Have a bum angus calf that was attacked by a mountain lion a week ago and has some bad cuts/slices on her front end and the worst ones are under her hind quarters and are about 2 inches long and very deep. We have been washing them twice a day with nolvasan and treating them with yellowish paste(I cant remember the name) that our vet said to use, 20 mg penicillin once a day and have been applying SWAT around the wounds so have had no fly issues. My concern is the wounds are smelly/stinking. Is this normal? Is there another cleaner I should be using? Any help is appreciated.
Calf with Deep wounds
- Thread starter MTBoy
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Putangitangi
Well-known member
What's her general health looking like? Is she bright, or looking sick? What's her temperature?
I dealt with a yearling steer a few years ago which had been stuck somewhere tight and one of his muscles deep in the stifle was badly damaged and the whole thing eventually burst out through his skin. It took weeks of washing and treatment and he eventually came right - and went to slaughter. During that process, the wound had a number of different sorts of smells which I began to recognize as ok or not. There was a detectable difference when the wound went from ordinarily healing (which sometimes included a putrid smell of dead flesh as some of the damaged muscle decayed and then came out) to there being some infection present in the wound. One of the things I did regularly was monitor his temperature, particularly if I was concerned about that sort of change. The vet came out a couple of times in the early stages, because I wanted to ensure he was happy I wasn't breaching any welfare codes by keeping the animal alive while trying to fix him. When there was infection, we gave him antibiotics, but generally he just got fed really well and gradually came right. (If you're interested, I can send you a link to some pictures of the process - although it's quite different from the wounds you're dealing with.)
Your calf's wounds may just be smelly as dead stuff is being sloughed off. Infection smells sort of warm and sweet in a putrid sort of manner. Bearing in mind you're covering her with antibiotics, you're probably alright, but can you phone your vet for an update?
I dealt with a yearling steer a few years ago which had been stuck somewhere tight and one of his muscles deep in the stifle was badly damaged and the whole thing eventually burst out through his skin. It took weeks of washing and treatment and he eventually came right - and went to slaughter. During that process, the wound had a number of different sorts of smells which I began to recognize as ok or not. There was a detectable difference when the wound went from ordinarily healing (which sometimes included a putrid smell of dead flesh as some of the damaged muscle decayed and then came out) to there being some infection present in the wound. One of the things I did regularly was monitor his temperature, particularly if I was concerned about that sort of change. The vet came out a couple of times in the early stages, because I wanted to ensure he was happy I wasn't breaching any welfare codes by keeping the animal alive while trying to fix him. When there was infection, we gave him antibiotics, but generally he just got fed really well and gradually came right. (If you're interested, I can send you a link to some pictures of the process - although it's quite different from the wounds you're dealing with.)
Your calf's wounds may just be smelly as dead stuff is being sloughed off. Infection smells sort of warm and sweet in a putrid sort of manner. Bearing in mind you're covering her with antibiotics, you're probably alright, but can you phone your vet for an update?
She is alert and is eating well. talked with the vet yesterday and he said we are doing everything correct. We have also been rinsing them out with the garden hose once a day. I dont see any visible infection. I just feel sorry for the young gal as both her front knees were sprained really bad in the battle also but every day she can walk a little better.
Thank you very much for your input.
Thank you very much for your input.
Fire Sweep Ranch
Well-known member
How did you get her away from the mountain lion? Sounds pretty bad, poor thing. Pictures would be interesting to see, if you can get some.
They were right by the house and about 12:30 A.M. all heck broke loose(sleeping with windows open). Am thinking it was a young Mtn lion and when we ran out of the house and hollered probably scared it off. I will post a couple pictures, but pretty graphic. You can see the slices on her front shoulder is what makes us figure it was a lion. if someone has other thoughts that it wasn't a lion would like to hear them.
Here is a link to three photos, hopefully the link works. http://mtboy.smugmug.com/Sample-Gallery ... /i-P9G8N9J
Here is a link to three photos, hopefully the link works. http://mtboy.smugmug.com/Sample-Gallery ... /i-P9G8N9J
Putangitangi
Well-known member
Did the vet give her an anti-inflammatory shot for the knee pain? I've used Arnica to good effect in animals with inflammatory pain.
The garden hose (as long as your water source is a clean one) is a great treatment tool. I daily washed my steer's huge wound (actually inside his body!) with water each day, to get the collected gunk out of it before applying the next lot of healing aids.
The garden hose (as long as your water source is a clean one) is a great treatment tool. I daily washed my steer's huge wound (actually inside his body!) with water each day, to get the collected gunk out of it before applying the next lot of healing aids.
