Horse versus fence is never a fair fight and often results in some gnarly wounds that take a long, long time to heal. Pictured is Madison's right hind, below you will find the progression pictures. I found her on the other side of the fence at 6am on (you guessed it) a Sunday - between Xmas and New Year no less. Maddy was very sore and very unhappy, I'd say she had gotten herself stuck in said fence sometime during the night, at some point the fence post had broken and Maddy had gotten free. Both back legs were a mess, I called the vet and led Maddy up to the wash bay, no small feat as she was not keen on moving at all. I hosed them with cold water but the injury was no longer that fresh so although I was able to clean them up a bit I doubt I aided the injury as much as I would have if it had been new.
Once the vet had assessed and treated Maddy I was faced with the long, hard road of wound dressing - I didn't realise at the time that I would be bandaging her for over a year, but sometimes it's best we don't know! My biggest learnings on dealing with a wound like this are:
1. Get running cold water on it asap to reduce swelling, clean it out and assist with pain. 20 minutes is great while you wait for the vet to arrive.
2. Wrap it, wrap it, wrap it! You'll get really good at bandaging and will be able to leave them on for up to a week at a time.
3. Always wrap from front to back, from the inside to the outside and make sure the gamgee covers a lot more than the wound and sticks out the top and bottom of your bandage. The bandage must be applied with equal pressure, not too loose and not too tight.
I didn't apply a bunch of different creams, I found the sterile gamgee was great on it's own. I did, however, use a few different things on Maddy's left hind as I had a big issue with proud flesh, but that's for another day. The Active Manuka Honey was fantastic on the bits I couldn't bandage.
Luckily for me Maddy was a star patient and although she sometimes got a little upset with me, she always seemed to know that I was trying to help and never tried to kill me. If I had been forced to sedate her for every bandage change I'm not sure we would've made it!
You don't need to be an expert wrapper to make a big difference to your horse in the critical time from when an accident occurs until veterinary care arrives. Have a pre-made first aid kit or a few critical items on hand in case something happens - I always think that if my first aid kit is fully stocked it reduces my chances of accidents immeasurably.
My must-haves are:
1. Biodine spray
2. Gamgee
3. Cohesive bandage - and believe me when I say that not all vet wrap is created equally, choose good quality bandages and you will save in the long run.
4. Animalintex sterile dressings.
I keep all of the above in both my shed and my truck. Vetpro make a fantastic pack too with some fantastic little extras like saline wash and scissors.
Stock up now and use FIRSTAID10 at checkout for 10% off the wound care range until July 11th 2021.
https://healthyasahorse.co.nz/collections/wound-care
