Well, we are 2 months out and the skin has been closed for about 3 weeks now. The surface scar is starting to flatten and darken, and all the surrounding hair has come back (albeit with some weird growth patterns). Her crest has a very significant “dent”, more than the photos really show, honestly as her mane is starting to come back and disguises it a bit. When you feel the area its more noticeable. I think as the deeper inflammation recedes and settles more, the dip increases in size. Time will tell if her mane growing out hides it, or makes it look worse.
We had a lump of inflammation popped up on her neck just as the wound closed. We initially thought it was an abcess, but after about a week of antibiotics with no change (good or bad) my vet came and ultrasounded it. The lump ended up being just inflammation, like from her bumping it outside on something, but the ultrasound also showed the extent of the internal muscle damage that wasn’t visible externally; it was quite extensive. On the positive side of things, my religious laser treatments and stretches seem to have paid off; the internal scarring is about 80% aligned with the muscle, instead of being completely random, which is way better for her future mobility. My vet anticipates 6-12 months for the residual inflammation to disipate and the internal healing to complete. My vet is incredibly impressed with how well and quickly this has healed.
At this point, I am doing laser and carrot stretches with her 3x a week. She’s mostly back to her normal self, but unfortunately still lame, so it’s looking more and more like we won’t have to worry about the neck injury limiting her under saddle career… because she’s likely done being a riding horse anyway.
