Fluid pouch on a bull

[Joey Martin]

We have a bull that had a huge amount fluid on and around it's left hip and a football sized one on its left flank . We opened him up to drain the fluid and some fleshy stuff poped out , we pulled it out ( not attached to anything ) and the fluid ran out like a water hose , and stink like the dickens . we were thinking maybe snake bite but not sure , giving him antibotics now . Any ideas on what this is or diffrent things to look for and do !

thanks for any info or opinions

 

[funky 4-Her]

Don't know what it could be... You might want to put some peroxide in the hole just to help clean it up.

 

[Scotty]

My vet says the peroxide is to hard on skin. He recomends Nolvasan or hot water with some dish soap. Sounds to me like an abcess by some foreign object. Such as stickers.

 

[CWT Angus]

Sounds like a nasty abscess. I would open it up as you have & flush it out well with a diluted Nolvasan solution as mentioned. You can also use diluted Betadine solution- not the scrub. It is correct that peroxide is damaging to the skin. Hit him with some good long lasting antibiotics. Keep those wounds open & draining daily, you can flush them with a few 60 cc syringes of the solution. They will start to heal from the inside out, and there will be less and less of a pocket there. You may have to pick the scabs off the outside as the opening will try to heal over. Once the pocket has healed up just let it scab over & all should be fine. Keep it sprayed for flies and keep an eye out for a foreign object as mentioned like a sticker. Good Luck

 

[milkmaid]

Nolvasan (chlorhexidine) is every bit as hard on tissue as hydrogen peroxide. If you dilute the Nolvasan, then that's a different story, but I wouldn't use it straight. Same goes for iodine.

 

[KNERSIE]

Nolvasan (chlorhexidine) is every bit as hard on tissue as hydrogen peroxide. If you dilute the Nolvasan, then that's a different story, but I wouldn't use it straight. Same goes for iodine.

I recently had to flush an abscess on a show bull with hydrogen peroxide. The vet's recommendation was to use a 20% hydrogen peroxide and dilute with equal part water. Ten days later all that was left of the abscess was a small bald spot.

Vet also said that by the time an abscess open up the surrounding skin and tissue has very little feeling left in them making the flushing less painfull than one would have thought.

 

[Joey Martin]

Thanks guys , we have flushed it with the betadine . No signs of any object though ? Guess we will see what happens from here !

 

[MikeC]

I would have him tested for BLV.

Bovine Leukosis Virus.

Google it.