wound wars

Sheesh, isn't it crazy how a teenie tiny little cut can go bananas on a horse? Give it the right environment, the right amount of oxygen, and the right bacteria and it's like a monster has been unleashed. At least that's how I felt when I discovered that her cut had developed its own agenda the other day, and I am just glad I caught it fairly early.

After showing off the planet forming on my forehead at work all day yesterday, I went to the barn armed with lots of new creams, bandages, vet wrap, gauze, and duct tape. I was ready for war. I was at least kind enough to let Lu eat her dinner before going to town on her leg, but I bet she thought she had gotten off with no work that day. Oh, no, girly, we were about to do battle. I let her eat and then brought her into the aisle to get a good look at the cut. I scrubbed off the dirt that had accumulated that day, and here's what it looked like:

Not that terrible, and certainly better than the
night before, but I was still ready to do battle.

First I scrubbed it with the surgical scrub.
I rinsed it off with clean water and then scrubbed
some more. The scrub foamed inside of the wound
and I felt a distinct sense of satisfaction at all
the germs meeting their sudsy deaths
at that second.

After all that germ killing, the inflamed area was
bleeding quite nicely.

I slathered on a magical concoction of cortisone
cream (OTC at WalMart for $2/tube), which
serves as a steroid to fight the inflammation,
and Furazone, which helps heal the infection.

I applied a sheet of gauze padding directly
to the injury and then wrapped with sterile gauze
roll. She conveniently rested that back leg so I was
able to then wrap with with vet wrap (bright pink,
of course).

I secured everything with a piece of duct tape.
Sadly this was not pink.

And this is what it looked like today! Much
less puffy/inflamed.

Then I de-wormed her :) I am such a meanie.

I am also very happy because I trotted her out and she was totally sound. Yahoo! I am debating a nice hack today but it might be better to just give her another day off and wait til her cut has healed more. Still, it's supposed to be soooo nice today, low humidity and everything.