a massage, and lots of carrots. Not at all spoiled. Nope!

 

He knows he’s still a looker, even with only 2 good legs!

 

 

Huge thanks to everyone for all their amazing support, Rio and I can’t thank everyone enough! More updates on his healing to come, and more riding updates on my lovely surrogate pons as well!

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13 comments

  1. Those pictures 😳

    I’m glad that he’s doing well though. I hope the ripped sutures area heals well. Houston had stitches in that area on his right front a few years back and it was hard to figure out what worked to get it to close. Sending well wishes!

    1. Sorry for the graphic pics- I forget they can be disturbing because I’m so used to it now lol! Ya that area is SO HARD to wrap and keep clean in general. Not to mention as far away from the heart as possible, which I’m sure will only making healing harder and slower. How did Houston’s wound in the similar area heal??

  2. ok so this might sound creepy (hi my name is emma and i’m occasionally creepy) but someone showed my vet a picture of a wound on her horse while i was there today, and the wound looked shockingly like Rio’s spider bite. it started out as a nothing tiny little scurfy spot and then exploded into disgusting abscessy craziness. then started getting granular again and closing up – it’s current state. i asked if it was a spider bite and she said she didn’t have a clue but maybe.

    my vet tho asked if she had it x-rayed. said that if there was a bone chip in there – she called it bone sequestraion or something? – that it would never heal and would abscess forever. that it would close up to almost nothing, then explode open again and again and again until that little bone chip was removed. so that made me super curious about Rio. is it possible that these weren’t actually two separate injuries but that all along it was a chip from the splint bone that caused the abscesses?

    this is obvi purely me nerding out about gory medical details bc the outcome is the same either way – and hopefully Rio is well on his way to full recovery! it’s interesting tho!

    1. A) Not creepy at all. I am open to ALL suggestions!!

      B) Vet was initially concerned about a sequestra in the spider bite leg as well. We xrayed it when the leg initially swelled up and all we found was an old fracture of the apical sesmoid bone. Then a week later when the leg abscessed and opened up we xrayed again- no change from before. Vet also ultrasounded the wound a few weeks in to see if there was a connection with the synovial sheath and couldn’t find one.

      Surgeon xrayed and said the splint bone fracture was definitely brand new, apparently it would look way different if it was from the initial incident back in May. The timing makes sense for when he came in from turnout with that leg bloodied and swollen. He wanted to do the surgery to remove the bone to prevent the formation of a sequestrum in the future, especially due to break being so close to the open spider bite wound. Super risky for infection.

      C) Sorry to hear about that other horse! I actually don’t 100% know if it was a spider, or could be a snake. We will never know. I just refer to it as “the spider bite” at this point for sake of continuity lol!

    1. This is so true- I’d really be at my wits end if he messed with his bandages. I am very thankful he leaves them alone :)!!

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