I have a horse with a lacerated deep flexor tendon. It is not severed but it is infected....?

Question

The vet says that it will need to be flushed in order to keep the infection from coming back. It is supposed to cost about $1,600. I can't afford that. I wonder if anyone knows of any ways that I can manage the infection without huge costs. I was giving him tucoprim but would like to not have to do that permanently. I am also doing hydro-therapy to keep the swelling down. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Sorry if it's not what you want to hear, but if you can't afford vet bills you shouldn't have a horse. I strongly suggest you take your vet's advice and find a way to pay the $1600. Your horse deserves it, if nothing else. good luck xx

Answer 2

If you have any coppertox use that for external problems that may also accompany this.  Without knowing the type of horse (Which may not seem to matter) it is hard to say.  The Hydrotherapy is a wonderful thing and I am glad you have that type equestrian facility available to you.  Maybe if you have only checked one vet you have a skewed view of what to do.  If you have a lot of Farriers in your area you may find they treat this stuff or early stages of recovery with more horse show homoeopathic treatments.  Give them a call and see what they think.  There are Vets that are specialists in the Equestrian Medicine arena, also.  I am familiar with a Dr. Baum that is an extraordinary veterinary practitioner in Tennessee.   Never hesitate to get a second opinion from a specialist.  Especially if this is a show calibre horse.  Whatever direction you go I suggest you look at the shop below and see what the generic medications are and what the cost of additional supplements are.

Answer 3

I can't offer you a whole lot of advice Mott but I will commiserate if I can.  We just came home about 15 minutes ago from bring our 2 1/2 month old filly from the vet with an infected tendon.  She is now septic and we are looking at a $3-5K bill.  Vet is not sure she is even going to make it.

After what I have seen today, I wouldn't risk trying to fix it at home.  What I saw was pretty nasty stuff and when it goes wrong, it goes bad in a matter of hours (I know, first hand, from my experience just today).  

I did contact Carecredit and Wells Fargo (got a better rate from Wells Fargo) and are going to do what we can.

I'm in a similar situation to you... paid $600 for her mother and paid a stud fee of $500 for the foal.  Normal, uneventful pregnancy so I haven't sunk a whole lot of money into this...

You gotta do what ya' gotta do though...

Edit:  

I would think through the long term ramifications.  What happens if you keep him on antibiotics long term?  What are the risks?  Can that infection cause septicemia suddenly?  What about infecting the bone?  If it suddenly worsens, are you willing to put the horse down?  I know, these questions aren't fun but unfortunately, they are part of the reality.

Thanks for the well wishes... three days later, she is still in the hospital.  Bill is going to be close to $5K.  She would have died within 48 hours if we had not taken her to the clinic.  Just wouldn't want the same mess for you.

Answer 4

I would keep flushing it out about three times a day and keep the swelling down as much as possible. Giving long term medication without consulting your vet could be very dangerous. I learned that the hard way, and it ended up costing me over $5000. Talk to your vet and see if you could work out a payment plan with him. You don't want the infection to get worse than it is and end up costing you a fortune.

Answer 5

Oh man, i feel for you.

I am going to star this to see if more can respond..

I personally would flush with betadine to help prevent reinfection, and also continue with the antibiotics.. what is the main source of the $1600?  Is it debridement?  

Also a poutice *I personally use bentonite* to help pull the infection and swelling out.

Good luck and so sorry to hear about all that.

Answer 6

I was a nurse on an orthopedic unit for years.  I dealt with many deep tissue infections, which were common after compound fractures, where skin was torn by a fractured bone, allowing debris into the deep tissue.  Motorcycle accidents often resulted in such infections as well, since the skin barrier was usually compromised.  These types of infections often involve anaerobic bacteria and can be near impossible to resolve.  Many patients went through procedure after procedure, over periods of years, as these infections were put at bay only to re-emerge again and again.

Our human patients were able to be kept under ideal conditions for healing, which is not possible for a horse.  We could run perfusions of strong antibiotics directly into the deep tissues with the patients kept on bed rest during these treatments.  Sadly, many ultimately underwent amputations after multiple failed attempts to resolve the infections. I believe that the procedure your vet suggests is an antibiotic perfusion.

My point is to say that any decision you make about your horse should be an informed decision....I wanted you to be aware of what can happen with this.  Of course there is no way of knowing in advance, but you should discuss this with your vet before deciding to go forward with the surgery.

Add...the various ideas that have been presented by other posters may work in some situations, but none are applicable to this type of deep tissue infection.  Antibiotics infused into blood are seldom able to adequately reach these infections, and most of what is being suggested will possibly inhibit wholesale spread of the infection at best...that is my opinion based on my own hands-on experience.

Answer 7

First of all, ignore what Julianne and Miss T said- they are just being nasty for no reason. Second, I think the idea that someone had of asking a local vet school or college if they can help your horse is a good one, and well worth considering. I really feel for you- I have been in your situation myself, and I know several other people who have as well- one of which is my own sister, who nearly lost one of her best polo horses to sand colic a few years back. He had to have surgery up at New Bolton, and it cost her nearly 3,000 dollars- almost twice as much as what you are looking at. The horse recovered, thankfully, and is now getting a preventative a few times a year, but this was a costly lesson. Are you close to a university or a vet school, by chance? Depending on the answer to that question, it may be possible for you to take your horse there. I grew up in Indiana, near Purdue University's main campus, and they of course had a great vet school- and they had a program under which they sometimes would treat horses with injuries like this one in exchange for the animals' being allowed to be used for study by the students. If you live near a school like that, you should give them a call. Otherwise, I am not sure what to tell you, except that you may have to bite the bullet and pay the costs, so to speak. Since this is your kids' horse ( I am amazed that you are allowing them to ride a stallion- most parents I know are not that brave, and in some places, it's against the law to keep a stallion in a residential area due to zoning restrictions) there clearly are a lot of emotional issues around this.

