Progress.... ?

So here is the latest view of Fi's leg (8 days on from the last one)

The wounds are slowly getting smaller, and the new skin bigger - but it's hard to tell without the previous photos as reference. When I look at it, it looks more like something that is going to stay together (fingers crossed !). But she's not getting the chance to roll....... not yet !

It's going to be a while before we can tell how it will affect her movement. While she seems to have escaped serious damage to the tendon (which would have resulted in her dragging that toe), the joint is still fairly "fat" compared to the other side, and the scar tissue may also restrict her.

I guess only time will tell.

And Rosie got x-rayed today ahead of the next farrier visit - so we'll see what story they tell.

Slowly healing.....

Latest vet visit today for Fi's dressing change. It was supposed to be x-rays for Rosie too but apparently the portable x-ray machine was "booked out"..... so we'll try again next week.

Anyway, the photos aren't great but the healing is happening slowly.

Last week there was a clear "depression" in the middle of the wound (where the deepest cut was). This week it is more of a dimple. And when the vet went to trim the proud flesh back a bit, Fi reacted which means there are nerves in there.

So we are talking 2 to 4 more dressing changes before we can be dressing-free, and she needs to be dressing-free before she can go out.

In the meantime Duds has been a bit foot sore on hard surfaces (concrete or frozen ground). Bute helps. But the vet checked him with hoof testers and there was no reaction, so it is maybe just old age and being stuck in more than usual.

Having said that, both Duds and Rosie wanted in to their stables this afternoon despite it being fairly sunny. The wind is getting up and despite having put haynets out for them, they were happier in with their own hay.

Farrier is due in a few weeks time so I'll keep an eye in Duds and see what she says.

Blood, gore and Fifi

I let Fi out for a wee wander at the weekend, just in the yard, and she proceeded to roll and give me a heart attack ! We rewrapped the wound later that day - it was planned to do this - and the dressing was still in place and it all looked ok.

But I was still keen to see what the Vet had to say when he checked her out today.

He's happy with progress. You can see the wound is granulating nicely, We had a quick chat about proud flesh - my position is that I am not bothered about aesthetics, but about the function. And he did trim some of the "excess" flesh from the top of the wound. You could see where the margin of new skin is there and trimming the excess granulation away will help the skin grow over. (If not, the granulation can grow faster than the skin and it never properly closes).

Needless to say granulation has a very good blood supply and no nerves. So no sedation was required but it was very gory. And no I didn't take pictures of that bit !

It is all wrapped up again now, so we will rewrap at the weekend (this just changes the outer layers and leaves the granuflex dressing  in situ) and then have another check this time next week.

Here we go again (Fi)

I almost made it to work on my first day back after a fairly difficult Christmas break, when I got a call from my sister to say Fi had hurt herself and she was calling the vet. She couldn't tell me how bad it was as Fi wouldn't let her near it. This is what I found when I got home later the same day.

Beneath this, I was told, was one deep gash (stitched up) down to the tendon near the bottom of the hock joint, and another place that had needed stitches. A subsequent visit down to the stables they had been in revealed this - firstly on Fi's side:

and then from Dudley's side !

They had moved the horses up to the stables by the cottage once the vet arrived so they could have access to light, water etc. As it turned out, we have since had some really cold weather so it's been the better place to keep them fed and watered too !

 The vet was visiting on a regular basis to redress the wound - so Fi initially had injections for pain relief and antibiotics. But then we needed to move to powders in her feed and at that point she was determined I was trying to poison her and feeling pretty sorry for herself. At one point I was mixing the pain relief powder with Apple Jelly and using a cleaned wormer syringe to get it into her ! But as we lowered the dose and she also started to feel a bit better, we managed to get her to take things in her food again - phew !

On day 5 I got a chance to see what was under the bandages......the arrows show where there are stitches, The bottom arrow is the "big" wound.

And at this point it was all looking good. However by the end of week one, the main wound was starting to break down. I don't have photos for this stage as my sister was covering some of the vet visits for me, plus it really wasn't a pleasant sight ! We moved to a "granuflex" dressing which stays on and keeps the wound from drying out, encouraging granulation.

We were using a cream with silver nitrate in it for the upper area but it seemed to result in a lot of crustiness. So then we tried medical grade manuka honey, which was slightly better. But to be honest that area is healing well now and adding cream or honey seems to make it worse so I am just keeping an eye on it and putting a small amount of honey on if it looks a bit dry.

The next photo is from Day 15 (29th Feb)

You can see there is still quite a deep cavity in the wound :(

5 days after that, you can see the wound is granulating and filling in:

The slightly gunky region above the main wound is where the edge of the dressing seems to be irritating the fragile skin.

She's still on box rest, with the other two out on the yard during the day to keep her company. Her leg is kept wrapped up (dressing held on with vet wrap, then gamgee, then more vet wrap, then a bandage !).

There was a risk with the depth of the wound (down to tendon) that she might have ended up dragging that toe slightly as it was a flexor tendon she hit. But so far she seems to be picking it up ok walking around the box. We also (touch wood) seem to have avoided a joint infection which was the other concern.

But we have a way to go yet. Next review and vet visit is a week after last picture.

And in the meantime, some amendments to do to the field stables to try and prevent this happening again. I know *what* she did (got her leg over the partition) but why or how - only Fi knows !