As promised, here is the answer to last night’s quiz! My client obviously did call me to ask if they could send some photos of wounds that their pony had sustained when being kicked by another pony in the field yesterday (they witnessed the kicks). Photo one in this post was one of the photos they sent, and I could see from the photo that the wound likely needed stitches, was very close to the knee joint (carpus), and right on bone. So I obviously went out. In the interim, I advised frequent cold hosing until I arrived, which not only cleans the wound, but also keeps the wound fresh and minimises swelling to make the stitching up much easier.
Why would anything more than a graze need same day veterinary attention?
1. Pain relief – really obvious, but if you cut yourself quite badly (ie more than just a graze), you’d want some pain relief. Pain relief for horses is prescription only, which means it must be prescribed by a vet for a specific condition in a specific animal. So it’s illegal to try and buy some locally!
2. Antibiotics – it’s very likely that a deep wound will require antibiotic cover, even if it can’t be sutured (stitched). Again, absolutely not something you should ever be borrowing from someone.
3. Sutures – self explanatory
4. Septic (infected) joint – a wound near a joint may infact communicate with the joint, and if that is the case, the horse will likely require fairly urgent surgery to flush the joint.
5. Fracture – if the wound is from a kick, and especially from a shod horse, there is a high risk of fracture. Horses’ limbs are covered by very little in the way of muscle and fat, so a hard kick on a leg can result in a fracture.
On clipping and cleaning this wound, it was very obvious that it needed suturing. However, on probing the wound with my finger, I also felt a roughening of the bone surface, which meant a high risk that there was also a fracture. The pony was walking very comfortably, but this absolutely doesn’t mean there can’t be a fracture. Obviously a horse with a catastrophic fracture will be extremely sore, but one with a hairline or small chip may well be walking comfortably. We went ahead and xrayed the same day, and X-rays so far are clear.
To allow the wound to heal, and because X-rays can’t completely rule out a hairline fracture, the pony is on small pen rest (she wouldn’t manage complete box rest but is happy stabled overnight with her friends) for the foreseeable.
Thank you to the hundreds of you that took part in the quiz! Oh, and never ever put any lotions and potions on a wound if the vet is coming out!!
Thank you to my clients for allowing me to share.
Feel free to share, but not to copy and paste to pretend it’s you 
