hind leg injury concerns

Small horse has injured her hind leg. Below the knee. Between her knee and her ankle, on the outside side. (this is making NO sense!)

It is not a fleshy area, just skin over bone. Skin is gone. Hard, white underneath stuff is visible. My guess is she rolled and bashed herself on a rock when she came down and skinned herself.

It looks ugly and the upper portion looks like proud flesh developing. BUt there is no cellulitis (swelling in surrounding tissue). There is some pus but it is draining. I have not given her oral antibiotics.

What I have done is squirted water and betadine on it to wash out poop. Then I applied Polysporin. Then the dog comes along and licks off all the Polysporin while the horse stands there holding her leg in the air. SHe is not limping and only holds it in the air while dog is licking it. He likes to lick it even when there is no Polysporin on it. I attempted to bandage this but it's like bandaging an upside down bowling pin and gravity is working against me. Bandage flopped to ankle and stayed there until little horse booted it off.

How concerned should I be about idiot licking dog? Will his dog saliva cause bad infection? I DO make him stop, but the second I don't look, he's back at it. And horse does not kick him, which he would deserve, just stands there like a nerd with her leg in the air while the dog licks the medicine off.

SHe has been laying down a lot which is either her leg hurts or she's just tired. Don't know. BUt her mobility does not seem affected, nor her snotty attitude when I try to 'doctor' her. I have been brutalized.

Something that works awesome for proud flesh and healing wounds on legs is to hose or clean the wound with cold water then pack household black pepper on the wound. It works awesome and the animals and flies leave it alone. I use whatever black pepper I have on hand. Everyone always asks if it hurts the horse and I must say it must not as they don't seem to feel it when you put it on and does not seem to bother them in any way. On a really bad wound you would do this twice a day, but from what it sounds like for this one just once daily. If proud flesh is bad after packing the pepper on the wound, put a gauze pad on wound and wrap with vet wrap and change daily. Good luck!

Maybe you should get B to help bandage it as if you wrap it too tightly, and the wrong direction on the tendons, it can cause problems. Too loose, and you already know the outcome.

How long has it been this way?

Good luck!

The best thing I've used for healing and dealing with proud flesh is a product called Equaide.
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My gelding hurt his hind leg, scraped to the bone along the front a good 4 inches. I had a tough time getting a wrap to stay on until I used baby diapers...I would wrap it around and use the sticky tabs to hold it, then wrap with a polo wrap to hold it on.

raw honey is also helpful, I used it until the equaide came in the mail.

Good luck with your horse, it does sound very similar to what I went through with mine. He healed up really well, it just took care and attention. Keeping it clean is the number one thing, and keeping proud flesh at bay is the next.

Karma Creek, baby diapers? Brilliant! I also use honey but did not in this case as I didn't want to encourage dog to lick or horse to lick herself either. Plus since I could not get a dressing to stick on wound, didn't want the honey to make more dirt stick to wound. I might go buy some diapers and try again.

FarmChiq, B has helped and she makes little horse behave. Alone, I am trying to apply salve with one hand, hold horse with the other hand, ward off horse bites with the third hand and swat at idiot dog with the fourth hand. It keeps me busy.

It's high time you built yourself a shed in her paddock for you to live in. Clearly this horse occupies all your spare time with its antics. Also of use, would be a WIFI setup, so you can just stare out the window, and type your stories to us.

UNO do you mean between her hock and fetlock? Her " knee" is her stifle (think the joint close to her stomach) the comes the hock (ankle). I'm having a hard time visualizing it.

Hillbilly, its' true, I have become one of those people whom Horsey Teen talks so badly about, people who mistake their horses for pets. Or worse, treat them like they're dogs. I swear, if horse was just a little smaller I'd tuck her in my purse and take her to town with me. NOT! But she does occupy lots of my time and I am at a loss for what to do with her or about her most of those times!

Susan, sorry, I know my horse terminology is the pits.

Yes, the injury is on the lower section of leg, not up by the stifle. Between hock and fetlock, on that long, straight stretch of hind leg, where there is no flesh but lots of bone.

