wound care suggestions needed

[Miss-O]

My horse recently suffered a pretty nasty laceration a few inches above her fetlock. This happened 9 days ago. The vet came put some stitches in. Told me to keep it wrapped, keep her as stationary as possible, give antibiotics and 1 gram bute twice daily for the first 3-4 days then 1gram once daily thereafter. He also said to use furazone on the wound and to not hose the wound to just use a rag to clean it as he was worried about the stitches popping.

I have been doing all of the above if not more so. The mare is doing surprisingly excellent on stall rest (she is normally out 24/7 turnout) and some hand grazing. She's been doing a great job of keeping herself calm.

This past weekend I noticed the swelling coming back, the wound is starting to open up again, it's still weeping puss and there is some proud flesh that I can't really scrub at for fear of breaking open the stitches all the way. I started her back up on the twice daily bute and have a call in to the vet today to see if there is anything else he suggests doing.

I'm just wondering if there are any suggestions anyone else has on here for me to try. I know furazone promotes proud flesh (which vet didn't seem worried about) is there a different product that will help the wound dry up and heal with the least amount of scar tissue as possible?

[3 is the limit]

To get rid of the proud flesh, I'd use meat tenderizer. The kind you get at the supermarket. Seriously, it works...

[lolita1]

I'd get the vet out it sounds like the wound has an infection. There shouldn't be any puss comming out of a stitched up cut - not your fault btw - sounds like it needs to be opened up and cleaned out. One of my friends used silvadene Cream on a similar injury but speak to the vet about it. That horse ripped a very large & deep gash on the back of her pastern and really the scar isn't that noticeable especially when you knew what the orginal looked like I'm just not sure at which point they used it. The horse did get proud flesh and the silvadene helped it hugely.

Edited to add the vet probably wasn't worried about proud flesh as he / she had stiched up the wound - where normally you wouldn't expect to have proud flesh occurring.

Good luck

[BuddyRoo]

Ditto getting vet back out. Sounds like you've done a great job, but infections can happen. I would call the vet.

[Miss-O]

Vet just called back he said that given the location of the wound and the fact that she isn't lame to just keep doing what we've been doing unless the stitches pop open all the way and/or I run out of antibiotic and it's still the same. The only thing he said to do different is to rinse with nolvasan (sp) during my daily bandage changings.

I'm really not happy with the furazone though. I asked about the silvadene but vet seems to think furazone is the bees knees. I'm really not happy with it so far. Plus it seems to me that right now the wound needs to be dried out some. Is there some kind of antibiotic powder that can help with this? Also what is everyones thoughts on using regular old polysporin?

[ChocoMare]

Sorry but Furazone is a carcinogenc...says so right on the label. Anyway you could get some Banixx Gel?

Ditto the Nolvasan.... :yes:

Jingles for your mare!

[Miss-O]

Sorry but Furazone is a carcinogenc...says so right on the label. Anyway you could get some Banixx Gel?

Ditto the Nolvasan.... :yes:

Jingles for your mare!

I realize that. I've always hated using the stuff and especially do now that I'm 9 months pregnant. I do take precautions to protect myself I just don't feel comfortable using it. Never heard of the banixx gel. I'm writing all of these names down and will be heading out to the store soon. Is that a horse type product or can I get it at a pharmacy?

Thanks for the jingles:)

[ChocoMare]

Horse product.... some tack supply stores carry it (mine does) so do the Retailer Search. Otherwise, order overnight: http://www.banixx.com/

[caballus]

I keep Calendula Ointment and water/cal spray handy at all times. Calendula is an amazing, natural, antibiotic, antiseptic, antibacterial and antifungal. It also has properties that enchances and quickens healthy, new tissue growth. You can get it at your natural grocer for a very reasonable cost. Personally, I like the Bioron Calendula 1X Ointment the best. Won't use anything else on wounds. It also decreases scaring and helps to eliminate proud flesh.

[heidijanz]

We have had amazing results treating wounds (one was a hole behind the scapula that you could put your fist into) by flushing them with a 1 to 10 dilution of povidine/iodine, then putting ordinary white sugar into/onto the wound. Apparently, bacteria cannot survive in the PH of sugar. No infection, no proud flesh, and very fast healing.

[Gayla]

We have had amazing results treating wounds (one was a hole behind the scapula that you could put your fist into) by flushing them with a 1 to 10 dilution of povidine/iodine, then putting ordinary white sugar into/onto the wound. Apparently, bacteria cannot survive in the PH of sugar. No infection, no proud flesh, and very fast healing.

I think the sugar works on the bacteria as it does on jelly. Osmosis until they die....:):):):) Not sure. Interesting treatment. I have heard of this treatment for colloidal (sp?) cysts in humans with great success.

[Sentry Chick]

When my mare had stitches, the vet told me not to put anything on it. But after a while, one spot was just not healing well enough IMO. So I started putting Derma-Gel on it and it healed up wonderfully. I highly recommend it.

Here are some pictures of her wound healing.
http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y111/msprague/Glis%20wound/

I don't have any pictures of what it looks like now. But you'd never know she even had this wound now. She got bit by my gelding and ended up with 3 layers of stitches.