How to Treat your Horses Life Threatening Wound

When you start to research how to care for different wounds, your head can start to spin with the amount of options available to you.

But as most injuries involve a certain amount of blood loss, so let’s start with some useful facts about blood and what loosing it can mean to your horse.

Blood Loss (Haemorrhage)

Oxygen is transferred from the lungs throughout the body to organs and tissue by riding the ‘super-blood highway’.  This forms an incredible network of vessels (or tubes) of varying sizes.  The blood vessels carrying blood away from the heart have firm walls.  Large ones are called arteries and smaller ones are called arterioles.  Blood vessels heading back to the heart are called veins.  The pressure of the blood in vein are lower than arteries due to the distance travelled from the heart and the blood itself is darker due the lower amount of oxygen present.

A horse on average carries 80ml per kilogram of body weight – it’s a little more for hot blooded horses such as Thoroughbreds and a little less for cold bloods such as Percherons and Clydesdales. So the average horse carries about 54.5 litres of blood.

It takes about 10% of blood loss before a horse will show signs of shock and even though most bleeding from wounds appears to be a much larger volume of blood than it actually is.  Any bleeding wound needs to be controlled as soon as possible.

Signs to look for that your horse is going into blood loss shock include weakness, whole body sweating, colic, a speeding up heart rate and pale or white mucous membranes such as your horses gums.

When bandaging the heavily bleeding wound, it should be applied in a firm and smooth manner, which will apply significant pressure directly over the wound (if possible).  It is important to have your vet assess the wound as soon as possible.

Wounds/Cuts

It is vital for severe wounds that the sooner a wound is taken care of, the better the prognosis – both functionally and cosmetically.

One of the most important first steps in wound care is to ensure your horse has up to date tetanus protection and remembering to give your horse booster shots if necessary. Make sure you keep all vaccination records and vet phone numbers handy.

It’s a good idea to stay as calm as you can while applying pressure bandages to a fresh cut – remember, it will look like a lot more blood than it actually is. Your horse can probably stand to loose about 5 litres before there is a problem. By directing pressure onto the injury, the bandage will help the blood to clot.

However, if a major artery is cut, it can be tricky to apply enough pressure to slow the bleeding – but you should try your best to do it anyway. A trick to help is to wrap the wound in three sheets of sheet cotton, a shipping (travel) bandage, quilt and a large bath towel. These can be held on with several rolls of elastic bandage, which will also maintain pressure. Aside from your horse being mortified at looking slightly ridiculous, it should work to stem the gushing blood.

The elastic bandage needs to be applied in a smooth, even and firm manner. There must be a good amount of pressure to stem the bleeding. But be careful not to keep the tight bandage on for too long – only 20 to 30 minutes max.  Enough time for you to contact your vet and receive some further advice. If the bleeding hasn’t stopped, take off some of the layers and replace them with new material. If the bleeding has slowed replace the bandaging with a clean and more normally applied support bandage.

Your horse will need to be strictly supported or immobilised if the cut is to a tendon or ligament. You will need to attach a splint as well as the bandage until a vet is able to see the damage. This can help prevent even more damage to the area if your horse puts weight on it. As tricky as it might be, the best thing to do is to try to stop your horse from moving as best as you can. 

Older wounds present their own problems. Even though the wound might have slowed or stopped bleeding, by the time you get to it, it may have become contaminated with dirt, debris and germs. The ideal amount of time to tend to a cut is within 6 hours of it happening.

If the cut is properly cleaned with warm water and an iodine-based surgical scrub within that time, the chances of complications from infection are reduced. Also a sterile dressing and support bandage is a great help.

If the wound is old and has swollen, cold water sprayed on it can help reduce the inflammation and aid in cleaning it until a vet is able to properly treat it.  Your horse will most certainly need antibiotics if it is a significant wound.

Wounds to the Abdomen

Any laceration to the abdomen area should be treated as though it has penetrated through the abdomen until you know otherwise. If it has been penetrated, there is a big risk of developing infection to the abdominal cavity.  This needs to be treated extremely urgently.

The worst case scenario is if a piece of intestine has been punctured or cut. Horses with this type of wound usually will develop significantly elevated respiratory and heart rates and show signs of shock soon after the leakage of intestinal contents into the abdominal cavity.

In this nightmare case, and a piece of intestine is protruding, your horse must be kept still and the bowel supported. Call your vet immediately. The bowel can be supported by wrapping a clean bed sheet around the belly and tied over your horse’s back. If possible, don’t touch the bowel and do everything you can to stop it from touching the ground.

Cuts to Eyelids

Prevention is better than a cure, so check out your horse’s environment and clear away anything that could catch a delicate eyelid. If, however, that despite your best efforts your horse still manages to catch it’s eyelid and tears it, don’t panic. Luckily your horse’s face has a great blood supply, so even the worst looking cuts have a good chance of healing quickly.

No matter how small the cut, a vet should always take a look at it anyway, as the little eyelid has the most important function of protecting the eye. Even small defects could cause big trouble for the horse in the future. Also, there could be some small damage to the eye itself that a vet will be able to detect.

Which brings us to: Eye Lacerations or Punctures

Repairing these injuries varies and depends on the degree of damage to the eye as well as any infections. A vet should always see a damaged eye immediately as the longer you wait the greater the chance of an infection settling in and complicating the healing process.

Foot Puncture/Abscess

If whatever that has punctured your horse’s foot is still sticking out of the wound, do not pull it out. Your vet will need to look at it first. If the object is protruding a lot, you can tape some small wooden blocks to the foot or cut the object off close to the foot with wire or bolt cutters, so it doesn’t go in any deeper. But again – DON’T pull it out.

The reason for leaving the object in is that, depending on where the injury is, your vet may want to take a radiograph (xray) to determine what deeper structures are involved. The specific location of the puncture can greatly affect the initial treatment plan and the prognosis.  Leaving the object in will also stem any flow of blood and prevent further contamination of the wound.

So where to next?  Looking at how wounds heal is an essential part of being able to manage your horses wound so optimum healing results.  Read the article ‘How Wounds Heal’ for further information.  

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