Scratches/Fly bites + cellulitis

[SLW]

I’m starting week 3 of treating fly bites/scratches that won’t heal.

I treated topically at home for 2 days then called Doc. Her first treatment was injectable steroid on a Tuesday, 3 days of bute, a round of SMZ ‘s and oral dex for 3 days. I did high pressure cold hosing and treated skin with anti fungal spray.

Last Sunday the swelling was back in full force (everything below hock) and donkey was painful & lame. Doc came Monday. Injected Excede that morning, second dose on Thursday. 3 days of oral steriods and bute (1gr) daily for 5 days. High pressure cold hosing. Donkey not lame.
Swelling is mostly in the pastern but it’s thick and ugly. The oozing sores have closed up and I slabbed Ichthamol on the sores Thursday night.

Would you add a sweat wrap? We aren’t breaking cycle within her system.

[Simkie]

I sweat wrap immediately for a cellulitis. It often takes a few days of wrapping + antibiotics + banamine to make a dent in it. Yeah, I’d sweat that leg asap. Are you not wrapping it at all right now?

[SLW]

@Simkie

I sweat wrap immediately for a cellulitis. It often takes a few days of wrapping + antibiotics + banamine to make a dent in it. Yeah, I’d sweat that leg asap. Are you not wrapping it at all right now?

I had not been but I did for tonight. The swelling has come & gone during the meds the past 2 weeks. It was larger this morning so I’m not getting it cured, just managed. Keeping fingers crossed the sweat wraps makes a difference.

Thank you for piping in!

[mlb722]

My vet always recommended a clay poultice over a sweat for cellulitis. And as much cold hosing as possible. I used Vaseline when the skin oozed.

[CindyCRNA]

Damn, Leslie, sorry to hear you are still fighting this. Scratches are for the birds for sure!

[SLW]

It’s been hell for a month. We ended up at equine specialist Monday a week ago after 2 weeks of my great local vets efforts. Second vet added compression wraps and a new round of bute & SMZ. When I removed compression wraps on Weds I thought she was trying to (mechanical) founder so back to clinic Thursday AM. X rays on fronts were all clear, thank God. Bloodwork was mostly good. They admitted her for IV liter of DMSO and poulticed her fronts.

Second liter of DMSO Fri AM, poultice did not produce an abscess. Brought her home and she’s still not quite right on one front leg. Working theory is she stressed it from 3 weeks of painful back legs. If no better after farrier visit next week we’ll explore more. I don’t think it’s EPM but it’s on my radar because she’s had no fever through any of this.

The shoo fly boots rub her tender, healing skin so I spray her legs and restrict her to deeply bedded stall- keep it over the pastern deep- so flies can’t reach healing areas- on the hot days when the flys are horrible. I’ll take “Deep freeze in August” for $500, Alex.

[SLW]

@mlb722

My vet always recommended a clay poultice over a sweat for cellulitis. And as much cold hosing as possible. I used Vaseline when the skin oozed.

Thank you! A clay poultice does sound more comfortable and less irritating than a sweat wrap for treating scratches. I will put this in my Rolodex of treatments.

[CindyCRNA]

My Lord! This is the worst I have heard! Has she had this before?

[lenapesadie]

Gracious. You win the scratches from hell story.

Poor little donkey 🥲

[SLW]

@CindyCRNA

My Lord! This is the worst I have heard! Has she had this before?

Never had this before. The timeline was: flys bites that started oozing on one back leg, second leg got bites, bacteria infection set in, cellulitis set in one leg then the second and her system with meds couldn’t knock it out.

[SLW]

@lenapesadie

Gracious. You win the scratches from hell story.

Poor little donkey 🥲

She is so easy to work which has a made a huge difference in getting her healed.

[lenapesadie]

That’s a blessing!

Jingles for a continued recovery

[Posting_Trot]

I feel for you about dealing with such awful cellulitis.

I’m going to mention my own experience in case it’s relevant. My previous horse suffered from several bouts of Lyme disease. When she got cellulitis, it often was associated with either a resurgence of Lyme or a new infection.

Any chance that you’re dealing with Lyme?

[SLW]

@Posting_Trot

I feel for you about dealing with such awful cellulitis.

I’m going to mention my own experience in case it’s relevant. My previous horse suffered from several bouts of Lyme disease. When she got cellulitis, it often was associated with either a resurgence of Lyme or a new infection.

Any chance that you’re dealing with Lyme?

You are good! My GP vet mentioned it but the equine specialist said he’s only treated it in the north east, not a Kansas/Missouri thing. Plus, my donkey has had zero fever during this entire event. I mentioned EPM to GP vet the Monday but now I’m not seeing symptoms of that condition.

Tonight I drove her lightly to see if I could work out the residual swelling in RR and it did go away. The lameness in the RF is still there but not as bad as a week ago plus a week ago she would.not.trot, flat out could not. Tonight she had her swag and she would have kept trotting if I let her.

So I think the original insult is done but for dealing with the scabs. If the RF is related to original insult it should go away shortly. Farrier comes next week so after the trim we’ll see how RF is.

[theresak]

If there’s no fever, are you sure it’s true cellulitis? My horse has some weird inflammatory reaction sometimes that resembles early cellulitis but the leg/skin is not as painful and there’s no fever. I generally treat the same way as cellulitis but maybe don’t hit it as hard with antibiotics and banamine.

Also, if you don’t already have her on them, think about adding some probiotics after the antibiotics are done to help restore her gut and skin microflora. That plus adding copper and zinc to the diet helped my horse’s chronic scratches and reoccurring cellulitis a ton.

[Atlas_Shrugged]

I would not poltice any open cuts and if there is a cut make sure to worm the horse with ive. and also rub it on the cut along with something like krudstopper with Dex mixed in
and keep it covered - you don’t want a summer sore to grow with the flies and humidity this summer - keep it covered with something that breathes but keeps flies out

[SLW]

@Atlas_Shrugged

I would not poltice any open cuts and if there is a cut make sure to worm the horse with ive. and also rub it on the cut along with something like krudstopper with Dex mixed in
and keep it covered - you don’t want a summer sore to grow with the flies and humidity this summer - keep it covered with something that breathes but keeps flies out

It’s been a big learning curve because I’ve never had this happen to this degree before. The shoo fly boots irritated and rubbed the open sores on her rear legs so I had to eliminate them and just use fly spray. On Monday of week 3 the vet put compression wraps on her after applying Furison/DMSO mixture. When I removed those on Weds the sores were so much improved. After that He had me use traditional stable wraps to protect from flies.

My donkey’s system just could not overcome this insult on its on. It’s been a month now, the sores are healed so now I’m removing scabs and protecting her legs with sprays. Her skin is still so tender the shoo fly boots are still a no go but I bet in another week or 2 I can them again.