Equine Wound Care Update: Follow-up

 

***This post contains some graphic images of equine wounds***

 

 

I realized the other day that I never did a follow-up on Rio’s 2 surgical sites for you guys. Equine wound care can be a crazy stressful journey, and y’all were SO supportive during the entire process, I still can’t thank everyone enough. It was a really rough patch for Rio and I, and it was hard to keep our spirits up at times. The encouragement I received from the blogging community was tremendous, and really helped make a difficult time more bearable. THANK YOU!

 

For my newer readers, here is a little re-cap:

 

End of May 2017 something poisonous bit Rio’s medial right hind legs. I do not know if it was a snake or a spider, but I refer to it as his spider bite out of habit. It necrosed, and caused a huge awful hole.

equine wound care, spider bite horse
Late May- Something poisonous bites Rio’s right hind. This was at its worst.

 

It took about a month and a half, but slowly healed up, and I was even able to start riding him. A few weeks into riding him again (mid August), he came in from turnout with the wound broken open and bleeding. Turns out he had broken the distal portion of his right hind splint bone. He had surgery to remove the broken portion, and to clean up the spider bite wound site (the fracture and the wound were in the same area of the leg).

 

splint bone fracture, splint bone x-ray
Mid August- broken right hind splint bone that required surgery.

 

During the surgery, the surgeon and I decided he would also do a wound revision of an old surgical site on Rio’s distal left hind leg. He had a non-healing area from a surgery about a year prior. The surgeon felt that cleaning up the tissue and suturing it shut would allow for it to heal better. I have TONS of posts showing the healing process of both areas, but here are a few of them at their worst in the healing process.

 

equine wound care
Left Hind sutures didn’t hold and the wound got larger then ever.

 

equine wound care
At this point I was convinced it would turn into proud flesh.

 

equine wound care
With lots of time and care, it did eventually get much better. This was the most recent photo I posted.

 

 

 

equine wound care
The right hind look good post-surgery. We thought it would heal perfectly.

 

equine wound care
Didn’t look promising when we pulled the sutures…

 

equine wound care
It got bigger before it got better

 

equine wound care
The most recent photo I shared of the right hind.

 

So where are we today?

 

The right hind looks about the same. It is healed over, but it develops a scab sometimes that eventually falls off and a new one will appear. It never bleeds or drains. I do not wrap the leg anymore, unless I am riding (during which I use a polo wrap). Sometimes it holds a bit of puffiness around the pastern, but it goes down with turnout and riding. I feel pretty confident that it will take time, but eventually will heal all the way.

 

equine wound care

 

 

The left hind is also doing well. It developed this flaky, semi-hard type of tissue over the area. If you pick at it, some of it will come off. If you try to remove too much of it though, Rio gets pissy. It doesn’t drain or bleed or anything. I cover it with my  EquitFit boot with the custom extender liners to protect it when I ride. Other then that, no special treatment. I also feel that it will become less obvious with time. Guys, I had no idea equine wound care was so involved, and how much it leaves you second guessing your every move. I am beyond happy that these wounds look as good as they do now, even though they aren’t perfect. It’s hard to look at the old pics and remember how bad it was.

 

equine wound care

 

 

And just for fun, here is an adorable pic of Rio meeting one of Bay Yard’s resident mini donkeys!

 

 

hunky hanoverian

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8 comments

  1. Yikes! That must have been scary to go through. Glad that he is doing much better. How was his reaction to the mini donkeys? So cute, but I know some horses that freak out around anything that small or that makes that much noise 😉

    1. He actually wasn’t too interested in the donkey at all. He was way more interested in grazing. He also didn’t seem to care when they brayed. Once he is settled there, they actually turn them out with the donkeys. There is 2 in one paddock, and 2 in another one.

  2. I’m kind of surprised it’s still forming a scab, but glad he’s doing so well. Give your mom a break and stay out of trouble Rio!!
    My horse got a horrible puncture wound on his leg during turnout, god only knows how. Almost two years later he got the same injury in almost the same spot! I have a folder full of lovely pictures of the injury and healing process.

  3. Did they give you the splint bone in a jar as your party favor when you left the vet clinic? My pony had splint bone surgery sometime around 1988, and I still have that bone in a jar of formaldehyde. That was a $800 bone – I’m keeping it! (Pretty sure yours cost a bit more than mine did!)

  4. WHAT a big difference. The progress is so neat. I love posts like this. I feel like it would almost have to be a snake bite vs. spider? Would spider mandibles be strong enough to puncture through horse hair/skin? Biologist questions… lol

    1. Yes, I wondered the same thing! But then I also wondered- poisonous snake bit can actually kill a pretty good sized dog- so I almost feel a snake would have caused even more damage? But who knows! It will forever be a mystery I guess!

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