A Progress update from the foal who tried to jump a fence.
The wounds remained closed for a few weeks, this was vitally important to keep to exposed bone covered and prevent sequester formation. Sequestration is where an area of bone dies and becomes like a foreign body in need of surgical removal.
The skin around the wound began to die back and the wound contracted - this is a normal phase of wound healing. Over the next month the foal underwent regular bandage changes. The wound took time to fill in and when it did there was exuberant granulation tissue - proud flesh.
Proud flesh is common in equine wounds, especially on the distal limb. It is treated by excising the tissue that is above (proud) to the skin - thus allowing the skin to epithelialise over the top.
In this case as the wound was so large, the decision was taken to take skin grafts from the neck and place them in the wound. These islands of skin promote skin growth over the top of the wound.
As you can see from the photos the wound is closing up well and in a few weeks we should have a completely healed leg.
As you can see from this last photo, there is a different texture to the tissue between the islands of graft - this is skin beginning to heal over the top
