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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
   
Location: Phoenix | End of April my horse got into a cactus somehow while we were riding. His fetlock was swollen, even though the large spine was pulled out closer to the coronet band. After a straight week of poulticing and wrapping, I could lunge him and he was sound, despite some dormant swelling in the fetlock that wasn't going down, but didn't seem to be bothering him. There was an opening that would drain, but it closed up about 2 weeks ago. Well it finally opened up and when I applied pressure, pus was coming out in spurts. Like a zit. Gross, I know. I'm going to scrub it down with betadine daily to keep it clean and hope we get another cactus particle out. I'm just glad it opened up again because you could tell something was there. I've already pulled 2 thorns out that have finally pushed themselves to the surface. The desert doesn't mess around!!
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Too busy outside!
Posts: 5417
| Wow- thanks for posting this! I'm an AZ desert newbie and need to be informed of these things!  |
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Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | It didn't even look like there were any thorns in his fetlock either. It drives me nuts that I can't pinpoint when it happened. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 316
| Thats a large thorn that came out!
After reading the title and the rest of the post I was expecting to see something like the video that was going around FB with the draining of the abscess on the horses neck that had an INSANE amount of puss coming out. Like shooting out. GROSS! |
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Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | Well while I was pressing, it was coming out in spurts.....eeeeesh. I usually love this kind of stuff but this was kind of grody..... |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| I would be taking the horse to the vet, as it looks like the swelling is above the fetlock, he may need one ligament cut to allow the draining of the pus/infection to go down. The ligament works like a tourniquet and can cut off circulation |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 938
Location: Canada | As a survivor of falling into a cactus pile...I can solidly confirm that witch hazel will be your best friend. There is nothing that can draw out cactus better than that stuff. |
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Too busy outside!
Posts: 5417
| cheryl makofka - 2015-06-04 7:22 AM I would be taking the horse to the vet, as it looks like the swelling is above the fetlock, he may need one ligament cut to allow the draining of the pus/infection to go down. The ligament works like a tourniquet and can cut off circulation
You must be referring to the annular ligament of the pastern joint? I sure wouldn't cut any ligament to reduce swelling- they will never be the same! Laser therapy would be awesome in this case- |
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Too busy outside!
Posts: 5417
| CdnJunebug - 2015-06-04 12:45 PM As a survivor of falling into a cactus pile...I can solidly confirm that witch hazel will be your best friend. There is nothing that can draw out cactus better than that stuff.
Oh ouch- |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 1162
Location: White Mountains of AZ | I've thankfully never gotten a cactus spine real bad in my horses, or dogs!! ( Knock on wood ) I know pitch works really well for drawing out splinters... |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| trickster j - 2015-06-04 5:13 PM
cheryl makofka - 2015-06-04 7:22 AM I would be taking the horse to the vet, as it looks like the swelling is above the fetlock, he may need one ligament cut to allow the draining of the pus/infection to go down. The ligament works like a tourniquet and can cut off circulation
You must be referring to the annular ligament of the pastern joint? I sure wouldn't cut any ligament to reduce swelling- they will never be the same! Laser therapy would be awesome in this case-
I can't remember, it is not ideal to cut, but if they don't get the medical attention fast enough, or the infection spreads too fast.
I had a mare who had to have hers cut as the infection was too bad, wouldn't respond to antibiotics, she had hers cut, then had 3 more surgeries to scrape the tendon.
Yes it is not the same, her pastern is slightly larger, still a 1d horse, 4 years after. Never been lame on it again.
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | hammer_time - 2015-06-03 11:09 PM End of April my horse got into a cactus somehow while we were riding. His fetlock was swollen, even though the large spine was pulled out closer to the coronet band. After a straight week of poulticing and wrapping, I could lunge him and he was sound, despite some dormant swelling in the fetlock that wasn't going down, but didn't seem to be bothering him. There was an opening that would drain, but it closed up about 2 weeks ago. Well it finally opened up and when I applied pressure, pus was coming out in spurts. Like a zit. Gross, I know. I'm going to scrub it down with betadine daily to keep it clean and hope we get another cactus particle out. I'm just glad it opened up again because you could tell something was there. I've already pulled 2 thorns out that have finally pushed themselves to the surface. The desert doesn't mess around!!
Holy cow more spines  Dang I hope thats the last of them  |
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 I Prefer to Live in Fantasy Land
Posts: 64864
Location: In the Hills of Texas | Cactus spines are bad...bad...bad...I had one of the prickly pear spines in my knuckle and got it out right away and I can't believe how sore it was for over a week.
Hope this is the end of them. |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | I wonder if he could have steped on a cactus called the horse crippler/devils head, they grow really low to the ground and you really cant see them unless you are looking hard, nasty things. |
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Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | I think it was a buckhorn cholla--they start growing in the middle of a smaller flimsy bush so we probably walked through it and it got him. The vet will be out on Saturday so I'll have him take a gander at it again. I could still get pus to come out again tonight. Doesn't bother him any. He's sound on it. You can see its only swollen now because of whatever is still hanging in there....his whole leg was huge initially but the antibiotics helped trmendously. Compared to before, the leg looks great to me, considering. The guy who owns the barn said it took 2 months for a spine to expel itself when it happened to his mare.
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