Wound Progress

My bandaging skills have gotten to the pro level.

STOP HERE if you are easily grossed out! Wound photos ahead!

Since Dino had his stitches and staples removed and we changed our tactic to address the newfound inflammation, infection, and proud flesh, his wound has made a LOT of progress. When I removed the bandage two days after beginning our new wound care protocol, this is what it looked like:

Ew.

You can see there was still an ugly gaping 'mouth' on the left side of the wound, as well as lots of delightful, pink, brain-like proud flesh, and the whole thing was just... gooey. BUT the small swelling in the leg above the fetlock was totally gone, and there was no pus or other evidence of infection present. I doused it in iodine, slathered the proud flesh in cortisone cream, and wrapped it up for another two days.

48 hours later...

WOW!

There was a noticeable flattening and reduction in size of the granulation tissue, the mouth-like slash was closing nicely, and there was brand new skin growing in on the edges of the wound. I was really, REALLY pleased with the progress here, and iodined, cortisoned, and wrapped again.

Tractor Supply sells blue camo vetwrap. I'm here for it.

2 days later:

I am THRILLED with how this is healing! You can see even more new, healthy tissue growing in from the edges, the wound is purging itself of all of that icky yellowish tissue, and the proud flesh is beating a hasty retreat. My vet thought that we could leave it unwrapped at this point and allow the wound to dry out and begin scabbing over, but since Dino's living quarters are still quite muddy from the recent rain, I opted to keep him wrapped for two more days until things dried out.

While this wound and its treatment have been an unfortunate derailment in our fall hunting season, I am learning so much about wound management and proud flesh! It's been really interesting to watch this injury go through all of the stages of healing, and more importantly, Dino is 100% sound and will be back to the hunt field in good time. He is already back in light work and I've jumped right into No-Stirrup November with lots of bareback rides! Dino's feeling good, and as soon as this wound closes up a bit more we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming.