Bed sore tricks and tips?

[IPEsq]

I was hired to help my BO’s horse with her front fetlock bed sore problem. She was wearing those Pro Choice fuzzy boots but still doing damage. I got her some long turnout / mud fever type boots to wear in turnout and/or in the stall until I could put a standing wrap on overnight, but we couldn’t get the staff to put those on. Also tried Alushield, but she is not a fan of being sprayed with it, so it was a 2 person job—one person to hold up the other front leg while one is quickly sprayed.

She’s been in medical bandages now for months to heal some pretty deep, oozing sores. I would clean, put on foam dressing and then Elastikon. Would last at least a few days depending on how much oozing.

Her issue is sleep crashing. For a couple of years she wouldn’t lay down much if at all due to some injuries. She is kind of a miracle in that she is sound and back in moderate work now (was a GP dressage horse). Now she gets up and down fine but she still crashes. A cranial sacral therapist is working with her and there is some improvement in her ability to relax and stay standing. But judging by the dirt that gets on the bandages and her knees before I standing wrap over them at night, she must still be going down from time to time. Just takes one good hit for her to rip a chunk out of a fetlock.

So that’s the back story. We are getting to where she won’t need the medical bandages much longer. Just have to wait for some hair to grow back. All of the sores are now healed over with no oozing or scabbing. But if the Pro Choice boots won’t cut it, what else could I do to protect the area from getting beat up? I’d hate for her to have to wear Elastikon or similar for the rest of her life.

[twelvegates]

https://www.amazon.com/Equipro-Bed-Sore-Boots/dp/B00XD0WP3E

[Peggy]

Duct tape? No, seriously. Just a patch over the problematic area.

[Simkie]

I really really really like gall salve for bedsores. The stuff gateway made was the best, but haven’t seen it in awhile. Bickmores does the job.

[ryansgirl]

Try some bell boots turned upside down for her fetlocks. I’ve always had good luck with that. I’ve also used bed sore boots in the past for my old TB who rarely laid down (due to age) but when he did he got some nasty sores on his fetlocks - bed sore boots helped a ton for him. The duct tape method never worked for me.

[Peggy]

Also have had good luck with gall salve.

[keysfins]

Liquid Maalox. Sounds weird but that’s what our senior vet recommends for them. Just shake and daub on the sores once or twice a day. Takes a bit but they do heal.

[newhorsemommy]

The human liquid bandage works pretty well on hock sores, so you might give that a try. It doesn’t do much for the hair in the area :), but it does help protect the wound so it doesn’t get worse and it does slowly heal. It’s so hot here in the summer the gall salve and such just melts right off. The liquid bandage dries and leaves a nice coat. I apply a really thick coat of it every couple of days.

[Elouise]

My horse gets fetlock bed sores. I luv my fetlock shields by Intrepid that I got from Valley Vet. They are same basic principle as the upside down bell boot, but in a Fabric and a bit more of a V shape. New they are a little rigid (and work quite well), but after a lot of use, they are not quite so rigid and perform ok ( they get soft and the fabric breaks down), but for $30,they are a bargain (I replace mine about once a year). If mine doesn’t wear them, he gets bloody sores on the fetlocks. The one great thing is there is a gap at the top, so air can get to the sore so it can heal. I have also put medication (like alushield) on the sores and then put the fetlock shields on. I have put my fetlock shields in the washer to clean off any goo or dirt. They do collect shavings a bit.

Or you can go the expensive but no brainer route; (if the horse with the sores is stabled inside at night), a super soft stall mat. The typical stall mats are hard and rough, opening up the skin when the horse gets up or go down. My horse has been in stalls that have stall mats that are like air mattresses, and no bed sores.

[IPEsq]

Even though it’s the BO’s horse I don’t see a stall mattress in her future unfortunately. She has the typical bed sore boots which do not seem to work. Haven’t tried the upside down bell boot type boot.

They are healing up just fine. Just looking for future preventative measures

[theresak]

I have a horse with the exact same issue - falling asleep and falling down. He’s gotten cellulitis twice from the fetlock sores.

He lives in these, except when the ground outside is nice and soft and the sores are totally closed (he doesn’t fall in his stall very often, mostly outside). When he’s got an open, bloody sore he gets an animalintex pad, elastikon, and a piece of bandage tape to keep the edges down. When the sores are scabbed, I’ll use a nonstick bandage pad and elastikon and leave it on for several days until it unsticks or gets wet. When the scabs are small and very hard, I use just elastikon.

I tried Alushield and duct tape and neither were enough protection when he crashed to prevent him from opening the sores. Upside down bell boots were not big enough, and the bed sore boots twisted and slipped down. The fetlock shields are sufficiently padded and stay pretty stiff for several months to keep from rubbing the sores or binding on the leg. I can get 8 or 9 months of out a pair of the fetlock shields with 24/7 use.

[IPEsq]

I think the shields are something the staff can put on. I will try ordering a pair. The other style boot didn’t slip down but I don’t know what exactly would happen…just that I’d show up to the boot being on but a fresh bloody leg underneath.

The leg that is more healed right now just has a couple layers of Vetrap under a couple layers of Elastikon, and it’s holding up fine. I’m about ready to take the padding off the other leg, but both need a little more time to grow hair back. Hoping the one that was the worst actually will grow hair.