I am not familiar with that many home remedies, but there are some things I have tried on wounds which have helped in the past. One of these is a furacin sweat. That sometimes will work, because it inhibits the growth of bacteria and fungus in the wound. I would definitely keep the horse on antibiotics, though you may want to switch to something less expensive than tucoprim. Can't your vet give you a prescript for something like Tribrissen or a related antibiotic? That would help cut down some of the costs of this. I would also ask him or her about generic versions of the tucoprim- and there are plenty of them on the market. Generic drugs almost always cost less than the brand name ones do, because they are cheaper to develop and package. Likewise, ask about using something like one of the penicillin derivatives. You can order those through catalogs, and they are much cheaper than tucoprim- and just as effective at treating infections. You may need to get your vet to show you how to give your horse shots, but that shouldn't be difficult. One of the things which I have run into in the past is vets who often will suggest the most expensive ways of treating injuries or illnesses, simply because they are interested in more than just caring for your horse- they want to make a profit, and this is one way to do it.That behavior annoys me, and it sounds like you may be a victim of such a practice. That would help explain why your vet is so unwilling to let you try home remedies, etc. or work with you to help keep the costs from getting out of hand. The only way to resolve this is to talk to him or her, and make it clear that while you want to give your horse the best care you can, it needs to be affordable- and that means no more of their trying to sell you things like tucoprim, which is one of the most expensive drugs on the market right now. Your horse doesn't need an antibiotic which costs 30 or 40 dollars for a 10 day supply-  not when you can easily get the same drug for half of that when you buy it generically or from a company like Valley Vet or Jeffers.

You can also try flushing the wound out yourself with a betadine solution, or something like a gentian violet solution. If you aren't comfortable doing this yourself, ask your vet to show you how. It sounds to me like what he/she really wants to do is a debridement of the tendon- that means he/she believes there is dead or necrotic (which means dead) tissue in the wound, and he wants to go in and remove it so the wound will stand a better chance of healing correctly. The word debridement is a medical term which means to remove by scraping, and in the case of the skin or tendons, to do this by individual layers. Mulereiner is a nurse, I think, which is why she used that term with you.  I would have your horse evaluated by a different vet first, before allowing this one to proceed- because it may turn out that he doesn't need surgery after all. If your current vet objects( and the good ones won't, because they recognize that clients have a right to ask for a second opinion, and that it's not a reflection on their professional skill or competence) then you need to change to someone else, and do it quickly. This is no different than asking for a second opinion from a doctor. Good doctors do not object to this; the bad ones are the ones who get upset by it. Y

Answer 8

Uhhh... listen to your vet an spend the money. Lacerated Tendons are not something to mess with! Otherwise you just be ruining your horse by not giving the proper care he needs.  

Answer 9

Unfourtunately, if your vet thinks this is the only option, he/she is probably right. You could always get a second opinion form a different vet. Also, if you have any colleges with equine veterinary programs, they will sometimes take on a case for free or a discount to teach the students on. Ohio State and Cornell University in NY do this, if you live near either of those by any chance. Otherwise, check with your vet to see if their are colleges.

If your vet wil except CareCredit programs, that is also an option. Care Credit is a credit program that is used strictly for medical/veterinary/dental bills with no interest for up to a year. You can check their website to see if you can get approved and if your vet will accept that as payment for the $1600 bill.

Don't mess around with tendons and infections. You could loose your horse...very easily....to both problems.  

Answer 10

Did your vet tell you the chances of this procedure actually helping your horse? 3 out of 5 horse's will die due to this injury if not from lameness, but from bone infection. 1 out of 2 horses will die from the surgery needed to go in repair the damage, and treat the infection. If your vet believes the only way to repair the damage and draw out the remaining infection is for surgery, then chances are that your horse is in pretty bad shape. Your vet will have to debride the laceration, suture the tendon, put an elevated trailer shoe on your horse, and cast your horse for 6-8 weeks with gradual reduction every 3 weeks or so.

Truth. Your horse is going to need to be treated by a vet, no amount of poultice is going to help your horse. By declining proper treatment of this animal you run the risk of the horse being lame or dying due to infection. There is sadly no short cut. And if you keep giving him injections not only do you run the risk of infection this way, but also a chance of paralyzing the muscle around the injection sight.

Talk to your vet about a payment plan or ask for help through an equine rescue center near you. If you go ahead with the procedure, which I think you honestly should, then also get him gelded at this time so it's not one traumatic surgery after the other.

Answer 11

If you can't afford the vet bills, you shouldn't have the horse.  It's not fair to that animal to not be able to treat it properly when it is sick or injured.

Any kind of tendon injury is a major issue.  As it is, the prognosis for recovery isn't great; that horse will never be the same.  But with an infection and insufficient veterinary care, you are pretty much dooming that horse.  You might as well put him down. Maybe you can at least afford that.

EDIT:  Really trolls?  Instead of just thumbs downing, why don't you put in YOUR educated answer.  You obviously know nothing about tendon injuries or you would realize how serious this situation it and that it can't just be treated with home remedies.

EDIT:  I'm not being nasty, I'm being realistic.  And unfortunately, sometimes the truth hurts.  This is a deep tissue infection.  There are no "home remedies" for that.  Period.

Answer 12

well i don't think there would be any thing else you could do. you have to get the infection away before you can do anything else with it.

Answer 13

i agree with the other posters about getting approved for credit by either your vet or the company that one of the girls suggested.  if you break it down into 1 year of payments it would be about $150 a month with interst included.  unfortunatley there is no way anyone here will be able to give you suitable veterinary advice that you can actually use.  i am sorry for your misfortune and wish your horse a rapid recovery!