Horse Injury Yesterday - Safety Points

[ArkRescue]

Is the vetericyn a tube or a spray? I saw some at Tractor Supply that was blue liquid in a bottle - is that what I want?

This whole ordeal is getting old fast. Syringe two 60cc tubes of meds every 12 hours (after meds are forced, praise with enthusiasm - GOOD GIRL!! so she won't hate me), daily clean the wound surface and leg, rinse wound inside with diluted Betadine, spray inside with the wound treatment spray, coat outside edge with wound gel, dry leg, apply Vaseline to protect leg, then give a horsey cookie and say "what a good girl you are".

Since half the stitches were pulled out, the vet said the healing time will get longer. I guess I stop cleaning the inside of the wound when it closes on it's own ...... I don't do well looking at the insides of critters .

 

[ICit]

Is the vetericyn a tube or a spray? I saw some at Tractor Supply that was blue liquid in a bottle - is that what I want?

This whole ordeal is getting old fast. Syringe two 60cc tubes of meds every 12 hours (after meds are forced, praise with enthusiasm - GOOD GIRL!! so she won't hate me), daily clean the wound surface and leg, rinse wound inside with diluted Betadine, spray inside with the wound treatment spray, coat outside edge with wound gel, dry leg, apply Vaseline to protect leg, then give a horsey cookie and say "what a good girl you are".

Since half the stitches were pulled out, the vet said the healing time will get longer. I guess I stop cleaning the inside of the wound when it closes on it's own ...... I don't do well looking at the insides of critters .

Yep...gel like spray

 

[Phyxius]

Horses either take meds or they don't. My cream draft mare will eat any meds, whole or disolved: doxy, sulfa, bute, benadryl, tri-hist.

My percheron stallion prefers not to have meds but doesn't cause a huge fuss if I plunge him (syringe).

My 26 yr old QH mare will say "HELL NO ARE YOU CATCHING ME AND GIVING ME THAT POISON CRAP!"

So, I understand where you're coming from!

I second vetricyn, great stuff. Elam carries it at Loveville Leather. Also great for general wounds is the aluminum spray. It makes a barrier to help keep things clean.

Now, that being said, most topical goop is for our benefit, not the horse's. Wounds want to heal and most crap we put on will do nothing to help despite labels and vet recommendations. When my mare had her surgery I couldn't believe all I had to do was keep vaseline on her leg below the drain. That's it? Really? Wow!

Or, when my other mare needed staples in her head. A little aluminum spray to keep crap out then, left it alone until it was time to remove them. Yay!

The exception to this rule is if things get worse then, you need to do something. Hope she heals quickly!

Bute paste in a syringe is much easier than the powder or crushed tabs (wedgewood is the pharmacy that makes the apple flavored). If your horse hates sulfa doxy tabs are sweeter flavored and can often be fed whole as a top dressing. Or vets can even give antibiotic shots (and I don't just mean penicillin there's also Exceed and some other products too). There's also a strong antibiotic called Chloramphenicol. My horse was allergic to it as I found out after I paid over $1000 for the non-returnable medicine.

Sometimes, less is more.

 

[ArkRescue]

Horses either take meds or they don't. My cream draft mare will eat any meds, whole or disolved: doxy, sulfa, bute, benadryl, tri-hist.

My percheron stallion prefers not to have meds but doesn't cause a huge fuss if I plunge him (syringe).

My 26 yr old QH mare will say "HELL NO ARE YOU CATCHING ME AND GIVING ME THAT POISON CRAP!"

So, I understand where you're coming from!

I second vetricyn, great stuff. Elam carries it at Loveville Leather. Also great for general wounds is the aluminum spray. It makes a barrier to help keep things clean.

Now, that being said, most topical goop is for our benefit, not the horse's. Wounds want to heal and most crap we put on will do nothing to help despite labels and vet recommendations. When my mare had her surgery I couldn't believe all I had to do was keep vaseline on her leg below the drain. That's it? Really? Wow!

Or, when my other mare needed staples in her head. A little aluminum spray to keep crap out then, left it alone until it was time to remove them. Yay!

The exception to this rule is if things get worse then, you need to do something. Hope she heals quickly!

Bute paste in a syringe is much easier than the powder or crushed tabs (wedgewood is the pharmacy that makes the apple flavored). If your horse hates sulfa doxy tabs are sweeter flavored and can often be fed whole as a top dressing. Or vets can even give antibiotic shots (and I don't just mean penicillin there's also Exceed and some other products too). There's also a strong antibiotic called Chloramphenicol. My horse was allergic to it as I found out after I paid over $1000 for the non-returnable medicine.

Sometimes, less is more.

I have to admit that I have been fortunate that my horses have not needed other than routine vet care.

This younger mare has a mind of her own, and that also carries over to how she behaves under saddle. You have to be a confident rider to get her to do what you want. I see already that I will need to keep a riding crop on me as a reminder of who is running things lol. I'm still amazed that an animal so big will usually do what you want with a tap of a crop.

I will be glad when we get past this because the fields will be overgrown after a month of them stuck inside, not mention they are using up my hay supply fast lol.

 

[ArkRescue]

The saga drags on. Clean wound, dress it, and give meds twice a day via syringe. Now that all stitches are gone, I am worried about how the area will look once it is healed.

 

[ArkRescue]

There's also a strong antibiotic called Chloramphenicol. My horse was allergic to it as I found out after I paid over $1000 for the non-returnable medicine.

Sometimes, less is more.

wow I hope you found a buyer for it.

 

[Phyxius]

wow I hope you found a buyer for it.

Nope.

 

[Roman]

The saga drags on. Clean wound, dress it, and give meds twice a day via syringe. Now that all stitches are gone, I am worried about how the area will look once it is healed.

How many more days does she have to take medicine, and be on stall rest? I feel for you ark. It's never easy having to tend to something like that days on end.

 

[ArkRescue]

How many more days does she have to take medicine, and be on stall rest? I feel for you ark. It's never easy having to tend to something like that days on end.

She got the last dose of antibiotics this morning, she is down to 1 scoop of bute per day, the sedatives will continue twice daily as long as she is on stall rest. I may be able to slip the sedative in her grain?

At the moment, her next vet visit is the 19th, so I hope by then she can have some time outside even if only on a lead rope. I guess it depends on how much she has healed by then.

The next challenge will be being outside in the heat and eaten alive by the millions of skeeters that call my property home lol - Deet at 20% doesn't seem to deter them. I have many bites to prove it .

 

[ArkRescue]

Both horses should be sufficiently sedated to not react to the fireworks sounds this evening. I am surprised by how much noise I hear in this rural area.

How are everyones horses doing with all the noise?

 

[ArkRescue]

Update - so this all started mid June. We are at July 24 and we are STILL doing DAILY cleaning of the wound, and the mare is still needing to be sedated 2 times a day (forced with syringe). It's been a LONG road to recovery! We have at a minimum another 4-6 weeks to go.

The wound is still open but the farthest part inside has healed forward about 1/2 way, and the wound should close in another month or so. In the meantime, we keep her stalled, sedated, and just recently we have had her out on lead to munch on some grass. She pulls and want to go run, so we can't keep her outside for long before the blood starts showing in the wound area (too much movement on her part) and we have to take her back to the barn.

The vet bill has now exceeded $2k for this injury (4 vet appointments so far (2 emergency, 2 scheduled)). However I did add in some routine care for them both i.e. shots and Coggins. So technically, if I subtracted that, I would be around $1,800 for this injury.

I am posting this information to make a point that if you neglect to check your horses area, and/or do not take action on changes that need to be made, you too could end up like me. The part that hurts me the most is the pain and suffering my horse has had to endure because of my lack of action to protect her. I knew better, so I can't claim ignorance.

 

[Eventer29]

I hoped this wouldn't happen but she stopped eating the feed laced with meds.


Give the bute seperate, she may still eat the other pills in her feed. The bute tastes terrible! I have given the apple flavor, mint flavor and molasses flavor. they smell delicious, but taste terrible. I have had a couple horses eat the bute for a couple feedings, then stop. i think the taste builds up and sticks with them for a while.
I mix the bute powder w water and squirt w a big syringe to the back of their mouth. Some are better behaved with this than others. And your horse will probably temporarily hate you for a while. One vet told me to mix it with caro syrup I think? water works fine for me though.

 

[Eventer29]

oops for some reason i didnt see there were so many pages!

 

[ArkRescue]

oops for some reason i didnt see there were so many pages!

We worked through the bute via syringe and found a good way to pull her head up high so she couldn't spit it out. We've had to dose her two times a day for the past 6 weeks, of late being just a sedative. The past few days we have eased off that and are walking her on lead for 30 to 45 minutes a day while her buddy gets to kick up her feet in the field for a short while.

The wound is still open, so we have another few weeks to go of stall rest. Once the wound heals more, we can let her out in the field with a little ace in her to keep her from bucking and carrying on? .... well we hope.

 

[Roman]

Update - so this all started mid June. We are at July 24 and we are STILL doing DAILY cleaning of the wound, and the mare is still needing to be sedated 2 times a day (forced with syringe). It's been a LONG road to recovery! We have at a minimum another 4-6 weeks to go.

The wound is still open but the farthest part inside has healed forward about 1/2 way, and the wound should close in another month or so. In the meantime, we keep her stalled, sedated, and just recently we have had her out on lead to munch on some grass. She pulls and want to go run, so we can't keep her outside for long before the blood starts showing in the wound area (too much movement on her part) and we have to take her back to the barn.

The vet bill has now exceeded $2k for this injury (4 vet appointments so far (2 emergency, 2 scheduled)). However I did add in some routine care for them both i.e. shots and Coggins. So technically, if I subtracted that, I would be around $1,800 for this injury.

I am posting this information to make a point that if you neglect to check your horses area, and/or do not take action on changes that need to be made, you too could end up like me. The part that hurts me the most is the pain and suffering my horse has had to endure because of my lack of action to protect her. I knew better, so I can't claim ignorance.

Don't be so hard on yourself Ark. Even the most protected animals get hurt. You live, and learn. Sorry about the slow recovery.

 

[ArkRescue]

Don't be so hard on yourself Ark. Even the most protected animals get hurt. You live, and learn. Sorry about the slow recovery.

Thanks I have given her extra love through all of this and I am pretty sure that she has bonded with me finally (injured/recuperating critters tend to bond to their caretakers). Like feeding her every day wasn't enough lol.

 

[DeeCee]

Did you try Equaide??? I've patched up many-many big/open wounds with it. Hose the wound with water then slather the equaide it on every day. That stuff works miracles in a very short period of time, I swear by it.
Proud Flesh - EQUAIDE

 

[ArkRescue]

Did you try Equaide??? I've patched up many-many big/open wounds with it. Hose the wound with water then slather the equaide it on every day. That stuff works miracles in a very short period of time, I swear by it.
Proud Flesh - EQUAIDE

Ok - seems there are a few good items for injuries out there - thanks for adding this one. here is what I see for distributors in MD in case anyone following this thread wants to get some also:

MD A Little X-Tra Tack Shop Rt. 589 Ocean Downs Berlin 21811 (410) 644-4228
MD The Grey Pony Saddlery 13355 Route 108 Highland 20777 (410) 531-5333
MD Loveville Leather 40625 Parsons Mill Road Leonardtown 20650
MD Stauffers Feed Mill 28150 Ponit Lookout Road Leonardtown 20650
MD River Valley Ranch 4443 Grave Run Road Millers 21102 (443) 712-1010 gdoran@rivervalleyranch.com Christian Summer Camp in Maryland :: River Valley Ranch
MD Stable Mates 4502 Baltimore National Pike Mt. Airy 21771 (301) 831-5777
MD Kim Shaw 2722 Sun Valley Drive Waldorf 20603 (301) 870-8941
MD Walkersville Vet Clinic 10559 Glade Road Walkersville 21793 (301) 898-7676

 

[DeeCee]

It also keeps flies off the wound. GREAT stuff. It's sort of like silvadene the stuff used for severe burns on people.
Silvadene Top Uses and How to Use - Skin Care

I buy it from Elam - Loveville Leather.