Horse pastern wound

[Garnet_Z]

Hello everyone - I’m looking for advice/experiences on treating wounds on a horse’s leg. A couple of months ago, my horse went through a wire fence and cut his pastern. I called the vet out and he debrided/cleaned the wound, gave my horse an antibiotic shot, and left me with furazone and oral antibiotics. I’ve been using the furazone and have been keeping the wound bandaged (gauze and vet wrap). The vet who examined the wound says it is not deep.

The wound doesn’t seem to be bothering my horse and I can touch and wash it and it doesn’t hurt him at all, but it’s not making much progress in healing. I have posted pictures taken of it last week (it looks the same this week). I Emailed the vet who said the wound may be chronic and he said I should go to an equine vet. This vet (the only one in my municipality who will treat horses) is not a horse specialist.

Now, the nearest proper equine vet clinic is about a ~4 hour drive away. I would have to rent a truck and I can borrow a horse trailer. I am going to Email my horses’ old vet to see if I should haul my horse in (skin grafts maybe? Not sure what they could do) but for now, does anyone have thoughts on the best course of action? i.e. has anyone had to manage such a wound before? I ordered some Dermal gel - is that any good? Thanks!

[JB]

That looks like a good chunk of proud flesh there, and furazone is VERY good at promoting that. I wish vets would understand that! It’s a terrible product to use for lower leg wounds.

I can’t tell how much the flesh is protruding, but the picture makes it look like it’s big enough it should be surgically removed. Any vet can do that, doesn’t have to be an equine-specific vet. It’s just sedation, local anesthetic, and slice it off. Then it’s a fresh would you treat. Again.

At that point I’d be using something steroidal, like Animax or Panalog, and leaving it unwrapped as long as footing isn’t muddy.

Wounds there do take longer to heal because the skin has higher movement which slows progress.

[beowulf]

Ah, sorry Garnet - I’m sure that raised your pulse when you first discovered it! That certainly is not a cut you want to see, but is not yet (IMHO) hospital worthy. Other than the southern region of the wound it looks like mostly fresh, healthy tissue - you will want to stay on top of the granulation which will happen fast and has already happened – I would be cleaning in the AM with Vetricyn or Corona (ditch the Furazone, I do not use it for legs) and PM would spray with Granulex or some other proud-flesh treatment. From the picture the southern region looks a little puffy and angry, definitely keep an eye on that because it will grow into proudflesh quickly, clean vigilantly and be on the look-out for proud flesh. I can’t tell the depth of the picture but if it’s raised to an extreme it may need to be debrided again.

Biozide also works really well.

Are you wrapping it? Keeping it clean is paramount and wrapping will facilitate healing, in my experience. Keep up the daily cleaning, what type of antibiotic are you using?

These types of wounds take time. IME they look like they are hardly recovering for weeks and then one day it’s like it’s all but resolved.

[Simkie]

That looks like a nice big chunk of proud flesh! My go to for proud flesh is wrapping with Adolf’s meat tenderizer, but if you’re not familiar with treating proud flesh, you may want to get an equine specialist involved. Proud flesh is very vascular (will bleed a lot) but not enervated (no sensation) so it’s usually an easy procedure for a vet to cut it off. Then you start fresh with the wound care–this time with no furazone. :yes:

[Garnet_Z]

I do have Vetricyn and did start using that in the past week instead of furazone. I had read conflicting things on furazone, but the consensus seems to be that it can promote proud flesh. I luckily picked up the Vetricyn during my last trip to a tack store to keep in my stash of horsie first aid supplies. I’d have to order something for the proud flesh unless someone local has some I can use. Right now, I’m hoping the vets who saw my horse back when I was living somewhere less isolated can advise on whether he needs surgery.

[csaper58]

Can you E-mail your pictures to the horse specialist vet, and do a consult via the web using Skype or something similar?

You should be at the barn with the horse, in a place with good lighting available. A helper to hold the horse is also welcome.

I think the wound looks like it is healing normally. No surgery seems necessary if the horse is not lame.

Proud flesh is an angry red color, your horse’s wound looks like normal pink granular tissue.

I would keep the wound clean and moist and let it continue to heal naturally, while keeping a sharp eye out for infection and proud flesh.

I think clipping the hair around the wound would aid in keeping it free from contamination.

If wrapping becomes problematic I would use a product like Alushield Aerosol Spray.

I think you are very close to being completely healed, although there may be an area where the hair never re-grows.

[JB]

I have seen proud flesh be a paler pink, as well as that “angry” darker red. I think it might somewhat depend on how irritated it’s gotten. I look less at the color, and more at whether it’s above the level of the skin, since a raw open wound can be more red but below the skin.

Anything that’s above skin level needs to be removed some way - sliced off, Animax/Panalog (both steroidal antibacterial ointments), Wonder Dust/Caustic Powder, meat tenderizer (I’ve never used but hear of its use a lot) or any other similar product.

[csaper58]

OP… Granulation tissue is a normal part of the wound healing process. Proud flesh is an over growth of granulation tissue. It is easily identified because it is highly vascular, and thus bleeds very easily and in my experience an angry red color. It also lacks nerve ending so it is not particularly painful to the horse.

Treating normal granulation as if it is proud flesh will set back wound healing.

If you can not recognize proud flesh, you need a person very experienced with wounds to look at your horse and help you determine what is going on.

This is an excellent article on proud flesh in a respected publication.

www.thehorse.com/articles/10172/proud-flesh