Ugh I’m so sorry. FWIW I had a bandage bow once and after a couple of days of poultice the horse was good as new with no lasting effects.
Fingers crossed you have the same result!!
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The horse just had surgery. I would not expect a totally inflammation free leg. Don’t panic yet though. I’d be less concerned about the leg than the kidney values at this moment. You can run a couple bags of fluids on the farm if you need. Shouldn’t require another haul for that.
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A bandage bow is just a bruise. Ugly to look at, but will go down and heal up on it’s own, no problem. Carry on bravely!!! Good luck!
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I’ve never heard of anyone just leaving a bandage bow to go down and heal on its own.
NSAIDS and cold were standard treatment at well as ultrasound to be sure there’s no damage to the tendon. NSAIDS may be contraindicated for this horse though.
Since @fivestrideline has invested so much in this resale horse already she may want to skip the ultrasound.
How’s he doing today? Hoping his kidney function is better.
I’d be very disappointed with whomever wrapped his legs.
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No NSAIDs allowed for this guy unfortunately. He’s already on Tylenol and idk what else (besides cold and poultice) can be done for him.
Last update he was drinking really well, and we will run fluids as needed. Additionally, if there’s tendon damage… well the rehab won’t change. He’s already on stall rest and looking at 3-6 months of gradual return to work starting with 5 minutes of handwalking daily and adding 5 minutes every week. I’ll likely check it at some point before we go back to “real” work.
Vet school did the leg, rehab barn did the standing bandage over it. Being high like this, it’s likely from the knee wrap. Rehab barn reset the bandages and wraps, and says they’ll be extra careful with it all. He’s reacting to the adhesive bandages pretty poorly too - that’s an exercise in creativity in and of itself.
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I’m so sorry. What a nightmare. Hugs.
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His knees look great! It’s everything else that’s killing me.
I am just riding it out. Part of me wonders if the knees would’ve been fine with maintenance and no surgery, and we’d have avoided the rest of this. However, bloodwork is not one of my standard procedures - vet and I agree this kidney thing is likely chronic and we would never have known without the surgery. And we’d have continued on using bute and banamine whenever, tons of alfalfa, calcium-forward gut supps, etc.
I’m tired. I’m used to things ballooning out of control but I admit this has taken me a bit by surprise. The vets that saw his joints still think that cleaning them up was a good call for long-term soundness. But I NEED this to go more smoothly - for my own mental wellbeing 
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Hopefully it’s onward and upward from here. 
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Jingles for you and your boy. My mare was fine for years but then hit a period of time where she would regularly end up with a bandage bow on a front leg if it was wrapped with a standing wrap. After the third time or so it happened, I stopped using standing wraps up front on her and now only use the quick wrap style boots. I’m not sure if that is an option with his surgery site. With my horse, it seemed to be either how she would sleep or maybe weight her legs or maybe just a sensitivity that developed (which sounds insane I know). It happened with different wraps and different people (including the vet) doing the wrapping. All of her bandage bows went away very quickly with no further intervention than the NSAIDs she was already on for whatever the original issue that necessitated the wrapping.
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When I was a kid, I worked for a vet who was also a standardbred race guy. He taught me to start the standing wrap on the fetlock joint. Knock wood, I’ve never created a bandage bow. The ones I’ve dealt w went away quickly and were nearly always started in the middle of the leg.
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This is why I refuse to use commercially available standing wraps. They are never long enough to go from knee to pastern and back again.
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I’ve never bowed one myself. I’m sure it could happen but I’ve been wrapping for 15+ years. I always start right under the knee and go all the way down and back up, if anything I’d rather the outside of the wrap end in the middle. I don’t crank them tight either but no slippage. It’s a skill - wrapping knees is notoriously hard. Those slip eventually 🥲
I’ll ask the rehab barn about these. If it’ll hold the knee wraps up and be a lower risk of bowing, I’m willing to buy some.
