It happens to the best of us. At some stage, your horse will catch himself on fencing or something else and cause himself an injury. Some flesh wounds are large, some are small but they all need attention.
Here we look at a horse that has torn the skin off the front of his hind leg on fencing. Luckily the fencing was proper horse fencing which snapped when under pressure, releasing the horse and preventing further injury to tendons or bone; the wound was also discovered within a couple of hours of occurring so was relatively fresh.
Of course the vet was called and here are the steps taken, starting with cleaning the wound.
Despite being a little bit grumpy and slightly uncomfortable, the horse was not in distress or great pain.
The first step in a situation like this is to remove him from the cause of the injury and other horses, keep him calm, assess the wound and then call your vet, giving a description of the type of injury. Depending on the weather, make sure your horse is as comfortable as possible i.e. if a hot day, keep in the shade or if a cold day, make sure he is kept warm while you are attending to his wound.
Some horses are stressed if separated from their chums – if so, bring a quiet companion horse nearby but keep in a separate and controlled environment such as a nearby stable or paddock.
Even fairly minor flesh wounds can bleed a lot so it may be best to work on a surface that can be easily cleaned i.e. not on shavings or bedding. A concrete surface can be easily hosed down but if your vet is to give the horse a sedative, a rubber surface or clean grass area may be good.
To clean the wound, use tepid water from a hose which has enough pressure to be directed without too much force. Start by hosing a non-injured leg; even horses that are regularly hosed may object to their wound being cleaned (think about it – you probably would too!).
Once the horse is used to the feel of the water, hose the hoof of the injured leg and work up to gently hose around the wound first. Try and remove as much blood or debris from around the wound so that you can see the full extent of the damage and have a cleaner area to work with.
In this situation, at this point the vet gave the horse an intravenous sedative to keep him quiet while the actual wound itself was cleaned, the torn flesh was cut away and the leg bandaged.Once the sedative had taken effect, a local anaesthetic was injected into the wound area on the leg.
Now the wound itself could be gently but thoroughly cleaned and the area around also more thoroughly cleaned using a mild iodine solution. At this point the decision was made to remove the flap of skin rather than try and sow it back on as the horse is retired and the scarring which will probably result is not an issue. This when you get a bit of blood!
Having removed the flap of skin, the vet applied gauze pads soaked in Lotagen to the wound for a while to soak up the blood and again hosed the surrounding leg area clean, afterwards placing a towel around the leg below the wound to help dry the area and prevent more blood collecting.
The hair around the wound was very lightly shaved with a scalpel to try and promote easier healing too. The cleaner you can keep the area the better it is for the healing process and easier to bandage, which we’ll cover in our next article
Please Note: this article is provided as general information only. Each situation and wound is unique and you should seek guidance from your vet as to the best treatment for your horse
