Care to brainstorm -- need bandaging help and ideas!!

[JoZ]

My TB mare Secret sustained a wire fence injury almost three months ago. It was on the front of her hock, and was a horizontal cut. It did not involve the joint, any bone or any tendons/ligaments.

It has been bandaged ever since, except for one lovely week about a month ago. After about a week without the bandage, I came to the barn in the morning to discover a NEW cut in the same location, this time VERTICAL. Right through the middle of the healing old cut. It now looks like a 4-point star. Bandaging is resumed.

Here is a picture of the original injury, with a rough drawing by me to show the shape and placement of the secondary injury. (http://inlinethumb23.webshots.com/42902/2032600870098982996S600x600Q85.jpg)

Here's the problem -- no matter WHAT my vet has tried, there is a raw nasty wound on the back of her hock, above the joint, from anchoring the bandage there. We have tried all sorts of padding -- cotton roll, wound pads, even a sponge. She has been on stall rest to minimize the friction.

Here is a picture (using another horse) to show where the abrasion has occurred. It is about 1-1/2 inches in diameter, sore and raw. (http://inlinethumb29.webshots.com/10332/2769876930098982996S600x600Q85.jpg)

We are back to leaving it unbandaged, though if the back of her hock weren't in such bad condition, it could afford to be bandaged a few more weeks. I am hosing it off and applying Schreiner's solution.

My vet wants me to have a plan if she reinjures or reopens the original wound. It would be better if we had any idea how she did the 2nd injury with the vertical cut -- cannot figure it out so it's hard to prevent it. All I can think of is that she did it with her own hoof, but that's a stretch. It looked like it was cut with a knife, and that's not an easy part of the body to hit on something in the stall (but we looked, nonetheless, and found nothing).

I want to try to come up with some other way of bandaging, should something happen again. Something that would stay up, but not require wrapping around the upper part of her hock -- or something that would keep the pressure off the area of injury. Has anyone bandaged a wound like this successfully? Any other ideas? Please also jingle that it heals up nicely and does NOT reopen... that would eliminate the need for a bandaging miracle. :no:

[goeslikestink]

deep bed and banked sides as she might have done it on the floor
2nd -its on a joint - so figure of 8 bandaged go get some otherband from a chemist if vet hasnt any
so bulk the leg out to stablise the injury


its this -- its very thin cotton wool like a bandage pad out the leg with gamagee

its goes animal lintex or meliomine which you can also get from a chemist ( melomine is a gauze like animal lintex with out the poultice) then
then thick wad of cotton wool then orthaband then gamagee then orthband then vet wrap

sound like th bandaging inst being done properly ie you rather than the vet so its falling off
and the leg is then open to other infections and keeps opening up

[staceyk]

My ever-bandaged horse (hoof) got sores on his bulbs from the wrap. 4" gauze pads did the trick, but if it hadn't, medical sheepskin was my next stop. Try deconstructing an old shipping halter or cribber fuzzies? Sometimes you can get a good deal on sheepskin on Ebay...

[Chall]

Sorry I don't have bandaging suggestions, but the height of the cut looks plus the front and back element of it, looks like maybe he got his leg caught on the middle (or lower) bar of a panel (like in your picture) then trying to remove it, hit the back part of his hock on an upper panel. Is that a chain around one of the panels in the picture? Could have been on a chain like that or a gap between panels that caught the skin and ripped it. If the first picture is not in your barn, then this theory is out. If it is your barn, maybe you can run duct tape around rough welding or sharpness in your panels.
Well, that's all I can up with. I'm sorry she got hurt and that its such a tough thing to heal. Good luck.

[amdfarm]

My QH gelding did something similar to this a few years ago. However, it wasn't as deep as what your girl did, but no clue how he managed it. He was never lame and it didn't effect anything vital, it just looked nasty.

Mine are out 24/7 and I have no barn. I opted not to bandage w/ him being out and laying down to roll and the like. Before I discovered Banixx, I used good 'ol cut heal on it twice a day and picked at it as needed (my vet encourages this, which is great since I'm a picker.) It took 3-4 weeks to close and he just has a little scar where it once was. Hair grew back a little funny and gave him a tiny cowlick there.

Good luck w/ your girl. Hope she heals up great and stops reinjuring herself.

[alakazam]

How about a hock boot? If you search Dover saddlery's web site, they carry one. My horse got a puncture wound into her hock joint a few years ago. Had I known such a product existed, I would have tried it. She developed a rubbed spot above her hock from the pressure of having it wraped, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't wrap it. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I kept a standing wrap done up on the cannon bone to help the bandage from sliding down. I think that alowed me to not wrap so tight above the hock, on the actual hock wrap portion. If I remember correctly, this is the order that I applied everything: cover the wound with a non-stick tefla pad, then sheet cotton, then vet wrap, then elasticon just around the top to help keep everything up. The elasticon is expensive, but it is very sticky! So sticky that it would pull some hair off of the leg, but it did help keep everything in place.