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I’m a big fan of the EquiCrown wraps. https://equicrownus.com/ They can be a bit tricky to find the right size, but once you do, they deliver perfectly even compression every time. I believe they will do custom wraps, too, if you want it to go over the knee.
I’ve never tried these, but there’s also Equine Sleeves. https://www.equinesleeve.com/ These also look really promising. I think I’m going to order these next time I inject my gelding’s fetlocks/pasterns, as I struggle getting a good wrap when I have to go all the way down to the coronary band.
I like the idea of these types of wraps especially when you’re not doing it yourself. It just takes out any variability in wrapping skills.
For me, I also have iffy wrists. Not carpal tunnel, but I easily get tendinitis. Doing standing wraps - including the re-rolling - twice a day for days on end definitely bothers me. Having alternatives really helps.
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Are they just using elastikon wraps in the knees? If so, you don’t necessarily have to put any other sort of wrap on. Yearlings and two year olds often only get the elastikon wraps and some wrap last.
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Well, the “bowed” leg is looking better a week from surgery. This is a bad angle but it looks far more normal.
He’s also eating and drinking normally again, I think Tylenol and omeprazole are doing their jobs. I am going to run bloodwork again to see what his “normal” is, and have the vet take a look at that leg too. We will go from there.
We have a winter storm rolling through and I’ve never been more grateful to have chosen the rehab barn route as I am today
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Late to the party here, but last summer I was caring for a horse who had a bilateral hind neurectomy, so in a similar place to yours just a different surgery and below the hock not the knee.
I took his bandages off one day and was horrified at a giant bump under the hock on both legs, one side worse than the other. Our on call/referring vet was also concerned by how it looked, but when we called the surgeon he said “it happens sometimes. Most of the time it just resolves on its own. Keep on with the bandaging, no need for any meds.” Sure enough, they went down over time. We did add surpass to them eventually, but they were already decreasing in size by then.
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Minor update/brain dump: hopefully the sutures come out next week. The bandage leg looks almost normal, but I’ll be glad to get the wraps off. Horsey is UPSET and about done with this mess… and the vet school wants stall rest for 3 months. Oof. For once, I am glad of the cribbing - keeps the little horsey brain entertained somewhat.
Once the sutures are out, the horse is supposed to start handwalking 5 minutes a day, adding 5 minutes every week, for six weeks. Only after 6 weeks of handwalking is small paddock turnout allowed - handwalking and paddock turnout continues for an additional 4 weeks. After a total of 3 months, regular turnout and riding can resume if sound.
I’ll admit… this is agonizingly slow. And I’m not trying to get back into the show ring or anything! It’s just that I have done a suspensory rehab and the horse was allowed longer hand walks than “5 minutes working up to 30 minutes over 6 weeks”. And that was a soft tissue injury! Maybe I’m just skeptical having watched humans go through joint replacements and other similar surgeries - PT was much more ‘intense’. Of course humans can communicate their pain, but I’ve just had poor experiences with extended stall rest, especially with young TBs used to living outside. The whole body and brain suffers - I’d like to find the balance.
I’d like to ask my vet, but they’re fresh out of school and always reach for the most expensive/worst case scenario/textbook answer. Usually that’s fine because I’m able to sift through and choose what I’d like to do… but I’m really wanting an in-depth discussion about the risks of accelerating the exercise routine and/or introducing paddock time earlier. A tired TB is a happy TB 🥲
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Also, I’m considering clicker training for some brain exercise - if anyone has good treats to use for this I’m all ears!
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Having rehabbed a suspensory (5 months of a stall rest for a TB, that was fun), I can empathize. But it’s not useful to compare people rehab protocols with equine ones. We can rest and take the weight off of whatever limb is being rehabbed, giving it a break from the therapy. A horse can’t. Those four legs are weight bearing pretty much all the time.
I did the very basics of clicker training with my guy, just to give both of us something to do!
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