bad wound

[samm]

bought a little heifer calf the other day, noticed her back end looked odd, i thought she might have got roughed up alittle when she was tubed...anyhow yesterday i went out to feed, and she smelled rotton, like something dead....so we went over her real close and found a hole the size of my thumb, when opened up, and the foulest fluid ever came out, so i mixed up some water, iodine and peroxide, and used a syringe with out the needle, to clean down in there, . i can squirt 60 ml in the hole before the solution starts to come back out, we gave her some penicilian, and some flunixon, the place is back on her flank area, and thats why her hind end on the left side looked odd, cuz it was swollen up into there, i cant imagine what happened to her, there was no blood, or anything like that to indicate her being injured.. she must have gotten stuck on something, and it healed over at the surface, and rotted inside..any more things that ya'll can think of to do for her . thanks

 

[angie1]

How much Penn adn what type did you give? How much Flunixin? I would hit her hard with the first dose of penn then follow up. Good choice of drugs I am thinking for this type of injury btw :nod: .

Also ~ you say her back end looked odd and you thought she got roughed up while tubing ~ do you mean tubing to feed her? She has other issues too? Or tubing means something else?

It is good that you got it cleaned out and drained. Does the injury project down into the muscle so that it is not able to drain from the bottom? Does she have a temp? How is she otherwise ~ alert/eating/active?

You will get various opinions but I would discourage closing that wound, I would advise you to continue flushing it daily (If not twice a day), and leave off the hydrogen peroxide now that you have used it as an initial flush.

 

[samm]

gave her 2 ml of penn pro one, i usually give 1 ml per 100lb, and 1 ml of flunixon
she will weigh less than 100lbs
she is alert, and eats good so far, but i know when i squeezed the solution back out, it hurt her, yes, the wound goes down and back into the muscle, so no it wont drain on its own, we had planned to clean it every morning and evening.
the sale barn tubes them to see if they are breeders or non-breeders, i thought they may have had a little tussle, and she got hurt,
who ever brought her in, brought her in this way....i would think she had to bleed like a stuck hog when she got hurt, but there wasnt a speck of blood on her.

 

[milkmaid]

Age?
Lame?
Exact location of the wound?
Picture?

1mL/100lbs of penicillin isn't enough to prevent infection, let alone cure an existing problem. Give 5mL/100lbs SC and squirt 5-10mL of penn into the wound after cleaning it out with peroxide. 1mL/100lbs of Banamine (flunixin) every 24 hours is perfect. Good job. Leave it open... but whether to leave it alone afterwards is entirely dependent on your answers to the questions above.

 

[samm]

shes about a week old
shes not lame, after she ate awhile ago, she run and bucked around, i was very surprised, when i went down to feed her, she was laying on that side, and it had drained out some on the grass, and it still smelled bad, but she feels better right now,
sorry i dont have a camera to post a pic with, but the place is just past the flank area, and more on the muscle part of her hip, on her left side, kinda like on the upper thigh.
does that confuse ya more ?? sorry
i will increase the penn to the 5ml, i almost did squirt some into the hole, but i hesitated, and didnt, and ill do that too, i am leaving it open for sure, to let it heal from the inside out......

thanks

 

[milkmaid]

So it's not over a joint then?

I can't find a decent diagram on the internet so I concocted a quick one... what part of this calf are we talking about?

something labeled by an arrow? by a word? something in between? "1" is just below her hip bone, "2" is at the stifle, "3" is between stifle and hock, the muscle I'd call the gaskin on a horse -- don't know what it is on a cow -- and "4" is the hock.

You may never know what created it, but as long as it's not over a joint and the calf isn't lame, I'd say just make sure it's cleaned out and the calf is on plenty of antibiotics, and she'll probably be fine. The pennicillin you're using will have to be repeated daily, IMO I'd treat for at least 7 days regardless of how quickly she heals up. 10 days would be better.

 

[KNERSIE]

I need a photoshop lesson... How did you add the arrows and numbers? can you do it in a MS Word document as well (like the one I sent you about eye selection)?

 

[novatech]

I need a photoshop lesson... How did you add the arrows and numbers? can you do it in a MS Word document as well (like the one I sent you about eye selection)?

