Minor facial wounds and scarring

[stb]

I have a QH gelding who is forever banging his face on God-knows-what. Just for the record - my fencing, barn, and everything he comes in contact with is well maintained and I can find no sharp edges. He has done this in two different barns. He is currently at my house.

My question is this. What do you use to try to help heal facial wounds? This horse already has several small scars on his face and I would like to keep the scar count down. To be clear - these are minor wounds. The latest is a scrape about the size of a quarter where he pushed the skin into a wad in the corner of the wound. This is right in the middle of his face, so there’s not much underneath the scrape but bone. He had a similar wound a couple of years ago that resulted in proud flesh, so I’m a little nervous about this one. This horse has a really beautiful face, and I sure would like to keep it that way. Is there anything I can do to help minor cuts and scrapes to heal with a better cosmetic result?

[Cbonadeo]

I had good luck with EMT gel (bought from TSC I think) on my pony’s face. It’s a collagen gel that also hardens into a shell (protects against moisture, rubs, etc).

She had an open sore from a new (and promptly discarded) fly mask that would not heal (her fly masks irritated it, halter irritated it, etc). I used entederm initially, but needed something to make a shell over it so the sore would stop reopening. Was going to try liquid bandages until someone suggested EMT gel, and that did the trick!

ETA she does still have a small scar there, but it was a while before I happened upon the EMT gel (wound had “healed” but then what was actually just a scab ripped off again after a couple weeks). Not sure if it’ll avoid scarring entirely if it’s used right away or not.

[TCA_Arabians]

Vaseline or aloe vera. You need to use a fly repellent like SWAT with whatever you use. I’m not familiar with EMT. Think I’ll look it up.

[Pico_Banana]

You may also want to try a hydrogel like this https://www.walgreens.com/store/c/medline-skintegrity-hydrogel/ID=prod1491199-product the first few days. I’ll let you google the science, but it has something to do with cell growth doing better in a less viscous substance than triple antibiotic.

[Texarkana]

What is it about some horses and the tiniest scrapes on the head scarring?

My one mare is like this. She doesn’t scrape her head a lot, but when she does, the hair never grows back right. The smallest scratch on her head changes the hair growth for eternity! So annoying!

[thebiggrey]

I used to have a QH who loved to let the donkey bite his face, poor thing always had some new cut or scrape. He loved that donkey though, so we just treated it regularly and let him be.

My new horse also gets the weirdest scrapes, or missing hair that looks like a botched clipping job. When he flipped over a jump and got a huge cut over his eye, and many other scrapes, we immediately started putting equiderma wound ointment on it. It healed beautifully, didn’t attract flies, and you’d have no idea it ever happened. Sadly, he’s one of those horses who when one cut heals, he goes and gets another!

https://www.statelinetack.com/item/equiderma-wound-ointment/E014220/?srccode=GPSLT&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIgoXT2uXM4AIVIbazCh2zrAa4EAQYASABEgJNCvD_BwE