[ThirdTimeIsGold]

I have an 11 month old filly with a torn front tendon in her back right leg. She had her leg caught in a panel and it tore from below her hock down to right above her fetlock. That was last Saturday Jan 26. Today we changed her bandages with the vet, and there is still about 4-5" of bone showing. Her skin tore under where he had sutured it from not placing her foot flat on the ground and then it tore right about her fetlock. Now we are worried about making sure there is going to be enough blood flow to the bottom of her foot where the torn skin is. I need to know where I can get a boot that goes from her hock down to her fetlock, almost to the ground that will keep her leg straight so hopefully the skin will grow back and will brace her leg for her to help keep it straight. PLEASE HELP!

[jumpthemoon]

Call UC Davis Equine Clinic and see if they have something like that or know who does. (530) 752-0290

[dallasbarnone]

Check out Derma-Gel and why cant the vet put a cast on it to keep it flat- a boot is going to shift and rub -and kill the new growth no matter how well applied it is. They use casts for that very purpose. do you have a hospital near you that can take this on?

[Cntrysass20]

Call a UC Davis or Surgi-care in Brandon, Fl. I dont have the # on hand for Surgi-care, but they suggested a certain type of splint for my mare when she tore her tendons and had an open wound. Unfortunately, she tore all 3 and had to be euthanized.

Jessie

[dallasbarnone]

http://www.horseadvice.com/horse/messages/4/99611.html

i wasnt able to read thru the whole list - but perhaps if you look thru this section they might have some information on the site for a boot- it does cover alot of information . Good luck to your horse and you !

[ThirdTimeIsGold]

Thank you guys sooo much! Has anyone ever had something similar to this happen to them and had a happy ending? I am so worried! She only tore the front tendon, but there is about a 4" gap in the fornt where her bone is still showing. My vet wants to leave it bandaged and hope the skin does not start dying - we need blood flow. He also mentioned being able to do a skin graff and take skin possibly off her back to cover it up. I am soo worried about her!!! Please give me some uplifting stories!

[Xiphias]

Humm, let me look, Probarrelracer had a horse that really messed up his hind legs....you can read what she went through, and what treatments she used...brb..Cathy

[Xiphias]

This horse, got his hind legs caught in a wire cable fence, and tore his hocks all up...you can see pics of his wounds, and what his owner did to get them to heal....I don't think what you have described is as bad as he was....Cathy

http://www.horsegroomingsupplies.com...en-117655.html

[dallasbarnone]

I just had a draft horse that kicked thru a round pen panel and snapped the bar off , he kicked so high that he got his hock thru and couldnt get it back so he was standing on three legs, with the bar THRU to the bone, when i found him at 3am , i was alone so i had to go between him and the panel and saw off the other end of the bar to get him out, and it out of his leg, to the bone in three places . I thought for sure it was broken . I cleaned and clipped and flushed it with weak betadine while the vet was getting there- we used Derma-gel on that with a pressure bandage, on the exposed bone we used the betadine water soluble ointment, it was pressure bandaged every three days until the drainage got heavy then i did it every day, since part of the bone showed on the inside of the stifle it was a real pain to bandage but the figure eight worked. The front tendon you have there is at least not as bad as having the back ones torn, i used non stick telfa with betadine ointment on the bone exposure parts- after i washed and dried it - then the rolled gauze over those spots loosely to hold the telfa- then elasticon tape not tight though over that again but be sure its not pulled tight-its just to hold the cotton/telfa. Then sheet cotton on the lower part- another sheet from that going up over the hock to stifle- cut a hole where the hock is so it doesnt cause soreing- then a roll of vetrap on the lower - another from that one to the upper. figure eight over the hock... he was on SMZ's and bute - you have to be very VERY sure that it doesnt get infected over the bone -so if theres ANY change in the weight she puts on it call the vet right away , with mine i was lucky and he got no infection but if he had , they would have taken him into the hospital and put him on IV and possible surgery to clean that up so it doesnt go into the bone of the leg. Forget my derma-gel suggestion , i was thinking it was torn skin on one place and the tendon on the other - derma gel is ok for any torn skin but not now and not over an exposed bone. Its fine for later once it starts to fill in over the bone area and is just beginning to get proud flesh - it will speed the healing up three fold, but for now on exposed bone you are better with the betadine ointment to avoid infection. just make sure you are cleaning that wound and rewrapping it correctly- and if you see her off feed or not bearing weight , if it gets worse or changes for the worse - get your vet out there. I did have one horse that injured that tendon in the front and my vet said it wasnt as bad as it having been the back . check out horsemans advisor - im sure on there somewhere somebodys had simular problems. I wish you the best of luck. oh- on the draft horse i was talking about - healed up with no scarring and sound- there was one bump the size of a quarter that you had to look for, but im not sure how ripped up your horses leg is compared to his either. It must have been pretty impressive because my vet called up and said " it was just amazing how that leg healed, im sorry i didnt take progressive pictures of it" so the horse must have been a good healer too.

[Vix]

My story isn't a 100% happy ending yet, but my filly tore open her pastern in the beginning of December. Sounds like your girl had a bit of a rougher go, but with Mocha she severed her medial artery and did some laceration work to her tendon. Since her wound was down to the bone my vet's primary concern was that there could possibly be either bone or joint infection if things went wrong, so at this stage keeping it clean should be your #1 mission. When Mocha was at the clinic they pumped her with IV antibiotics for a week straight and did daily bandage changes with an antibiotic wound cream until we were absolutely sure we didn't have to worry about infection anymore. Then they moved her to a dermabasedex cream (steriod cream) to get the healing process going a bit quicker.

We're almost two months after the injury and I can tell you, as bad as it looked in the beginning I have not a single worry anymore. Our vet had to do two cuttings of proud flesh but it looks like she's coming along just fine now and we're not even thinking of having to do grafts. We're using topagen now and there is probably only a 1/4 inch of open flesh now and the skin comes up more and more every day.

I'd definately recommend the bandage that my vet has been having us do. It's pretty easy and it almost works the same as a cast, without actually having to do that.

-Cleaning/scrubbing with saline
-Cream/spray dressing
-3 sheets 4x4 gauze layered over eachother
-Gamgee strip cinched up tight covered with vet wrap (that way you can make a pressure bandage out of it, you don't need to worry about how tight, actually tighter is better...that's how we kept her proudflesh down)
-No bow quilt overtop to protect the bandage and stabilize the leg with standing wrap overtop

So far with my girl we're looking at no lameness and now its just a waiting game for that skin to close over.

Strangely enough there were only two things my vets said NOT to use on her (although they are perfectionists in wound treatment) and they were any form of furacin or wonderdust. The reason for no furacin, it promotes proudflesh on lower legs, and wonderdust (while it works great!) actually treats the healthy flesh the same as proudflesh and can increase scarring.

So don't loose hope! Leg wounds are nasty things but you'll be amazed at how horses heal. It'll look ugly for a long while yet but it will get better.