Has there been any mention of her possibly needing skin grafts?
No, I do not believe my vet has the facilities or capacity to do that, although he did want to use amniotic patches inside it if there were enough skin left to pull it back together. If I could afford it, I wish we could have. I don’t like having her with an open pocket several inches in 3 directions.
We had a mare with a similar cut across her chest and shoulder years ago and Underwood and baking powder did the trick. She healed without even a scar amazingly. Hers had a big flap that I thought would have to be cut off at some point but it never was, she just kind of healed back up together. I’m a firm believer in it for ghastly wounds like you have on your hands. Sorry this happened!
Ah. Yeah, my horse was under the care of a vet school.
Wishing you all the best. It’s amazing how they can heal up. Keep us posted on the progress!
She has the advantage of being a yearling so she’s hardwired to grow new cells. Its gnarly, but I bet it heals well.
I feel as bad for you as I do for her! Good luck with it!
I had an instructor, whose horse did not come for breakfast. She found him impaled on a tree branch. It left a hole deep enough for her wrist and half of her lower arm. She used Alogard Liniment on it, which says NOTHING on the label about it being for wounds. It healed beautifully.
She told me this when my Company Horse fell off the truck with his back legs and was caught with his shoes on the truck. He jumped up onto the truck and took all the skin off the front of his back legs, weeks before my Instructor’s Exam.
I used the Alogard Liniment and I was able to ride him in the Exam.
Two week update! We have some closing going on in the corners! There is a bit of torn fascia breaking down under the loose skin at the left hand side of the injury which is causing the discharge, which does not smell. She still has a loose “pocket” at top and bottom but both are getting smaller every day. Still cleaning it twice a day to get the hay and hair and fly dirt out of it. She is getting a big personality and we go for short walks at least once a day.
Unfortunately, I might have to trim off some of that upper flap of skin that is starting to stretch tight and wrinkle, as I do not want to create a bigger and uglier scar by letting that bunch up. This is the biggest wound I have ever dealt with so…I am overthinking a lot of things.
That is incredible, and hearing everyone’s success stories makes me that much more positive that this will turn out well.
That looks remarkably good. You’re doing an amazing job of keeping it clean and healthy. Hopefully it heals quicker than expected!
I had a gelding with a wound that drained for a long time and the discharge that dripped below tended to cause scalding. We needed to slather the skin below the wound with vaseline to prevent that. It worked, but we used a lot of vaseline! You might want to try that if she begins getting irritation or losing hair in spots below the injury.
Had a mare with a draining wound, the result of surgery for broken withers. Much scalding, even with vaseline., and her shoulder was raw and red. We tried Desitin–worked great!
Wow. That is looking really good!
Desitin for scalding for sure and wait and see on that flap; like I mentioned above, I thought we would have to deal with ours which was a much more horizontal swipe but we never did. Time and consistency! Thanks for updating, I keep wondering how it is going!
I had a horse who skinned his stifle (just part of the skin, not all the way through) an area larger than my spread hand. As it dried and formed a scab it shrank down to the size of a toonie (Canadian $2 coin less than 2" diameter). It took several days to soften and get off so he could move his leg properly. After that I kept it coated with zinc ointment to prevent scabs forming.
My guess is the edge of the upper skin flap is dying, drying up and pulling tight. It looks like there might be some crusty, scabbing along the edge in the photo. If you can get the scabs off and keep them from reforming, that flap will probably stretch back out and cover more of the wound.
My skinned stifle horse had significant swelling around his stifle (three grapefruits) and it took months to go down (happened in November, and the swelling is still visible in February photos). I used ice, bute, and exercise - exercise worked best.
Good luck with your filly! The progress looks great!
if there is a scar afterwards design a brand incorporating the scar then no one will ever know its there
First off, huge kudos to you for keeping that disaster looking so good. I was horrified by the first picture, and am so very impressed by what you’ve managed to do by your last update.
I personally would hold off on trimming any of that healthy skin at this point, even if it is wrinkling. It is helping to protect the healing tissue underneath, and keep flies off a big chunk of tissue as well. If it contributes to a messy scar in the long run, you can always have it resected at that point, once the major healing of that huge chunk of tissue is done. Of course, check with your vet for a hands-on assessment, but my opinion as an RN with pretty good wound experience would be to leave anything that is healthy alone at this point.
I personally would hold off on trimming any of that healthy skin at this point, even if it is wrinkling. It is helping to protect the healing tissue underneath, and keep flies off a big chunk of tissue as well. If it contributes to a messy scar in the long run, you can always have it resected at that point, once the major healing of that huge chunk of tissue is done. Of course, check with your vet for a hands-on assessment, but my opinion as an RN with pretty good wound experience would be to leave anything that is healthy alone at this point.
Thank you so much for bringing that up, the skin really is very healthy so I was struggling with the idea of cutting into that right now and opening this bigger. Vet will absolutely be consulted but I am no longer panicking lol.
Week three update! While she is well on the mend I’m going to keep updating weekly until she’s mostly healed in case anyone else has the pleasure of dealing with this kind of injury.
Things are closing more and more each day, although there are still pockets of open space so there is still not complete adhesion of the skin along the margins to the muscle tissue beneath. She did tear some of the exposed muscle overnight a day or two ago, not sure how maybe she bumped something or itched it with her teeth.
She is still oozing quite a bit from the open space to the left side of the wound so I have begun to use desitin on the skin beneath to help with the scalding. She is getting really itchy, and appreciates that I have to scrub crusty gunk off her leg and booty every day. The upper flap is beginning to flatten and lose the wrinkles, too. I do have to wash her tail twice daily, since she swats at flies over her wound and her tail gets so nasty.
Again, the progress you have made is really quite remarkable, and you should be commended.
This is incredible! I appreciate these updates.
That looks wonderful !! Itching means healing…
Looking good! And as a bonus, she’s going to be a well-handled yearling by the time all is said and done!
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