However at this point all seems to be going well. Maybe all the dog licking had a beneficial effect, since there was no infection despite laying in poop and getting poo in open injury. There may be a scar, but her mobility has not been affected. Thanks all for your helpful comments, except you Hillbilly, you were no help at all!

Just trying to figure out where Uno. I'm glad she is looking good. That's actually a pretty easy are to wrap. A little "kling" wrap (from the drugstore) and some Vetwrap work wonders. You can also use a full leg wrap. Get a knowledgable person to show you how and it is very easy. (just make sure to always wrap to the inside. Sounds like she is doing okay without it though. Does your vet have a cream called Green Wound Cream? They make it here at the U of S and it is great for proud fresh and scratches.

One other thing- don't use the betadine for too long. It cleans well, but will irritate new tissue. Could you smear some furozone on it a couple times a day if it is not wrapped? Is she getting any swelling below in her fetlock or under the pastern? Think right above the hoof and the next joint.

I'm still thinking about the dog spit. Perhaps cleaning the pus and applying a little tongue massage is helping somewhat.

My dogs lick my face all the time. It is how I account for my youthful good looks and wrinkle free skin.

Schipperkesue wrote:
My dogs lick my face all the time. It is how I account for my youthful good looks and wrinkle free skin.

You know what else dogs lick, right Sue? Because I have these thoughts, it doesn't matter how much I love my girl, I WILL NOT let her lick my face!!!!

Diapers can be very useful for first aid even human first aid. They can also be used to make a very quick temporary boot to cover an abcess hoove. Also filled with water and frozen can work great like a bag of peas, feminine pads also work great

I've taken a couple Equine first aid courses this month and wrapping correctly (to the middle of the horse and don't pull tight when going around the back side and always make sure you can see the bandage underneath at the top and bottom of your wrapping job). The bottom parts of the horses legs have very little muscle and blood flow so lower leg injures take a LONG time to heal properly. Also an improperly healed lower leg injury can lead to equine lymphangitis which was the downfall of my old girl My vet had me use Vulketan on my old girl when she cut her leg last Fall because of her limited mobility.

Oh Sue yeck! I know what my dogs eat and lick GAG! The reason we put collars on dogs when they have injuries is because they will lick and lick and make the wounds far worse with all that licking I would definitely not let pup lick any wound and I will take my wrinkles over letting the pooches lick my face Blech!

Okay..do I have this correct? Wrap from the outside towards the inside. Standing outside of horse (duh!) pass the bandage under her body, around the hind leg, back to my hand. I think I get that...and make sure not too tight. And I should get some of the clingy, self sticky fabric that does not require those tensor bandage fasteners...which I don't want in my horse pen. And they never work very well.

There is no swelling..I have been feeling for swelling and heat and the injury is closing up slowly.

I only used the betadine a few times, VERY diluted with water to squirt out the dirt. Since it seemed not to be swelling or making pus after that first bit, I left it alone.

About licking dog: in an unexpected turn of events the dog has been twice shocked by the electric fence and now believes the horse has some magic, evil powers and will not go in the horse pen anymore, let alone anywhere near the horse! I guess their days of mutual biting and running around are over. Sort of sad. They were good buddies, liked abusing each other.

When I wrap a horses leg I always think about coming around the front of the leg when the bandage is coming towards me and going around the back of the leg when the bandage is going away from me.
Does that make sense when I say it out loud?

That's right coopslave. Start a little above the middle of the cannon bone, go down, make a nice x under the fetlock and finish at the top just under the hocks. UNO you could totally make a nice pair of stall wraps. I also bandage the opposite leg as generally they favour the sore one. Practice on horsey kid to make sure you have the tension right. If I get time I'll take pics of the wraps and wrapping. But am rather busy tonight and tomorrow so we'll see if I get there!

uno wrote:Thanks all for your helpful comments, except you Hillbilly, you were no help at all!

Excellent, my job is done

in regards to wrap direction, you want the pull on the tendon to be towards the horse's centerline, not towards you on the outside. To do that, you always wrap towards the rear of the horse.

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Thanks. I did not know this. This is good to know. I have also purchased vet wrap, very interesting clingy stuff! Small horse is on the mend and considering she was treated with nothing but watered down Betadine and dog spit, she's doing fine. Thanks all.