[Pony238]

hello,
at my clinic we do full leg bandages and for this injury we would probably do that. it puts equal pressure on the whole leg, while keeping the injury clean. it's called a "robert-jones bandage" what i would do for your horse is put sterile 4x4s over the wound itself, probably with some dressing. usually we use gauze to keep the 4x4s on but in her case, since she's rubbing right where the gauze would lay, i wouldn't. you then wrap the entire leg, i mean ankle to stifle, with rolled cotton. over that, a layer of brown gauze to keep it pressed against the leg, and then over that, vet wrap (color coordinate!) at the very top and very bottom we put elastikon, to keep the bandage from shifting. yeah, it leaves their hair all gluey and sticky, but it won't rub.

http://www.boblangrish.com/images/galleriesimages/MD3P1316RobertJonesBandage.jpg

here is a picture of a half-limb bandage and it doesn't have the elastikon but it was the best picture i could find. sometimes when rolling cotton over the hock, it's easier to rip the cotton in half so it's half as wide. ask your vet about robert jones, i'm sure they would know and have the materials to use.

hope that helps! :)

[goodhors]

Suggestion to save expenses, would be to buy quilting cotton for the bandage padding. Available at fabric stores, Jo-Annes. Get the real cotton padding, no poly fillers. Wound wrapping doesn't need to be sterile cotton, with wound covered already below the cotton. Also call the Vet supply places, like Omaha Vaccine, and ASK for brown gauze in the 4 to 6 inch widths. Much cheaper than white, also not sterile so you pay less.

I use athletic tape that kids buy for taping ankles. Quite sticky, but not ripping out hair like adhesive tape. I scarred a horse with adhesive tape removal from the same place over a long time, came back in white hair, but wound healed with no marks! No problems since changing to the athletic wrapping tapes. The wrapping tape is found at big stores in the athletic dept, cheaper if you buy boxes of rolls. Still cloth, rips nicely, goes on and holds, easy to remove or cut off.

My hock wound like that was from a broken wire around the leg. Fencer was out after a lightning strike, made a clean cut, no ripping or tearing. Good thing the mare was hobble trained, stood quiet for a long time before we found her in the wire. Our cut was the same place on the hock. I did a figure 8 around the hock, with the crossover on top of the wound holding padding down. I used the tape to LIGHTLY hold the bandage up above the point of hock, kind of suspended from the tape. Bandage was changed daily, until new tissue started. We used Antibiotic people first-aid cream packed in the hole. Did NOT want granulation going, that causes scar tissue. I do not use horse salves, they all cause problems in the wounds for me. People meds work best here.

Telfa pads go over the wound hole. I may piece two or three telfa pads to get a bigger one for big hole. Just small pieces of tape at edges of each pad for bigger size coverage. Then one strip of tape on unwounded skin above, to hold the big Telfa pad up over hole, and start wrapping. I put a wad of something over the first couple gauze wraps, to soak up drainage serum, sanitary pad or folded up gauze roll that adds a bit of pressure to the opening. Then kept unrolling the gauze roll to go around the leg and hold things in place, over telfa, the around, over, above and below to keep it snug to the leg. Then a wrapping of that quilting cotton around leg a couple times, with SNUG gauze over to hold that in place. Thickness of quilt cotton prevents any tourniquet effect with gauze NOT covering the top or bottom edges. Vetwrap over all padding, but not touching leg to constrict fluid flow, tape the top of wrapping in a spiral to the leg hair with the athletic tape. Usually split that in half so only an inch wide for taping the edges to leg. Spiral taping, no complete circles of tape, will prevent a lot of swelling, fluid can get past the constriction of tape.

I have had VERY good luck with this kind of bandaging, along with saving a great deal of money. As mentioned, I keep mine stalled, legs wrapped for a long time to ensure that wound is healed well. I don't want new skin splitting, which I see happen in case after case! May sound excessive length for keeping wrapped, but I have NO SCARS from wounds after some pretty awful wrecks on legs. Just the one tape burn that grew back white is the only mark I left. I disagreed with our vet, but husband took off the leg covering, turned horse out loose. When I got home TWO HOURS later, new skin had dried and split again. Leg was in almost as bad a shape as when we started. So horse was back in the barn for another 6 weeks, stalled. We ALL now wait for that new hair regrowth on the wound, before bandage removals. Then we keep the wound greased for as long as needed to get totally rehaired.

Not sure if you are stalling your horse. I have had NO luck with turning horse out in bandages with such wounds. Bandages fall, wound is exposed to make more mess. I have to stall mine while they are bandaged, do hand walking. We remove all grain, feed many small hay meals a day, wet beet pulp. System works, but some horses may get a bit thin. Keeps them from climbing the walls with extra unused energy. Still shiny, bright eyes, just may be ribby.

With the time you need to keep this wrapped, at least 2 months, you go thru LOTS of wrapping material. Getting sterile material will put the costs thru the roof. I keep the wounds wrapped until the hair starts growing back. With bandage removal, I keep the new flesh greased to prevent drying out and splitting open again. Nutrogena hand cream in the TUBE, is very dense, will stay on with morning and evening applications. Keeps the skin covered well.

I do cold hosing, probably 20 minutes each bandage change, then fill that hole with the antibiotic cream and rewrap.

You have to know going into wound treatment, how much work it will be to get horse healed and commit yourself to that work and time. Not easy. I don't like scars that can be prevented, put in the time needed to get them healed the way I wanted. The redamaged horse was about 4 months of stalling and bandaging. Not daily changes towards the end, but you still have to walk them by hand and check the wraps daily.

Good luck with your horse, time is a great healer, with the correct wrapping regime. Our mare came back totally 100% usable, just a thin white line, tape burn scar to show for it all. She was a great athlete, worked hard competing with no problems from past wound. Retired, elderly broodmare now.