A little over a month ago, my horse sustained a small cut on the inside of his right hind fetlock. The cut itself originally was deep but not very big (kind of like a slit) but was quite swollen. Vet confirmed it wasn’t deep enough to stitch. Treatment during the first few days was SMZs, keeping it clean, etc. the first few days showed little to no improvement, and he actually tore it open even worse a few days later and was oozing pus (too late to stitch at this point). The swelling didn’t go down and was traveling up the leg.
Had the vet out and was recommended to keep him in, switch his antibiotics, keep the wound as clean as possible, and to use wonder dust on the wound. He was in stall rest for about 4 days and saw a lot of improvement in swelling.
A few days after turning out as normal, we noticed the wound was oozing. At that point, I had the vet out again and she concluded the wound was not healing properly. We kept him on the antibiotics, and she flushed the wound and recommended munaka honey wrap on all times. We did this for about 10 days and saw significant improvement with the wound no longer open. He was on the antibiotics at this point for two weeks and stopped it.
A few days past and I notice the leg is slightly swollen again. Vet recommends poultice and dmso and I do so with some improvement. Notice some pus under the scab a few days later and decide to clean the wound again thoroughly and wrap with gauze and vet wrap while he’s on turnout to keep the wound dry (the wrap was changed once a day and was on 24 hours). Vet examined again and said to continue doing what I was doing, he said there was some swelling but wasn’t too concerned. He mentioned it most likely will heal as a lump considering the placement. Didn’t recommend putting him back on antibiotics considering at that point it wasn’t oozing very much.
I kept the wound wrapped for 10 days and the wound is no longer oozing pus but does have residual puffiness around the wound. He is now sound and not sensitive when I touch it. At this point, I’m kind of at my wits end and not sure what else to do from here. The wound looks great but just wondering, Is residual swelling around a healing wound normal? Or perhaps keeping it wrapped for multiple days and it’s used to that support, now that it’s gone there is some mild swelling? To confirm it’s not hot and the swelling is very mild, but I can feel it to the touch. It is not very visible to the naked eye and not obviously swollen, but it’s been something I’ve been dealing with for so long it’s just been very stressful.
