Degloving injury- dressing

[Twhgirl]

I have a broodmare that to make a long story short got a bad case of gas colic and managed to get cast in a stall (in the 2 hours I was asleep in 48 hours) and catch her back legs in between 2 boards in her stall on Sat. One leg is minor, the other was major degloved with bone exposure yet no tendon involved that the vet could tell. It was sewn up-we know the skin will likely die just trying to provide a flap to heal for now. I’m changing dressing 2x a day, gently flushing with Saline and Vetricyn every time. It has a pretty significant amount of drainage that smells yuck( to be expected I know). I’m applying just a generic wound cream of clorhexadine to keep it from sticking to the dressing, using non stick (still sticks some), abd/Surgical pads and gauze roll dressing under a good thick standing wrap. I should include that I’ve worked at the vet for a bit, and I also am a human nurse who spent several years in surgery so I am pretty apt at dressing/caring for wounds. Mare is also getting of course Bute and antibiotics (at this time injectable to change to SMZ tomorrow as her appetite on grain has not been great before now and in light of the recent colic I am not pushing, suggested by vet to do inj for first few days)pro/pre biotic paste for belly and some ulcerguard just to cover. My question(s)is this-1. those of you having dealt with these extensive degloving injuries what did you use on the wound dressing that you liked or worked well? It seems to prob need air/oxygen but leaving it open doesn’t seem like a good idea as I don’t want shavings,dirt, etc to get in this already significant wound. I’ve heard a lot of good things about Underwoods and Spurs Big Fix… but I am hesitant to use it as it has alcohol in it and I’m thinking it has to burn pretty significantly. My vet suggested a mix of Furazone/DMSO to slather on it and in the past i have liked both. 2. I’ve read several of you on here day no Fura and I’m curious as to what you chose instead and why? I’ve used local honey/sugar mix on a lot of bad wounds in the past but with it being 20 degrees getting that to spread is not going to be an easy task but I will figure it out if that’s something one of you recommended! 3. Did you give any type of oral supplement to aide in healing? When she is eating normally again she already gets a pro/prebiotic daily, good grain and alfalfa pellets.
Thanks for any constructive help!

I should include mare is not lame, she’s able to walk around and I’m giving her a large stall and free hallway to do as she pleases to help with swelling but she doesn’t have a significant amount.

[widge]

Check out PF Wonder Salve. My experience was nothing compared to what you’re up against but it did work when nothing else would on proud flesh my horse developed last summer.

[Twhgirl]

Where did you buy it? I may get some for when she starts develop proud flesh.

[widge]

They have a website, not sure if I’m allowed to link it here but it’s the first google result

[Foxglove]

I have had two similar injuries (different horses). I’d say follow your vet’s advice --but also you might want to take a weekly picture of the wound and send it to him/her to keep vet up with how the wound is healing.

Both my horses wounds healed with only tiny scars (one open hock to fetlock on front of hind leg, other open knee to fetlock front of front leg).

As I recall, I did daily hosing for 10 min twice a day. Then the furizone (yellow goo) slathered on, cotton or gauze (can’t remember) but it was a large sheet --might even have been a diaper around the leg, vet wrap, standing wrap and turned horse out. It was important (my vet said) that the horse be able to move.

Both were injured in the winter, so flies were not a consideration, although hosing was unpleasant in the freezing cold.

At some point there was proud flesh, seems like I was given something to dab directly on it.

As I said, both horses healed fine. All of this was 15-20 years ago, so my “technique” may be out-dated. OH! One other thing you might investigate is “surgical honey.” I’ve heard of it but never used it.

[Twhgirl]

Of course I’m following vet advice… and she will get updates. I am just looking for opinions from people with these injuries and what was worked for them.
Unfortunately turnout is not an option- it’s a pit of mud and nasty in the pasture right now bc we had snow that all melted into a muddy mess. I was advised not to turn her out in that mess bc there is NO way to keep standing wraps clean/dry in that and not get into a mess with the wound getting debris and mud. I have a rather large barn with 18 stalls so she’s got the whole hall plus her stall to walk around right now and that seems to be fine as it really doesn’t have a significant amount of swelling. I’m cold hosing as I can again it’s been 20 degrees and she hates it bc the water is cold and I’m sure it hurts. I mentioned the Furazone in my post- several people with these injuries said absolutely not, which is why I’m asking the reason. I have used it on a lot of wounds but not specifically this type so I may be missing something important there.

[steelerino]

I wish I could remember the name of the lady here who bought an unhandled filly with the chunk missing from her hip. Maybe search the horse care section as she did a fabulous job healing that horrific wound!

[steelerino]

Large open wound on unhandled yearling FINAL UPDATE POST 145!

Graphic Image Warning, long post it’s at the bottom, hopefully fixed link Short story long, was picking up some yearlings and one filly got hung up on a trailer latch. Careless mistake on my part and everyone else involved, and a completely preventable accident. She tore her hip open about three inches deep and more than a foot long, a really big and ugly wound. Fortunately we had facilities there to get a halter on her, get her loaded correctly, and start heading home where I was able to get …

[Simkie]

You may be interested in exploring amnion. I’ve used it with good effect on a similar injury. Do you have any foals coming soon, or know of any?