When I see stuff being done like this on the computer it is a indicator of age. The more they can do the younger they are. I think its part of evolving. I get my grandkids to do anything I consider fancy. (Which is most all of it) :help:

 

[milkmaid]

I did it in Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 ...I think it came with the computer but I'm not certain. Most photo programs will let you do what I just did, as long as you have a drawing tool and the ability to put text on the picture.

 

[KNERSIE]

I did it in Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 ...I think it came with the computer but I'm not certain. Most photo programs will let you do what I just did, as long as you have a drawing tool and the ability to put text on the picture.

Are you talking about the program's ability or mine?

I know the program has the ability and has the drawing toolbar, not so sure about my own ability to use it. (Actually I tried and failed miserably)

 

[milkmaid]

I did it in Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 ...I think it came with the computer but I'm not certain. Most photo programs will let you do what I just did, as long as you have a drawing tool and the ability to put text on the picture.

Are you talking about the program's ability or mine?

I know the program has the ability and has the drawing toolbar, not so sure about my own ability to use it. (Actually I tried and failed miserably)

About the program's ability. I have a few photo-editing programs that can only crop and resize... useful for quick changes, but that's about it.

 

[samm]

good picture and good diagram too..very impressed by it.
its about the middle between the tip of # 1 arrow and her hind end,
she does give to it some especially right after we clean it out, i know it has to hurt,
but she is eating, and i did hit her with the 5 ml penn today, and squirted some in to the hole. i cant imagine what she got stuck by, but she did a very good job.

thanks

 

[KNERSIE]

i cant imagine what she got stuck by

Most likely the result of being eaten by maggots

 

[samm]

ive seen maggots on a ear cut before, the ear was full of em,
but i havent seen any maggot's on her yet, after we doctor her i spray some pyramethrium around her back end, not into the sore though, so it keeps the flyes down to might near nothing.
when im squirting the solution in the hole, you can actualy see it, like in a cup, it will slosh out if she moves just right, but so far just fluid is all that has came out, no hunks or cheesy stuff.

 

[KNERSIE]

ive seen maggots on a ear cut before, the ear was full of em,
but i havent seen any maggot's on her yet, after we doctor her i spray some pyramethrium around her back end, not into the sore though, so it keeps the flyes down to might near nothing.
when im squirting the solution in the hole, you can actualy see it, like in a cup, it will slosh out if she moves just right, but so far just fluid is all that has came out, no hunks or cheesy stuff.

It's not hard to get rid of maggots, so the previous owner could have dealt with that, the healing of the wound caused by them usually takes very long to heal.

 

[TREY-L]

ive seen maggots on a ear cut before, the ear was full of em,
but i havent seen any maggot's on her yet, after we doctor her i spray some pyramethrium around her back end, not into the sore though, so it keeps the flyes down to might near nothing.
when im squirting the solution in the hole, you can actualy see it, like in a cup, it will slosh out if she moves just right, but so far just fluid is all that has came out, no hunks or cheesy stuff.

It's not hard to get rid of maggots, so the previous owner could have dealt with that, the healing of the wound caused by them usually takes very long to heal.

Are you referring to the Bot fly larvae? I was under the impression that normal "fly" larvae would not eat living tissue, and actually help clean up a wound.

 

[dun]

I was under the impression that normal "fly" larvae would not eat living tissue, and actually help clean up a wound.

That's true, but it's still disgusting

 

[fourstates]

Our fly larvae "maggot"s do eat only dead tissue...but screw worms eat live tissue and who knows what kind of insect larvae there may be in South Africa. The key to the wound healing is to allow it to heal from the inside out. Don't let it close up. Since it doesn't drain, you may keep it open with moist gauze. Pull the dried out guaze twice a day, flush the wound out and repack the wound. Healthy tissue is pink and a little bleeding is OK. You really want the dead tissue and drainage out of the wound. You don't want the wound to scab over until the hole is filled with pink healthy tissue. Good luck.

 

[dun]

Contrary to an earlier post, I owuld still use a light mixture of hydrogen peroxide once a day. HP will promote healing from the inside out, actaully it prevents healing from the outside in but the effect is the same.

 

[samm]

yes dun maggots are pretty nasty, especially when theres a big wiggleing mass of em...

i am using the peroxide and iodine and water mixture and flushing out twice daily, at both feedings, poor little thing ran from us this morning, after she got worked over so much yesterday, she didnt want no more, but then she realized we had her bottle, and all was forgiven