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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
   
Location: Pacific Northwest | I pulled my mare out to ride yesterday and her right front leg was swollen from the knee down. I couldn't see any sign of trauma at first, so I cold hosed it for 10 minutes and then was going to apply SNM liniment and poultice, thinking she just tweaked it (her field is pretty slick, especially in the middle where its mainly grass because its very wet right now). As I was rubbing the SNM in, she kept flinching every time I touched a certain spot on the inside of her knee. I started feeling underneath her hair and found a tiny piece of something sticking out of her skin...pulled on it and out came a really hard hay stem that was about 3" long. It felt like a stick but I broke it in half and then I could see it was actually hay. As soon as I got it out, a little bit of puss started oozing out of the hole.
I got a bucket of hot water and epsom salt and used a towel to soak it for 10 minutes and then I put numotizine on it. I didn't wrap it because it's at a weird spot that I'm afraid every time she moves it's just going to bunch up and move.
She's not lame at all. I don't think she needs to see a vet yet, not unless it appears to be getting really infected. She's up to date on her tetanus shot, although I don't think a hay stem would cause that anyway?
I guess my question is, is soaking it with warm water/epsom salt and applying numotizine a good enough treatment or should I do something else?
Not a very good picture, but here's what I had posted on FB. Sorry about the bad clip job on the right picture, she really really didn't want me to touch the owie spot. You can barely see the hole but you see where it's at.
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 669
Location: Central Texas | Anytime I have a puncture wound around/near a joint, I go straight to the vet. I am so afraid of an infection getting into the joint. Had this happen and never want it to happen again. Ended up causing irrepariable hock damage. |
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 Living on the edge of common sense
Posts: 24138
Location: Carpenter, WY | I would much rather have a thousand inch gap than a puncture would. I'd take the horse to the vet and see what he or she has to say myself.
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | Okay thank you (: I'll have to figure out where to take her, my vet retired a few months ago. I tested out a different place a couple months ago and wasn't all that impressed. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Due to it being near a joint and you seeing puss. I would be going to the vet getting xrays and oral/I'm/Iv antibiotics |
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | I was able to get her in today at 2:40 (it's 12:24 here now) so I should know more in a couple hours. |
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Expert
Posts: 2685
| Personally I would clip the area, scrub with betadine and alcohol like prepping for a IA injection and put her on antibiotics. Pen/gent. I feel if it were in a joint you would know. I have never seen an infected joint NOT lame. It always best to be safe rather than sorry so I won't tell you not to take her in but the above is what I would do. I would also wrap it. We wrap knees at work all the time. Get a big cotton and tape it (elastikon all the way or tape top and bottom and vet wrap middle) from fore arm to cannon. |
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I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | The vet flushed it out and got two more tiny pieces of hay to come out. She's on antibiotics. The swelling is already down dramatically this morning, I think having it flushed out really helped. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Good to hear, good luck with the recovery |
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