[Mukluk]

In my experience, bed sores were due to hard ground- when they were in dirt paddocks. Now that horses have well bedded stalls and soft dirt to nap on I have not had any problems with bed sores. Gelding used to get the front fetlock sores and mare used to get quarter sized hock sores. I put her in something like this https://www.bigdweb.com/product/code/95061.do?gclid=Cj0KCQjw45_bBRD_ARIsAJ6wUXS2Jca0jJXbNbghz10Mo_G0czeI_jLYng7qU2Rnh0IjQjPQkvlrXy0aAuKPEALw_wcB at the time which helped but did end up with two small patches of white hair right both hocks. Best of luck.

[IPEsq]

Thanks Mukluk. These bed sores are not on the hocks but the front fetlocks. She has a double stall. Half of it is well bedded. The other half is fairly bare for her hay. And she has a run out with footing that gets anywhere from road base hard to sandy depending on the moisture level (so, here, usually more like road base). The bedding is mostly sawdust over mats, and I think that’s also just not quite enough. While I often find her standing and snoozing on the bedded part of the stall in the evenings, I don’t know if that’s where she’s crashing or in other parts. She once crashed while being held by her trainer in the indoor arena while trainer was helping another client, and that footing is pretty nice sand but still caused bleeding. She also skinned up her nose in that fall.

[IPEsq]

FWIW, the bedding is good enough to prevent my horse from getting the hock sores he’s prone to. He’s bedded to a similar depth as the deeper half of this mare’s stall. He will get hock sores from rolling or snoozing in his paddock though during the dry months (he does not use his run-out because he’s not responsible with his legs out there).

[x-halt-salute]

Ah, the never-healing fetlock sores. This is familiar territory for me, having cared for a sleep deprivation horse for the last decade.

I hate all of the boots made for this purpose. The fleecy Professional’s Choice ones tend to collect shavings and mud, inevitably twist and sag, and rely on straps across the tendons that I’m just not a fan of. The ones like @theresak posted, IME, act like funnels and can collect bedding or dirt when the horse falls hard and hold that abrasive material right where you don’t want it. Upside bell boots that don’t have the same problem end up being too floppy or too short to really help.

The best thing I found was these scalping boots, but applied upside down so the protective part goes up the front of the front fetlocks instead of down toward the coronary band of the hind feet as designed. I use a mixture of clorhexidine ointment and silver sulfadiazine burn cream (a concoction my vet recommended for this particular problem) to heal sores up when mine re-opens them, covered in a nonstick pad and elastikon until scabbed over.

My horse actually did live in a stall with a stall mattress for a while, and the fetlock sores somehow got worse in that particular environment than anywhere else she’s lived. Between the force of falling and the presence of other abrasive materials (even bedding is abrasive when you crash a half ton body onto it), the abrasion kept happening in spite of the cushy floor. I have no idea why they got so much worse there – maybe she was falling more as a result of other management factors, or maybe she developed an ironic dislike for lying down on that surface – but it made me think that padding is most useful when it is close to the body part that is getting injured.

[IPEsq]

Upside down scalping boot is a great idea! Thanks!

[Putter]

I am going to have to try the upside down scaling boot for my girl.
My mare has skin grafts on her front fetlocks-and will always need to wear a medical bandage(non stick pad, kling, vertwrap and elastikon) plus somesort of protection boot over top of that. I have gotten down to being able to change her wrap once to twice a week and rotate the Prof Choice SMB for turnout and the SMB combo wrap or fetlock shield for stall use.

[zakkandtoto]

My old guy is prone to them on his fetlocks and hocks. These two work extremely well. The hock shields are harder to put on and they run big and the elastic gives, so they only last about 3 months. The fetlock shields work like a charm and wear well.

https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=40d2e304-2947-4c29-acbf-db7833a8f685&sfb=1&itemguid=784d4a25-da96-4af8-9565-6845c48907c8&utm_content=40782&ccd=IFH003&CAWELAID=120295250000089223&CATARGETID=120295250000475264&cadevice=c&gclid=EAIaIQobChMInNir8pzd3AIVxLjACh1_5QljEAQYASABEgJyrvD_BwE

and

https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=0a6b09db-a22a-43cf-abf2-37ba66291ec4&sfb=1&itemguid=20db8d01-199d-4f63-9952-f8e601f3b69d&utm_content=40781&ccd=IFH003&CAWELAID=120295250000101890&CATARGETID=120295250000475226&cadevice=c&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0MyLi53d3AIVg7bACh1VlAceEAQYASABEgJwWvD_BwE

[findeight]

@newhorsemommy

The human liquid bandage works pretty well on hock sores, so you might give that a try. It doesn’t do much for the hair in the area :), but it does help protect the wound so it doesn’t get worse and it does slowly heal. It’s so hot here in the summer the gall salve and such just melts right off. The liquid bandage dries and leaves a nice coat. I apply a really thick coat of it every couple of days.

Alushield is the Equine equivelent to the human Liquid Skin. Horse hates the aerosol spray, no paint on equine version and the human one comes in a vial with a nail polish sized brush… Not OPs horse so some solutions just aren’t going to be options.

Id just go with what you are doing now if it’s allowing the legs to heal. Maybe keep wrapping after it’s healed as a preventative. Those are miserable sores in a bad area and hard to get to heal.