Leg injuries and wound care *caution: pics*

[milkmaid]

Just for fun. Recent pics I've taken - warning - these are graphic. They're wounds.

I have no idea what other vets do with their bovine leg injuries... this is how I deal with mine. Enjoy.


Good wounds - scrapes, only through one layer of skin, not into muscle or tendon, minimal swelling, no draining pus or other evidence of infection, etc.

Bad wounds - through multiple tissue layers (skin, muscle, tendon), involve bone or are near joints, small openings and large pockets inside, any wound where there is a "pocket" for dead tissue and fluid to pool that is lower than the wound itself (ie, cannot drain well), anything that drains pus and appears infected or that makes the animal lame.

Deleted pictures...sorry folks... I needed them for something else in my professional life and didn't want anyone putting me and MM together.

The three most important things to do when dealing with wounds...

1) Clean
2) Clean
3) Clean

You can't have wounds too clean. Read that again. Whether you can avoid bandaging a wound if you are willing to hose it down once or twice a day... I don't know. I don't have that option so I bandage everything that could turn nasty if I leave it open.

I have half a dozen different things I put on wounds depending on whether or not they're infected and whether I need them more dry or wet. Probably 90% of them I use a simple sugar and chlorhexidine or iodine mixture under the bandage. Nothing expensive or fancy. I do have a few antibiotic options... there's no magic fix, just CLEAN and TIME.

I typically change bandages every 3-5 days... wounds that really concern me may get changed every day for 2-3 days until I make a decision on them. I have a few really good people that do most of the follow up work and just call when they have questions.

MM

 

[Putangitangi]

That was fantastic, thank you very much for posting!

Do you know how any of the injuries occurred?

 

[M-5]

That was fantastic, thank you very much for posting!

Do you know how any of the injuries occurred?

a couple of them were the same injuries different animals. I would think it would be obvious what's causing it.

 

[milkmaid]

I know or can guess at what caused about half those wounds. Sometimes cows are as bad as horses about getting hurt when you didn't think there was anything to get hurt on.

I currently have 0.06% of the dairy herd in the hospital with an injury... that's higher than usual... in other words, injuries aren't that common in spite of the number of pictures I have available.

 

[Putangitangi]

That was fantastic, thank you very much for posting!

Do you know how any of the injuries occurred?

a couple of them were the same injuries different animals. I would think it would be obvious what's causing it.

You might think that and I presume wire injuries, but still thought it worth asking. I'm not nearly as clever as you.

 

[wbvs58]

And the wounds often heal in spite of the treatment that we give to them.

I read an abstract from an article in The Australian & NZ Veterinarian from some research trials that were done at the Werribee Equine Centre attached to the university I think but have misplaced the article and don't have the interest to search for it but the trial compared the time for wounds on horses legs to heal under various treatments from no treatment to various types of dressings and treatments and it came to the conclusion that the clear winner was no treatment. I can't give you details of how these conclusions were reached but obviously the same wound can't be compared with two different treatments but similar wounds on different legs must have been compared.

So like most things we tend to overrate the effects of the assistance we give to things. Yes, things do heal in spite of the assistance we give them but looking after things makes us feel all warm and fuzzy.

Ken

 

[milkmaid]

It depends on the wound Ken... I see anywhere from 2-15 new injuries every week, and I can say I've personally shot or shipped enough to know "no treatment" is a bad idea on most of these. One of the advantages to working on staff...

For instance... that wound on the front of the hock is pretty classic. I also see it on the inside of the hock and it's always on the right hock. If I deal with it in the first few days it'll be OK. If I see it after a week, the joint is typically infected, wound is sluffing big chunks of dead tissue and pus, cow is non-weight-bearing, and I have to send her to slaughter.

The injury in the very first picture may heal if left alone. If I do that, there is a risk it will heal with excessive scar tissue (unsightly) and possibly a sequestrum (piece of dead bone) that oozes pus for months. Been there seen that on several dozen animals.

The degloving injury on the calf is another one I'd have to shoot if I'd seen it a couple days later. I've had enough injuries near the fetlock that turned septic to be 100% certain of that. Actually wasn't certain it was salvegeable as is either.

And obviously those hoof injuries have to be dealt with... those are welfare issues.

It very much depends on the type of wound and the conditions the animal is kept in. Sometimes we do over-treat wounds here... but I'd rather that than the alternative. My goal is to return the calves/cows to their home pen with legs that look like they did originally... leaving wounds alone rarely results in a pleasant appearance after healing. FWIW.

 

[Boot Jack Bulls]

And the wounds often heal in spite of the treatment that we give to them.

I read an abstract from an article in The Australian & NZ Veterinarian from some research trials that were done at the Werribee Equine Centre attached to the university I think but have misplaced the article and don't have the interest to search for it but the trial compared the time for wounds on horses legs to heal under various treatments from no treatment to various types of dressings and treatments and it came to the conclusion that the clear winner was no treatment. I can't give you details of how these conclusions were reached but obviously the same wound can't be compared with two different treatments but similar wounds on different legs must have been compared.

So like most things we tend to overrate the effects of the assistance we give to things. Yes, things do heal in spite of the assistance we give them but looking after things makes us feel all warm and fuzzy.

Ken

I had an App mare that was about 20 when she de-gloved a hind leg, hock to pastern. She was a range mare, and had never had her feet trimmed, been clipped or rode for more than 30 seconds a day in her life. You could halter her and handle her safely, but she was not into being pampered. There was going to be no wrapping, spraying, dressing anything on her legs. When I found her in that condition, I ran a garden hose on her for 1 hour. The best I could do to "clean" the wound was suds up a bar of Dove soap on her hip and let it run down her leg. After it dried, I poured gall remedy (basically liquid blue kote) down her hip until the wound was also covered. I left her tail long, but clean so she could swat away flies, and put more gall remedy on once a week. When it was scabbed over, I dusted with blood stop powder once a week to keep proud flesh down. It took about 2 years, but it completely healed. Getting carried away on her would have probably just got us both hurt pretty bad. I figure she was mean enough to fight through it.

I'm not suggesting that this is the rule of thumb on leg injuries, maybe more the exception, but a interesting anecdote to what WBVS said. I do, however, still swear by dove bar soap to clean injuries.

 

[milkmaid]

Meh........ I don't have anything to prove, y'all know this. Agree with me or not it doesn't matter. But fwiw, I don't have the luxury of time. You folks might, and with time and benign neglect the cow that got hurt in the spring is decently healed up by fall. Or the horse is healed in 2 years. (Woohoo, 2 years.)

I get maybe 6 weeks on the calves, lucky to have 3 weeks to get a wound of any size healed on the cow side. Cows that become lame, lose body condition, or their milk production drops will go to town, even if they would have eventually healed. Even if I can almost guarantee the cow will be fine in another month she may not get to stay. A very small portion of my job is to get cows moved out of the hospital pen; the only way that happens is to improve healing and recovery times.

What I do works... very, very well.