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Day
1 We're
not exactly sure what happened to this big 6 year old gelding's
shoulder. Turned out on hill pasture, the closest we can guess is he ran
a steel post deep into his shoulder or a petrified tree limb. Whatever
he hit, he must have been going fast, as it tore the muscle below it
also. We found the wound when it was only a couple of hours old. It took
the veterinarian 3 hours to stitch up both layers & insert two drain
tubes. We brought him home that same day. He had to be confined to a
stall for about 1 month with just hand walking as to prevent the wound &
muscle from tearing open. We began applying Natural Heal that same day
to the entire area & continued twice daily throughout the healing
process.
Day 6
Both pictures of day 6 are not pretty,
but you can tell the salve was keeping the entire area soft, to allow
the skin to start healing and growing back together. It also kept the
stitches flexible & from becoming brittle, along with the areas around
the drain tubes.
We had been concerned about this horse getting extremely sore from
stalling as this gelding had not been stalled before, was a large horse
(16 hands, & over 1300lbs), was very active & was unable to lay
down. We knew the Natural Heal would reduce the soreness, but even we
were surprised when this horse never got sore during his whole recovery.
Day 11
As you can tell from the
pictures, it was amazing the healing that occurred between days
6 & 11. The skin had almost completely grown back together
except for a couple of the ends where the drains were still slightly
pulling. The areas with the large pink abrasions in the Day 6 picture
were already less noticeable. Where a drain had been removed, it was
beginning to grow closed also.
Day 14
The skin has
completely closed & grown together in almost all the areas to be smooth
again. The drain tube was removed a couple of days after this picture.
Hair growth is beginning to fill in.
Day 22
Hair growth is more
obvious. Drain holes are in final stages of closing up and sealing over.
Scars are becoming less visible. Horse was turned out of stall and back
onto pasture on Day 25.
We were fortunate
this horse not only healed up visibly with no scaring & proud flesh, but
also completely sound on his shoulder. When he shed out completely the
following spring, there was no way you would know this horse's shoulder
had been injured. Hair growth was normal with no scarring.
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