I found large abd pads super super helpful in wrapping. Bought them by the case.

I’d also get her on something for her belly and hind gut.

Best of luck. This sort of thing sure is sucky, especially this time of year.

[Twhgirl]

Using abd pads for sure, have been since the beginning they are wonderful! She’s on something for gut already (I think I put in there pro/prebiotics daily, Aloe and she’s getting ulcerguard too). I’ve tried to cover all the bases. Yes I have several babies coming this year but not until March unfortunately

[MapleFarm]

A friend of mine had a horse put both back legs through a stall door. There was no skin to sew up, it was awful. She used Underwood with baking powder (had used it on many other similar injuries). It healed as well as possible with some scarring.

[Twhgirl]

Thanks for pinning this- that healing is quite the incredible journey! I wish this injury were more ‘meat and muscle’ than lower leg bone with no extra skin and muscle bc it helps. I healed one similar to hers on the neck from a car accident years ago with her same technique. My biggest issue is keeping this clean as I can’t leave it open to air right now and I wish we could… and it was summer so I could use the hose multiple times a day, but we’re making the best of it! Very educational post thanks!

[Twhgirl]

Thank you, this is what I was looking for…I haven’t ever used Underwoods before but I was definitely looking into it!

[2DogsFarm]

I may be mistaken, but I believe furazone was linked to cancer in humans.

No experience with a degloving injury, but I did spend 8mos treating a subsolar abcess that caused the horse to slough half his sole.
I could see interior structure
August through March, so soaking 2X daily to clean was a challenge in winter months.
Hoping your mares injury heals a lot quicker!

[MapleFarm]

She also used it for a major face injury - the whole thing was open from between the mare’s eyes down to the nose. Did not clean it out at all (scary!), then used Underwood every day. Amazingly no scar, but the flap was able to heal better than the leg wound. I would use it for that type of injury based on her many many years of using it as a TB breeder. The main thing is you don’t want to remove the previous day’s application, you just layer it to create a scab of sorts. Not sure when you would use it in the process based on the description of what you have going on, but I’m sure you could reach out to the company with any questions.

Anyway, just wanted to share some good success with it! Good luck and jingles for the healing process

[PonyApocalypse19]

I had a horse that had his wounds dehisced 3 days after we took the stitches out from cellulitis. I used silver sulfadiazine cream slathered on the open wounds with the sterile non-stick pads and then covered with vet wrap or sterile cotton gauze (one wound was on his hock). Then cotton batting for the hock and a standing wrap for his leg. He was wrapped/re-wrapped daily or every other day and on stall rest. Once the wounds started to granulate together we started leaving the bandages off for a couple hours at a time. His skin was also starting to get very irritated (chestnut horse problems) I would take his bandages off while I worked my other horse. Then it got to where we left them off over night. He was on SMZs for probably a month. But he never got shavings or anything in the wounds while they were still open and airing out. It took about a month for everything to really start looking closed up and leaving the bandages off completely and having him back in turnout. I still have the gore pictures saved from 2019!

[paintedpony]

We had great success with honey dressings. Similar to you, we were working in extreme cold. Before heading to the barn, I would slather honey on non-stick pads, book fold and then tuck inside my coat for transport. Wound cleaning was minimal rinse with saline. Honey dressing, absorbent layer and Vet wrap refreshed daily for about a week then every 2 days for about a week. Sutures out around day 10. One debriding and tidying of granulation area followed by daily painting with Equiaid. Healing was wonderful.

[Bluey]

@paintedpony

We had great success with honey dressings. Similar to you, we were working in extreme cold. Before heading to the barn, I would slather honey on non-stick pads, book fold and then tuck inside my coat for transport. Wound cleaning was minimal rinse with saline. Honey dressing, absorbent layer and Vet wrap refreshed daily for about a week then every 2 days for about a week. Sutures out around day 10. One debriding and tidying of granulation area followed by daily painting with Equiaid. Healing was wonderful.

A lady had her Arabian jump out of the wood plank pastures in a blizzard, hit top board with his shoulder and degloved from shoulder point to knee, falling on the other side in a snow drift.
Wound was super clean but terrible looking, vet treated it and approved her proposed treatment.
It took months, but she mostly used much washing and honey for dressing and skin grew back and all healed wonderfully, just a 4" long thin scar left.

[NancyM]

Furazone does not seem to be as popular as it once was… however I’ve used it for injuries for a long time. My vet of choice said that it is a mild irritant, and will heat and bring blood to the area. This will cause cellular growth, which will “fill in” a damaged area. You use the furazone when you need to fill in the injury. THEN, you change to a proud flesh “inhibitor”, which will dry out the button of proud flesh that has filled in the injury. White lotion (lead acetate) is one option for proud flesh inhibitor, but there are others too. You can’t buy lead acetate any more. It is important to make the change to a proud flesh inhibitor at the right time. Good luck, it sounds like you are doing the best you can under the circumstances, and you have your vet on board. It’s amazing what can heal up well.

[trubandloki]

@paintedpony

We had great success with honey dressings.

No personal experience with this technique, but I have heard of lots of success stories with local honey on some scary looking wounds.