Mare #2 took a good sized portion of skin off of her RF yesterday (along with billions of tiny cuts EVERYWHERE) magically of course. Vet came removed small remaining skin flap, cleaned and bandaged her up with stall rest, bute, cleaning and rewrapping in our future. I have a few different wound products that have been deemed acceptable (povidine ointment and aloe advantage gel spray are top two) but I was hoping that someone may have a a suggestion for something to get it heal up quicker! I looked at Underwood’s but am nervous to not clean it even every couple days. Obviously nothing will be super magical but with just having bought her I am itching to ride so hoping to speed the process along as much as possible!
My older mare got a nasty kick in her elbow last spring. She ended up needing some little flaps cut off and stitches. My vet recommend Derma Gel which I bought even though it was farily expensive. I was really impressed by how well it healed (especially being a high motion area) and ended up with very little scarring!
That said , what you use depends a bit on how deep, how likely to get dirty, if it needs to be bandaged over top etc.
Nothing speeds healing but some things might impede it.
First you need to know what kind of healing you want. I like small scrapes to dry up fast so I use Blukote and leave them uncovered. I can’t see leaving small cuts moist anymore than I’d put hand lotion on a cut finger. The sooner they dry up the better.
But I know that for much bigger sounds you might want to keep the wound moist to make sure it fills in properly.
Also do you want an antibiotic action? You need to think through what you need from a product how you are going to treat this wound and how the various products work.
Follow your vets directions on how often to irrigate and change the bandage.
Also what will you be expected to sluff off versus not disturb? I’ve watched a few bigger wounds of this kind heal and there is judgement and skill involved in cleaning and debriding and rebandaging. Ask your vet.
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I love Underwoods, it IS scary not cleaning, but the stuff is magical…
I second derma gel! My mare had a nasty wound that healed up beautifully at a very high movement location.
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I actually find the opposite to be true. With most wounds, I find they heal faster and healthier if I keep them moist.
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Dermagel all the way. It’s really great stuff.
Equaide… Amazing stuff. Underwoods was a complete fail, but the Equaide was amazing. I think I wouldn’t even have a scar if I’d started with the Equaide…
i think the website is www.equaide.com it’s very informative and shipping was fast. The tiny jar lasts forever.
I love Dermagel or good old fashion local or Manuka honey.
Dermagel
Thanks for all the replies! I’ll have to pick up some derma gel for sure. Another question I have: I am going to be doing a spider wrap on the knee and a standing wrap below - should I do the standing or the spider wrap first? To me it makes sense to do the spider first then overlap the standing over the end of it?
Derma gel http://www.vetoquinolusa.com/content/derma-gel#tab_section_0
Had a non healing surgical wound in an Italian greyhound at the clinic I worked at. The rep dropped off some samples of this stuff and the results were amazing!
Wrap the knee, then apply the standing wrap.
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Farnam PuriShield helped my horse heal quickly and without a nasty scar, highly recommend trying it
Thank you Texarkana!
A friend’s horse was run out of a paddock over the fence one day. Instead of going over the field end, he went over the end by the dead end road, slipped and tore the skin on his butt open, Stitches couldn’t keep it closed, They cleaned it daily with betadine scrub. As the healing progressed they used melaleuca honey, which I guess is wicked expensive, to cover it. It took a while but the skin grew back and he had a nasty scar but it didn’t affect his movement at all.
The website however refuses to say what is in the product. For me this means I will not ever buy it. Period.
I used to think the same about drying wounds, but as it turns out the rules have changed on wound healing - moist = better.
As an anecdote, I had a horse who got cuts on all 4 legs once. I decided to treat them all differently as a test. One leg was the control - no treatment. The others got various ointments on them - triple antibiotic, probably Blue Kote, and IIRC bag balm. The 3 that got something may have healed a bit faster, and the 2 that got ointment healed a bit faster too - probably because of the rubbing action and/or moisturizing action. But the difference was 2-3 days not weeks.
I know I’ve read that too about moist. But in a basically filthy environment if a wound can’t be covered with a bandage I like it to dry up. My friend who does the moist treatment on small scrapes has them open and oozing for days.
I feel the same way about blisters on my heel, cuts on my finger, etc. They can get inflamed if they stay moist but heal up fast if they dry out.
I think it is different if it’s a big incision or scrape.
Another DermaGel vote here. My dog degloved part of his face when he was an adolescent. He had been a show dog and we assumed his career was over. DermaGel not only grew hair back where the vets thought it would no longer grow, he went on to become a Grand Champion. His injury was near his eye and couldn’t be bandaged. I had to debride it 3x a day until the wound started to heal. I’d debride then cover with DermaGel.
TMI note: once I got a nasty saddle rub and was really sore. I put some DermaGel on it and by the next day I couldn’t even tell that I had any chafing at all.
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