Holy smokes, that’s a doozie for sure. Yikes.
Looking forward to the progression of healing pics!
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Actually Baking Powder according to Underwood page ( ClabberGirl product Ingredients:
Corn Starch, Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Aluminum Sulfate, Monocalcium Phosphate)
not just baking soda on its own
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Wow! How did the trailer latch do so much damage? What kind of latch was it? A divider or a cam lock?
That said, I’m betting it will heal up. A friend’s horse had a fist sized hole in his chest/shoulder area and it healed without even a scar. They left it open to drain. You might be surprised by how quickly it heals. I can’t quite tell how deep it goes from that picture.
It was a latch for a slide gate that stuck out just enough, and she hit the thing at just the right angle with just enough force…once it “bit” her she kept going forward. We were fortunate it was not a truly sharp edge, it separated the muscle layers but there wasn’t as much muscle damage as there could have been and not much bleeding. She bled more when the vet trimmed the loose and dying tissue. You can still lose a finger in it past the second knuckle though.
Its a shame you can’t get gallon bottles of Vetericyn.
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Dettol will sting!
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If your Dettol is the same as our Dettol. An old lady used it on a very minor wound on her horse. The hair never grew back.
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Please take the time to read the whole thread before commenting. I am fully aware that Dettol is more suitable for cleaning a toilet.
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The ingredients in Vetricyn are the same as the recipe for Dakin’s solution, which you can make yourself - it’s what they use in hospitals for bed sores. It has sodium hypochlorite (bleach), sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and sodium hydroxide (lye) as the ingredients. You can also buy it on Amazon.
However, last spring my husband sustained a very deep cut across his lower thigh when the chainsaw he was using got away from him. The trauma center chose not to suture it (not much skin left, really) and so I was tasked with doctoring his massive open wound for a few weeks until they could put a wound vac on it. The main thing they had me use was saline solution. I flushed it out thoroughly with a syringe full, and then soaked gauze in it for his contact dressing. That and some bandaging was pretty much it. So you may get away with just using that on her, just dissolve some Epsom salts or table salt in warm water and flush it a couple of times a day.
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Week 1 update!
I think it looks really good, she’s being a doll about all the fuss. I know it hurts when I clean it out but the most she has ever done is turn to look at me or walk a slow circle. I clean it twice a day and walk her a few minutes two or three times a day.
She is very sore and holding a lot of fluid in her leg and underline, which is to be expected but I am meeting with the vet today to get some ideas of how to help her move that fluid and get more comfortable.
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Wow! Such a noticeable improvement already!
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Poor baby! I saw an adult gelding do something similar trying to clear a pasture gate. They loosely stitched it, leaving space and a drain in the bottom. It was a long process, but he healed and didn’t seem to lose any strength in the leg a year later.
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I guess you don’t have to worry about her laying down or rolling. At least it looks clean and seems to be healing. It really had widened and that was a shock but keep up the good work !!
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I did read the complete thread actually, I stand by my statement, or partial statement; Dettol will sting badly, I would not use anything that stings that much on an unhandled yearling regardless of the amount of baking soda one has on hand.
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I had a mare tear her side open and there was a big flap…vet did a great job suturing and we took an old cotton horse sheet and put velcro underneath then velcro on a towel and hooked the towel on so we could keep the area clean and wash the towel daily. best of luck, I almost passed out when I saw what my mare did so I’ll pass on examining the picture.
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How do you keep flies out of it? I can’t imagine the number of flies you would get around here…
Vetricyn Wound Barrier Gel forms an antimicrobial coating on the wound, which keeps it moist and keeps flies out.
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Because I live right next to a feedlot, the flies are particularly vicious and persistent…not much will keep them off for long. I’d love for it to not be 105 so I could put a fly sheet on her but no luck.
For what it’s worth, Catron IV aerosol and Ultra Shield Red work best, the Catron because if she is being squirrely it has a heck of a range so I can stand back and spray lol. Both will keep flies off for two or three hours and don’t burn the skin.
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That is excellent stuff. I had a baby goat get her horn caught on something and she pulled the outside hard covering off leaving a very soft, messy , fly attracting , very painful tiny horn behind.
I just sprayed that on it as needed and not only did it heal but no flies at all and best of all I didn’t have to touch it. She is 13 now and going strong 
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Has there been any mention of her possibly needing skin grafts? My gelding’s sheathed rear hind was sutured back together, but it all fell apart (as the vet warned it probably would). He had to have punch hole skin grafts (taken from his neck) so that it would heal over. And it wasn’t anywhere near the size of this.
It looks good. I’m sure it’s a bear to care for and keep clean.
