My mare has bed sores on her hocks and I can’t get them to go away. My vet suggested more stall mats in her run, which I did. I tried hock boots specially made for hock sores and she ripped them off in about 3 minutes. I tried duct tape and I can’t get it to stay on. So is there another way to heal these up? Wound ointments don’t seem to help although I keep trying. Any suggestions? Would vet wrap over wound dressing work?
For our older gelding deeper bedding in the stall and Neosporin worked.
Deeper bedding. One of mine rubs the fronts of his ankles when he gets down so needs a lot more bedding in his stall. Fortunately, he’s not a particularly easy keeper so I leave all the hay he doesn’t eat in his stall and just pick it out so that he has a nice thick hay mattress.
Duck tape. Shampoo the sore/fur around and let dry so that the tape will stick.
Slap a strip on there and press it down well.
Leave it until it falls off.
Replace it if you don’t see some hair regrowing over the healing skin.
Gorilla tape works too-- stickier but stiffer, so you choose the tape you like working with. Sometimes duck tape baby sat a little better is actually more effective.
This has worked with lots of horses-- where nothing else would. Some of these horses were very deeply bedded in straw, some in shavings. I have seen horses that live out in sand, and also horses living in stalls with thin layers of pellets get no rubs. IMO, it depends on the horse. Anecdotally, I think a bed sore on a joint can signify some degree of arthritis there.
But the duck tape and supervision thing really works.
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My old mare had the same problem on her hips. You definitely need deeper bedding. I used silver sulfadiazine creme and a pad, then duct or tek wrap to attach it and left it on until it fell off. Healed up in no time and never had another problem.
A circle of Elastikon worked better for me than duct tape. Circle = no edges to work up. Elastikon is more stretchy too, and seems to stick to fur better. The real solution is more bedding/better footing and in some cases is may be a sign of hind end weakness.
We had a quite elderly gelding (mid 30s) with hock sores and the only boots we found that lasted for any time were very old fashioned leather ones. If you can source some, they might work.
I own a small tack store worth of hock boots and have tried several variations of wrapping, including duct tape and Elastikon. These days, I use a spray-on liquid bandage. It doesn’t totally stop the sores, but does prevent infection. A daily spray has proven to be easier and more cost effective than daily wrapping and lost boots.
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I used Equiderma ointment on a gauze pad over the wound, covered by duck tape. Then I put Back on Track hock boots on to keep the duck tape in place overnight. After several nights, the sores were gone.
Then to prevent thee sores from returning, a second set of stall mats. Good luck!
