Adventures in Wound Care

Little miss is healing as well as can be expected at this point - although her wound looks disgusting (IMO), the vet says that it is healing well. Unfortunately her good leg is really starting to show signs of strain, so we're trying to give it some relief in any way we can (although keeping it wrapped is not the best option). 

The wound care process begins with the removal of the standing wrap that lives on Spring's good leg and then taking her to the washrack, where the vet wrap and gauze pad covering the actual wound are removed. I wear gloves for the removal part because usually everything is pretty saturated with drainage. 

Gross picture warning!!

Day 3 -> Day 5 -> Day 9

Once all the bandaging materials have been removed , I make an attempt to cold hose the leg (which Spring is not a fan of - it's the only part of the entire process that she still gets cranky about).  Then I throw gloves back on and use gauze and sterile water to gently clean any remaining crud away from the wound. 

Day 10

Glove change happens next and then I apply Biozide gel to the wound, which is this weird metallic red-brown stuff that the vet sent her home with. Change gloves again, cover with a gauze pad, then secure the pad with vet wrap. 

Next it gets wrapped up with a polo to keep it as clean as possible and we go for a walk - 15-20 minutes for now. Spring is walking without limping and is exceptionally well-behaved - I haven't needed sedation at all, and although she walks pretty quickly she hasn't yet done anything silly (although I keep a stud chain handy just in case). 

Once the walk is over we head back to her stall, where she gets an ice boot on her bad leg and a BoT quick wrap (generously gifted to me by Carly ) on her good leg. After a bit (really it just depends on how much time I have), the therapeutic wraps come off and a standing wrap goes on. If her good leg is looking particularly sorry or feels stocked up, I'll throw a sweat wrap on it to try and bring it back to normal overnight. 

And that's about it! The whole process takes about two hours. She is finally eating again, largely thanks to the addition of pear applesauce to her grain. We did increase her bute again to try and relieve her good leg as she's still not wanting to stand on the injured one, and the vet will probably be out sometime in the next few days to make sure we're still on the right track. 

I do have a gofundme set up to help cover the massive costs of her vet bills and stall rest board, which can be found by clicking here. (If you're interested!)