My horse is bleeding - What do I do
By mosquito
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7th Feb 2010 •
10,334 views
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5 comments
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Just like children, horses seem to be very good at hurting themselves. Sooner or later, your horse is going to come in from the pasture with some kind of cut or wound. So when this happens, what do you do?
The first thing you do starts before your horse gets hurt. Make sure you have at least the basics for wound care in your first aid kit. Clean cloths and gauze are essentials, as are scissors, surgical tape or ‘vetwrap’, and a mild disinfectant solution. A couple gallons of bottled, distilled water is great for cleaning wounds too. You also need a basic wound cream or salve to use as the wound heals to prevent scarring and infection.
When you discover your horse is cut, decide if you need the vet. If you are in doubt, call the vet anyway, but fortunately the majority of equine wounds are minor and you can treat them yourself. When do you call the vet? If the wound is more than a couple hours old, it’s very deep or a puncture, looks too large for the sides of the wound to touch (and so it needs stitches), or it is near a tendon, ligament, or joint, or if your horse is lame, call your vet. You’d be surprised how much blood a horse can lose and replace by itself, so a few drops or slow ooze may be okay. Gushing blood, spurting blood, or bleeding you can’t stop within a few minutes needs a vet, as does signs of any other injury, like dizziness, fever, or confusion.
While you wait for the vet, the best thing you can do is not make things worse. Try not to touch the wound with your bare hands, and don’t try to clip around it leave that for the vet so you don’t contaminate the wound. Don’t put any medications on it. To stop bleeding, press against the wound with a clean cloth or dressing (NOT cotton or wool), but never use a tourniquet – that’s a job for a vet only. If there’s anything stuck in the wound or your horse’s skin, don’t touch it or try to remove it. You could cause more damage underneath the skin where you can’t see. Just keep your horse calm and warm, and wait for your vet to arrive and treat the wound professionally.
If you can treat the wound yourself, remember a few ‘don’ts’ here too. Cotton balls or wadding can leave particles in the wound use gauze or a cotton cloth. Antiseptics and some strong medications (usually ‘purple spray’ and wound powders) can actually kill healthy skin cells, and make a wound heal more slowly, so use mild cleansing solutions only like a sterile saline or an antiseptic soap diluted in water ask your vet or your pharmacist for a recommendation. ‘Second skin’ products can actually seal in an infection, don’t use them until you are sure the wound is perfectly clean.
Cold running water is your best choice, and it’s free. Not only does it clear any dust and debris from the wound, but the cold water helps to reduce inflammation and pain. If you can’t get to the wound with a hose, distilled water in a spray bottle (add some ice!) is a great first aid treatment!
Once the worst is over, your work continues to aid healing. Keeping a wound bandaged will help healing warm, moist skin recovers faster and a bandage doesn’t just keep a wound clean, it keeps it warm and damp. Once or twice a day running cold water gently over the wound for ten minutes or so will keep inflammation down, reduce scarring, and ease pain. Don’t try to dry off a wound, much of the liquid a wound produces is part of healing and you don’t want to soak it up or rub it away. Try to keep your horse from moving around too much unless the wound is on a place like its face – stretching the skin around the wound will slow down healing and will probably result in more scarring too as the skin tries to catch up.
Only when healing is well underway should you apply a cream based ointment recommended by your vet to prevent scars, encourage hair growth, and keep the repairing skin soft and supple. You won’t be trying to treat infection, so a simple aloe vera or vitamin E cream is enough to keep the new skin supple, and ease itching and irritation as the wound heals, in fact, an antiseptic cream may cause more irritation. Veterinary research suggests that most horse wound creams, salves, and sprays – especially brightly colored ones – actually do more harm than good. Save your money, and keep it simple!
Until the wound is fully healed, keep an eye out for signs of infection. Lameness, sudden heat, pain or swelling, or smelly discharge are all warning signs. Don’t try to treat an infection yourself get your vet’s advice because your horse may need antibiotics. Don’t reopen a wound to try and clean out an infection that is a job for a vet. If you see puffy scar tissue forming, this could be ‘proud flesh’, again, dealing with this type of excessive scarring is a job for a vet.
Remember, a scar is only ever about 80% as strong as healthy skin, so the scarred are will always be weaker. And finally, prevent serious complications by keeping your horse’s tetanus shots up to date! |
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horses3955
just keep exesizing it reguarly and it should clear up
just keep exesizing it reguarly and it should clear up
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52 days ago
• 7,136 views
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Vaporsateur
Very well and correctly written piece. Should be extremely helpful to some people. Thank you and well done!
Very well and correctly written piece. Should be extremely helpful to some people. Thank you and well done!
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50 days ago
• 7,178 views
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Folly
Thanks for posting this article, I learnt a few more tips from it and I'm also sure that it'll help alot of other people too :)
Thanks for posting this article, I learnt a few more tips from it and I'm also sure that it'll help alot of other people too :)
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45 days ago
• 7,248 views
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43 days ago
• 7,132 views
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May 9, 2011
• 7,140 views
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