Severed Extensor Tendon

[SuzieQNutter]

We went to a lecture by a vet. He started with a topic of horses that people put down that shouldn’t be, and yes I would have put it down.

A horse with everything from the front of the hock down to the fetlock gone. The bone was exposed.

As long as it is the front of the leg he said it doesn’t matter. If it is the back of the leg is damaged, it does matter as blood vessels have been damaged.

The bone will slough off as it is not supposed to be exposed to the air. This happens at about day 2 or 3.

He takes a skin graft from the chest of the horse and grows it. You have to mark up and down. He puts holes in the graft for proud flash to come through which welds this flap on. If you put it on upside down, the hair will grow up instead of down! If the horse is a chestnut with white stockings it can end up looking funny as the horse will have a chestnut patch in the middle of its stocking. The proud flesh that welds the skin flap on, after a while, he just cuts off.

The leg will repair itself.

[SuzieQNutter]

We went to a lecture by a vet. He started with a topic of horses that people put down that shouldn’t be, and yes I would have put it down.

A horse with everything from the front of the hock down to the fetlock gone. The bone was exposed.

As long as it is the front of the leg he said it doesn’t matter. If it is the back of the leg is damaged, it does matter as blood vessels have been damaged.

The bone will slough off as it is not supposed to be exposed to the air. This happens at about day 2 or 3.

He takes a skin graft from the chest of the horse and grows it. You have to mark up and down. He puts holes in the graft for proud flash to come through which welds this flap on. If you put it on upside down, the hair will grow up instead of down! If the horse is a chestnut with white stockings it can end up looking funny as the horse will have a chestnut patch in the middle of its stocking. The proud flesh that welds the skin flap on, after a while, he just cuts off.

The leg will repair itself.

[PattiP35]

https://www.facebook.com/krazyhorsemom/posts/10203225253706388

the link above should take you to the pics of her injury…

She is good for the wrapping part… Its when we have to clean it that she’s not…She’s got a splint for at least the next 3 weeks… Not sure how long her stall rest will be, but I’m guessing at least 2 or 3 months… she completely severed her lateral and her long extensor tendons… We are thankful it was not a complete degloving… ie, just superficial damage on the back of her leg. She will probably be bandaged for months as well as like I said, she took it all the way to the bone.

What did you do for your weanling to keep her occupied? and did it affect her growth at all?

[JB]

I would get several professional opinions on the stalling thing, especially from teaching/university hospitals who probably see a lot more of this sort of thing than most individual vets. It’s more and more common to recognize that the sooner they can get out and use the leg (once the acute phase is over), the better the healing.

[PattiP35]

Our vet has extensive leg injury experience… Right now, she is still considered acute… but with the splint, he has ok’d her to go on short walks in hand… we just can’t let her go as she keeps trying to be a baby and do what babies like to do… I just want to do what I can to keep her occupied while in the stall… Like I said she’s 9 months old and has an extremely high play drive… She misses being with our gelding and her big ball… Its already causing some bad habits

[PattiP35]

I just have to say… I get sooo sad when I see babies being babies… .Sorry all, just venting, but our poor baby girl so wants to play, and it breaks my heart that she can’t. I see other babies out running bucking and having fun, and I want to cry… I miss seeing our sweet girl out playing with her ball and our gelding. I wish I could just Jeannie and blink my eyes so she could be all better Feeling sad and despondent.

[JB]

Awww

Any more conversations as to when she can go into a small turnout with a really quiet buddy? If the leg is properly wrapped and supported, she will mostly self-regulate her activity. Too much romping and it will probably sting. My guy did that a couple of times in the earlier days and realized he’d better cool it a bit, though to be fair he was 4 and not overly rambunctious to begin with. But early on, in the few weeks he was stall-bound, he reared in the stall one day and found out very quickly that hurt, and he was an angel in his stall from then out. Then when he had some more freedom, he decided to run from one end of the 100x200 paddock, and realized that too didn’t feel good, so he quit.

[RhythmNCruise]

I haven’t read the whole thread yet, but from the first few posts, I can see my experience isn’t all that uncommon. My gelding severed his right hind extensor on a wire fence sometime during the night when he was two. Exposed bone, one end if tendon dangling, flopping/knuckling over when trying to walk, lots of blood loss (got the artery too). His bone and tendon got infected, he was hospitalized for two months and had three procedures. It took another several months of bandaging and meticulous care (he required skin grafts too) before the wound was healed. BUT! He was sound enough to ride when all was said and done. Always had to “manage” that leg, it will swell and get stiff on occasion, but he was sound enough to be a winning AQHA hunter under saddle and lower level dressage horse. He’s 18 now and retired (due to me having a younger horse to show). He gets around great.

[JB]

Nice R! Yep, it seems the injuries that usually come along with the severing are really the worst part of all this - the tendon is a piece of cake LOL

And yes, the swelling seems to be common too- the lymphatic system gets damaged and it never functions correctly again in many cases. Hopefully with this 9 month old that won’t be the case.

[PattiP35]

He doesn’t want her out but hand walking until the splint comes off… My daughter and I did our first redressing w/o vet assistance tonight… Still have to use oral sedation to get it cleaned, but I was glad to see after 11 days, she was actually more conscious of where she was placing the foot and only buckled twice, and didn’t put weight on it when she did Here are the lastest pics… it was bleeding some tonight (first time since it happened originally). No proud flesh, no swelling so far so good… Here’s a link to pics on FB… Any input or opinions are welcome https://www.facebook.com/krazyhorsemom/posts/10203265337548459

[RhythmNCruise]

[QUOTE=JB;8043039]

And yes, the swelling seems to be common too- the lymphatic system gets damaged and it never functions correctly again in many cases. Hopefully with this 9 month old that won’t be the case.[/QUOTE]
Yep, his lymph system is all jacked up. I can count on that leg ballooning up from hoof to stifle about once a year. It’s usually the day right after I remark on how good his leg looks. “Hey, your leg looks really good, buddy!” The next day it’s GIGANTIC! LOL! I used to freak out. Now I’m like, meh, have some bute and walk it off, big boy.
I bet the baby horse will be absolutely fine.

[PattiP35]

https://www.facebook.com/krazyhorsemom/posts/10203286681042033

Latest photos of her injury… We are 2 weeks in… JB Anything noticeable? we think she is doing pretty good, a couple of issues I’ve asked the vet about via email/pics… Looks like shes got a hard spot just below the wound where the skin seems to be reattaching to the leg… Also some black spots on what looks like the bone… Is that the sequestrum?

[JB]

She really did a number didn’t she But, I’d say it looks good so far. That’s a lot of tissue to heal and it just takes a long time to build up all the sub-tissue before things can start to heal over the top

I’d definitely talk to your vet about that dark spot - could be a sequestrum developing, but could be something else.

[PattiP35]

I’d definitely talk to your vet about that dark spot - could be a sequestrum developing, but could be something else.[/QUOTE]

I have emailed him pics and we’re waiting for his reply… I wish he would hurry… I worry so for our little girl… Her stall is starting to look like a day care with all the toys we have in it for her…

I still really worry about that buckling fetlock… How long do you think it will take for that to heal enough to lose the splint? He originally said 10 days splinted, then 3 weeks, I’m thinking its going to be much longer than that I am so worried she’s not going to heal right and we will lose her anyway… We loved her so before, but now its more, you know…

[PattiP35]

Vet finally got back to us… He is coming out Thursday to look at her… wants to get a better look at the spots and is concerned about the skin margin… Not sure what that means… Any advice??

[JB]

What are you medicating and cleaning the wound with? I wonder if whatever you’re using is too caustic and he’s worried about the edges of the skin not healing well as a result - ?

[PattiP35]

We are using exactly what he told us to use…Biozide Gel for the ABD pad, and washing with Chlorhexidine Scrub 2% that was supplied by his office…I did notice that some her skin looks crackly on the side of the wound, but other than that and the bump below the wound, I’m not sure.

[PattiP35]

https://www.facebook.com/krazyhorsemom/posts/10203304301442532

Here’s the latest update on our girl… Alot more tissue built up which is good…Some inflammation and a little bit of proud flesh… Had to change the ointment we are using… Next up is UV Light therapy and possibly plasma application to aid in the healing… No swelling which is good… Say prayers though as she is no longer splinted… Pray that she doesn’t do any damage to her fetlock… She is still wrapped to the gills, but its time for her to start learning how to walk on that leg again, and how to move it without those tendons. I’m a little scared I don’t mind saying…

[JB]

Oh goodie!! Yes, I can see the new tissue. It seems like it takes FOREVER for that to start showing, then it starts to progress fairly quickly at some point. There’s just a lot of base work that has to be done first

I’m assuming she’s wrapped all the way down to her foot What layers are you using?

When I first started the wrapping, it needed to be very stiff, so it was the gauze/etc over the wound to absorb the goo, then a thick nobow, then a really good layer of brown gauze, then a good layer of vetrap. It was super stiff, but still allowed a tiny bit of movement. He would have had to practically stand on his toe for anything to think about knuckling over.

[PattiP35]

She is wrapped all the way down… She has the wound wrapping of course, then two layers of cotton wraps, then more gauze, then vet wrap… We used Gorilla Tape this time around to help keep her toe forward… She seemed to be ok on it last night, I am just worried about her getting up and down on it now… Had alot of bleeding last night, and some inflammation, more than he wanted to see, so we are now using Silver Sulfadiazine instead of the biozide cream. and an ointment to treat a few spots of proud flesh. Found out the dark spots are bone bruising. Started up a gofundme account so we can hopefully get the Platelet Rich Plasma treatment going, for now, he’s going to draw some blood from her and we are going to dab some plasma on the bone area. Changed out dressing/redressing to every other day now. He also talked about shockwave therapy, though I don’t know much about that, he said it could be spendy