Rear leg cut help needed.. Pics inside.

[Karie]

my wealing colt cut his leg rather badly. The cuts are healing very well... but All the sudden there is a large lump on his leg in the area of where the cut was and below it. The cuts were just below his hock.

I treated it first with Nolvasan and a combine pad and light vet wrap.
Now that I see the lump, I have wrapped it with a large combine pad and DRAW and LIGHT vetwrap.
This brought it down a little so its not as large but its still not going away.

Its soft to the touch... its not hard at this point, and i am afraid it wont go away.
Anyone have any advice? The yellow you see on the wound is furacin spray, its not infected

[Roger]

Just to start, I don't like furacin, I like neosporin (walmart generic). I would hate to offer anyother advice, I can't tell what the white cell count is and that is kind of important. If there is no infection, he might just need walking, it might need a drain tube if its a hemotoma (sp). You need to ask your vet.

[Strategic Maneuver]

There are probably several vets on the forum who can give you much better advice but from the pictures, I wouldn't panic yet. The swelling below the injury is pretty normal as edema from the injury tends to build and travel down due to gravity. With injuries like this, I usually hydro the cut twice a day and apply Granulex or an anitibiotic ointment like Animax. Like Roger, I am not a big fan of Furacin for cuts like this. At the first sign of infection, I would the put the colt on antibiotics but the cut looks pretty good to me from the pictures. Good luck.

[Karie]

I am not going to panic
This is a breed to race colt, not a sales colt, although I don't want a big ugly lump on his leg.

I had him on Penicillin for a week (or was it 10 days??) cant remember.
I just sprayed Furacin on it when he went out without a wrap.

I prefer nolvasan or something like that.
We did use furacin ointment (not spray) mixed with Wound dust to eat up a little proud flesh. Farrier told me to do it.. it actually worked well.
The vet isn't coming out anytime soon, and I NEVER use the vet for cuts that cant be stitched. I have had more than my share of cuts and injured by freak accident horses.

This one has me puzzled..

[Strategic Maneuver]

Sorry, thought the wound was much more recent. Hopefully someone else will have a better idea of what you can do for the swelling below.

[Tucumcari]

Agreed with Roger... will cause more proud flesh type tissue. Neosporin or triple antibiotic ointment is way better!
Keep it clean, covered, and tetracycline are good ideas... Though I am not a vet. If a vet has seen it, and stitches are not necessary, then keep after it. Low movement would be great

[madelyn]

Actually, perhaps it might have been better to have it sutured and then immobilized in a cast (changed every day or two) when it first happened -- however, that kind of cut in that kind of location has probably ended this colt's racing career, so it probably wouldn't have made that much difference. I have had experience trying to train a horse who had an injury of this type and the horse was just never right - not able to use that leg like the other three. The training was a comlete waste of time and money. Fortunately it was a well bred filly. This is a bad time of year for that kind of injury - so many flies. Does he have any kind of fever?

[Mikki79]

Karie,

We are currently nursing a horse with an injury worse than this one. And the best thing for him right now to get the swelling down is a drawing ointment and air. I'll PM you later when I know what one we are currently using but it has done wonders for the horse that we are currently working on. I do agree with Madelyn that most likely he's not going to be able to be raced after a cut like that. It's very deep and although may not appear so, its done enough damage that'll cause some discomfort. Here's a link to our website (scroll down until you find Diamond Miner): http://milestonefarmsandequinerescue.fa ... scues.aspx and you can see the difference after a month of constant work and attention. It's even better now but my daughter misplaced my camera while I was in Michigan for training so I can't take updated pictures . We put drawing oinment on for two days and then a softening ointment for one day and we keep rotating this. Like I said i'll have my mother PM you when she gets back to tell you exactly what she does if you are interested. Vets are great for some things but when it comes to issues like this we go to our Amish neighbor first!!!

[Tucumcari]

It looks just below the hock, yes or no? High motion area sort of. Sutures are not necessarily the option and a cast is absolutely a no. BUT better/different treatment is a big yes!

[soft hearted]

But try unpasturized honey.
Seriously, the enzymes from the honey dissolve tissue like that, act as an antibiotic AND an anti-inflamatory agent (any sugar does really).
But you won't really be able to leave it open for air (another great suggestion! ) because honey draws flys and EVERYthing sticks to it! Smear thickly on a pad, vet wrap over top just tightly enough to keep firmly to the leg. Wash well and change daily. When you're washing, really WORK the leg (skin and underlying tissue) to try to break any adhesions to underlying tissue. If he seems to be getting worse (he will at first as adhesions break) than just uncomfortable - you might want to rethink the vet. At least then you'd have a Johnny on the spot evaluation rather than a guess and advice from who knows who from a 1,000 miles or more away

[franchino pamintuan]

clean & rinse it with a betadine solution let it dry then put yellow solution twice a day. after 5days you will see a greatimprovemant on your colts wound.

[majxmom]

But be on the lookout for cellulitis. It's particularly prevalent in that location, and once it starts, it takes a long time to get rid of. If this area doesn't start resolving soon, you'd better have a vet out to check.

[madelyn]

The cut was last August - it is probably past recommendations by this time.

[majxmom]

Ha! Thanks, madelyn. I didn't even look at the dates, just saw it bumped to the top.

[Tbird]

I'm new so reading old posts.
I'd be interested to know how this horse's injury has healed. Years (and years) ago we had a horse that had a similar injury and it responded well to twice-daily irrigation with water just from a hose for about five-minutes at a time. The irrigation super-cleaned it out, stimulated circulation, and as the water was very cold, reduced swelling. Pretty good water pressure was recommended.
After the water treatment, the sound was treated with some kind of ointment (I forget what kind) and wrapped with light/medium pressure and horse stalled.
No proud flesh, minimal scar, full movement but all injuries are different.
The horse I refer to was a broodmare and part-time pleasure riding horse.
The regimen of water treatment was recommended by a very old and highly respected horse vet at that time (70's) in Arkansas.