Now that our young friend, Joe, has finally figured out and taken care of his thoroughbred mare, Sky's weight issue, she managed to get herself tangled in some fencing. This first picture is of her initial injury approximately 3 to 4 weeks ago. This injury is on the anterior of her right rear hock.
Joe obviously had the Vet out immediately and initial injury was concerning as she was loosing some of her joint fluid (synovial fluid). She was placed on Penicillin and I believe, a Biozide gel or cream. Daily wound care and wrapping. He did tell me what the cream was, but I forgot to write it down. this second picture is at the end of week 2.
Here we are on about week 3. More recent and close-up.
These pictures are from today. Joe says he can see a difference in her walking. My guess is that she will have a flexion and possibly and extension issue. I advised him weeks ago to get her started on Glucosamine immediately and he did. I also suggested that he hose it clean prior to the cream administration and wrap. It definitely looks better, but time will tell.
As with any injury a horse receives, it really is a matter of time. Hock injuries always scare me. Hope Sky does recover, however, not sure if it will be full, but one never knows and I think Joe did a good job of caring for Sky's injury. It doesn't look real proud fleshy, but there are lots of products out on the market for that now. So, any further advise on exercises or anything anyone would like to add to help Joe recover Sky would be greatly appreciated.
10 comments:
I'd add MSM & chondroitins to the glucosamine. They all work together- and MSM will help reduce inflammation.
Best of luck Joe- Hocks take a long long time to be healed up. Keep her out and moving as she can tolerate it, and be patient. Time heals all wounds. ;) You did the tough part already- now it is more or less a waiting game to see how things heal up completely.
Keep us posted when you can Callie.
I have an older thoroughbred mare who received a similarily gross injury in a similar place (slightly higher) when being leased by a stud as a broodmare. They didn't properly treat it and it turned proud. She also displayed a difference in walking especially once I got her back into work, but we figured it was mainly from stiffness and the fact that the scar from the proud flesh would be restricting her movement of that joint somewhat. Lots of walking when she started out helped, and we applied DMSO which helped a little bit. After she started moving a lot more normally, we just let it be, and I'm happy to say that the scar itself has pretty much disappeared on its own. It has gone from being raised just over an inch higher than normal skin level to being about flush.
I used to rub vitamin e oils into it and I think that helped as well (though this was once the scar tissue had formed fully over the wound).
-- Char.
http://www.amateurexperts.wordpress.com
Ouch! I hate those kind of injuries on the hocks. Just one of those things that happens though. She looks a LOT better than she did. Good weight on her.
Those pictures were difficult to look at...I just hate to see a horse injured. However, it does seem like he did everything he could, and I would bet with time and healing Sky will be just fine....
Massaging the area and regular but not strenuous movement. Other than that...time.
Sounds like others have filled you in on some good products to try.
that is really sad I hate to see injured animals.
Do you have to use any particulart type of horse bedding like a low dust producing kind for them if they have an open wound like this?
Alec, The wound was being cleaned on a daily basis as most wounds like this type would be and then wrapped. Cleaned, wound ointment and wrap every day. So bedding wouldn't really matter, although that is a good question. I personally had a little filly once that had a deep to the bone wound on the coronary band of a rear hoof. She went into a thick rubber matted stallwith simular wound care and stayed there. After about 2 weeks of daily wound care with wrap, I unwrapped and cold hosed the wound and then squirted an iodine mix on it and left her in the stall with it open for an additional 4 weeks. She actually had no ill effects, hoof grew normally and No one could tell that there was ever a wound, she then was allowed out with the others.
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That is healing well. It sure looked nasty at first. Hope she gets all her joint movement back too.
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