RE: [RC] Wound care on silly horse - Susan E. Garlinghouse, DVM
>And isn't there a 6-hour window for
successful sutering?
>Terry
>"May the Horse be with you"
*Ideally*, it’s best to suture a wound within 6-8 hours,
but we don’t always get that. You can absolutely do a delayed closure if
called for due to circumstances, or contamination that needs to be cleaned up
first, or whatever---you just have to produce fresh, bleeding edges to get good
healing. But you shouldn’t ever NOT call a vet out to look at a wound,
just because you think it might be too late to suture---I just did a
reconstruction (in a dog) yesterday on a wound that originally occurred three
months ago. No sweat.
BTW, since there’s a discussion of saline for wounds, the ratios
and measurements don’t have to be exactly precise---just a little less salty
than the ocean is about right, and just use clean, fresh tap water and regular
table salt to clean a wound. If you keep a regular, clean spray bottle
around that has never held anything else, and adjust the nozzle to the fine
stream, that’s just right to blast off contaminants without traumatizing
tissue. If you also add just enough betadine solution (not scrub) to make
it the color of weak iced tea, than it will also disinfect the wound without
causing additional trauma. Adding more to make a stronger solution does
NOT make it better, it makes it worse. It’s about the best solution to
clean ANY (and I do mean any) wound safely, without interfering with the vet’s
ability to later suture or resect the wound. If a critter (of any kind)
dings itself and you’re waiting for the vet, best thing you can do is clean it
out with the stream spray of dilute saltwater-and-betadine ONLY, cover it with
a clean telfa and put a light vetrap or polo wrap or whatever over it. If
you’re not going to call a vet, clean it with the put Neosporin on it, a
bandage and that’s it. No scarlet oil, no furacin, no purple stuff, no
ichthammol. Don’t get fancy.
