It was a little over a month ago that I found my favorite mare Penny with a really bad slice under her hind pastern, and I was afraid she might die from it (she had lost so much blood!), or might never recover full use of that leg. I did get her to the vet fairly quickly, but he was unable to stitch anything because of it being in a flex area (he said the stitches would just pull out and make the injury worse). He advised that I keep it wrapped and let him know if swelling occurred. I kept Penny in a stall for a month, doctoring her wound daily and trying to keep it as clean as possible. Every day I would clean the wound with Vetericyn spray, then cut a section of cotton padding, slather it with Nitrofurazone ointment, place it over the cut area, and wrap it with vet wrap. I cannot believe how well the wound has healed, and how she is almost back to full movement in a little over a month.
I wanted to show the progression in a series of photos. I am hoping to not gross anyone out, so if you are afraid of looking at pictures of wounds, you might want to just scroll back up and visit a different article on CowgirlDiary.com. But my intention is to help anyone else who might have a horse in this same predicament, to reassure you that healing is possible and might be quicker than you think, if conditions are right. I do not claim to be a vet, so please don’t consider this as medical advice, I am simply sharing my story and showing what happened and what we did to try to fix it.
Here is her leg on February 8, when I first found her. Since the camera is on her left side, you can’t really see the worst of the cut, since it’s on the right side of her right hind pastern:
On February 9th:
On February 15th, it still looked terrible:
I kept it wrapped and kept her in the stall, treating it daily with Vetericyn, Nitrofurazone, and a clean cotton pad wrapped with vet wrap. I fed her alfalfa hay and 12% sweet feed.
Here’s how it looked on February 20th:
This was taken February 23:
A friend told me that the yellowish pink bubbles on top of the pink tissue was the beginning of proud flesh, and it needed to be treated. I bought some Wonder Dust and applied it a few times, still using the furazone ointment with it. When I sent my vet a photo of Penny’s progress, he said to be very careful with the Wonder Dust as it would also eat away the new tissue and prohibit its growth. The wound continued to heal without any further sign of proud flesh.
It looked a lot better on February 26th, as everything was starting to close up:
This was taken February 29th:
This was taken March 2:
Penny was finally getting used to being in the stall, was learning to relax more around me, was letting me halter her twice a day to tie while eating her grain so I could clean the stall around her with the stall door open. It was a good experience for her!
On March 7th, after being kept in the stall for a month, I turned her out in a dry lot. I was hoping she would take it easy and be careful of her injury….nope, she ran circles, snorted, got all the other horses hyped up and running, and had a great time showing off and proving that she felt just fine! Fortunately, the wound did not tear open or bleed, and she barely showed any sign of favoring it, even at a full gallop.
This was taken March 11th, just a little over one month after her injury:
March 18th it was even more closed and healed:
And I took this one last Sunday, March 27th:
She has gone without a bandage a few times, but it tends to get dusty and crusted over and dirty, so I have been trying to keep a clean bandage on it, in spite of spring rains and letting her be outside as much as possible. She is loving the green grass and getting out to graze as much as she can. She shows no sign of limping and only at a lope can you tell she has a little shorter stride on that leg. I think by summer she will be completely back to her old self.
