Mysterious wound

Miniature Horse Talk Forums

Help Support Miniature Horse Talk Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Apr 20, 2005
Messages
10,350
Reaction score
11,416
Location
Southwest Oklahoma
Sometime between 8 am this morning and 2 pm this afternoon my horse scraped a raw place on his side. A lunch guest noticed it while we were out chatting with the boys. I washed it with my pine tar shampoo and hydroed it for a little while, and noticed it was swollen, kind of jellylike, and there were two red marks distanced like fang marks. I am wondering if he got a glancing snake bite then rubbed the spot on a tree till it was raw?? He seems fine. I put some betadine on it and gave him a dose of banamine.

I will hydro it again in the morning. Any other suggestions? I thought I might buy some Vetericyn tomorrow to spritz it. I should keep that product in my first aid supplies.
 
Is he itchy? Maybe something with an anti-itch ingredient might help. I am thinking that there is an ointment out there with both benadryl and an antibiotic in it.
 
Are snakes Poisonous there ? If they are and you suspect it is a snake bite , I would call your vet immediately.

Snakes (most kinds) here in Australia are highly poisonous and deadly and will cause tissue to break down and impair blood clotting.

Hope he is ok , please let us know how he is going .
 
I hope he is okay! Are the red marks deep punctures or risen bumps? I have only dealt with a few snake bites in my life and those were all only on our Holstein cows from milk or black snakes out in the pastures and only on the legs, never up high on their sides. Maybe he got stung by an insect? Please let us know how he is doing.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I hydroed it again this morning but did not put anything on it. It doesn't look better, but doesn't look worse either. Definitely looks like fang marks to me, but I'll try to remember the camera when I hydro this evening. This time of year the rattlesnakes are beginning to move back to their dens. We do have them crossing our property, though no den has ever been found on our mountain. Either he was lying down and the snake was nearby, or it was up in the rocks and Dapper Dan got too close, I'll never know. The marks are not punctures, thank goodness. Poison must have been minimal.

He is doing fine, so I'm just going to keep hydroing it and watch him. If not better tomorrow, I will call the vet before the weekend. I don't think there is anything they can really do, unless they put him on an antibiotic, though.
 
I remember my vet saying a 1/2 dose of banamine is indicated for the treatment of poisoning, so maybe continue with the banamine thru the weekend for good measure. Maybe put a call into the vet just for an over the phone consult to see if he should be on dexamethasone of something to prevent tissue degeneration. Good luck. Hope he gets better quickly, treating wounds is no fun.
 
Banamine IS an anti-inflammatory . And if it was a bite, a benedryl product is also a good idea as it fights the effect of any type of poison of venom.
 
Banamine is an anti inflammatory- sort of. Dexamethasone is an antihistamine. Pretty much stronger Benadryl.

Not so sure I would give dexamethasone or Benadryl or any other antihistamines as they actually suppress the immune system. Ever so slightly, but that is still how they decrease swelling and open up airways. If there is a chance of poison I wouldn't give dex unless it was horrendously life threateningly swollen.
 
I really don't think it is terribly serious. I suspect the snake leaped up to bite him and he shied away and the fangs just scraped. Definite wound marks, but not punctures. darned nasty-tempered critters! It isn't as though they could eat a horse. Why not just slither away? Waste the venom on something non edible and then not have any for the next rodent he meets. Rattlesnakes'll never rule the world.

I'm not going to give him banamine tonight. He doesn't seem that uncomfortable. That penicillin injection was a doozy, though. My husband did it. 6 more to go. Poor Dapper Dan!
 
Decided not to continue with the penicillin. He had a huge lump this morning at the injection site; it is just way too difficult for us at home to do. The vet is giving me tucoprin (sp?) instead. Dapper Dan is so greedy I'm sure he will devour that as a top dressing easily.
 
Decided not to continue with the penicillin. He had a huge lump this morning at the injection site; it is just way too difficult for us at home to do. The vet is giving me tucoprin (sp?) instead. Dapper Dan is so greedy I'm sure he will devour that as a top dressing easily.
If he won't eat the tucoprim (powder SMZs) top dressed (one snort or sneeze could send the powder everywhere), mix with applesauce (I usually syringe it in to be sure, but just mixing with applesauce might work for you). [baby food carrots work pretty good too; but I usually just get some unsweetened applesauce and it works well for me, and it's usually cheap stuff.]
 
Chandab, that's how I give my meds too, mixed in applesauce and syringed into theirs mouth. They actually grow to like having their "medicinal treats" lol.

Marsha, I hope he's healing up well and feeling better soon. Poor little dude. Do you have a picture of the wound we can see? I have never seen a snake bite as it is rare around here in NH.
 
I'll try to remember by camera tonight when I go to hydro. Here is a photo of one of my other horses that was bitten in 2010. Vet kept him for 2 days. He would likely have died without vet care as the bite was on his nose and he could not breathe and we did not find him in time to insert the tube in his nose before it swelled. It took quite a while to heal, but eventually became just a scar with the hairs white around it. That was our worst experience. This photo was taken after he got home from the vet and was doing much better. You can imagine our shock and horror when we first saw him. I found this snake a few weeks later and shot him.

My husband keeps everything around the corrals and fences mowed and Rounduped. But sometimes varmints just happen.

snakebite.jpg

snakescar.jpg
 
Here is Dapper Dan's bite this evening. The fang marks are plain to see. Luckily they did not puncture, just grazed him. He rubbed off that hair after the bite and before we saw him. Groomed him at 9 am, lunch guests went to chat with him at 2 pm. Sometime between those hours he had his adventures.

He gobbled up his tucoprim mixed with the oat groats and licked the bowl clean.

snake bite.jpg
 
Glad he takes his meds without a problem. That looks itchy and sore. Hope he feels better soon.
 
I got him! Went out to hitch Rowdy and the rattlesnake was by the corral. I got him with the hoe. Not a huge one, only 7 rattles. The skin around the wound is sloughing, but with the hydroing it will be fine. And he's getting the antibiotic.
 
Quite glad that rattlers are far and few between where I live, just garter snakes and bull snakes in my area in any number. Closer to the river bottom there are lots of rattlers, so quite glad I don't live down there, I think I'll take our cold, white winters if it keeps them at bay.
 
Glad you got the buzzard. I cannot stand snakes and neither can hubby.
 
Whew! Glad you took care of him! Supposedly we do have rattlers around, but for some reason we've never seen them on our property. <knock on wood>.......We have garter snakes, bull snakes, and occasionally king snakes......all of which I do like having as they keep the pests at bay. When they are small they eat insects and when they get bigger they eat mice....
 

Latest posts

Back
Top