One night while talking online with a friend, Marty heard of a yearling that had become tangled up in barbed wire. The vet came, bandaged, and gave medications. After a few days, she was turned out and it happened again. This time she sawed her leg to the bone about 2 inches below the inside hock from inside to outside, even cutting through the Suspensory Flexor Ligaments and tendons. The owners were going to put her down because they could not afford any more vet bills.

Marty was asked (by a caring neighbor) to take Petra on. She and her husband drove the three hour round trip to bring Petra home. When they arrived, Petra calmly walked, on three legs, around the house to the barn.

The following is Petra's story as told by Marty:

The vet had told the owners she could be saved to be a brood mare but no riding. The first pictures are her leg, as we gently washed her wound out with Equine Elite Wash. We did a 2 1/2 gal wash to clean it out. Equine Elite Relief Spray was next. I have found it to have an almost numbing effect on horses with open wounds like this and makes it easier to work with the bandages. Third was to coat the bandages (I used infant pampers cut in half) with the Elite Relief Wound Cream, smear the wound, then plaster it on, holding with vet wrap. The final was a quilt held with a cotton wrap and vet wrap to secure. I had no vet wrap! Yup, used panty hose and masking tape, worked like a charm. lol!

The wash was used once a day but the bandages were changed three times a day for the first two weeks. Equine Elite Labs received phone calls for help. A muscle was dangling, we watched it reattach, skin was driven down, we watched it shrink and regenerate and most important, we watched the bone cover with tissue with NO bone infections. The Elite made the tissue cover it so fast it had no chance to become infected.

Dr. Allen came, looked at her pictures after 3 weeks of the treatments and he was impressed. He said the ligaments that she severed were not of great importance and that as she grew she could be trail ridden lightly. They govern the point of the toe and she might have a tendency to drag her toe as she grew but, not a life threatening thing. The wound is healing from the inside out and closing in on the sides. The bone, muscle, blood vessels and nerves are now covered and the mass is shrinking.

UPDATE - July, 2003
The bandages must stay on until the flesh is healed over. It will be proud flesh but minimal with Elite Wound dressing. Proud flesh is what stops the elasticity of the skin so keeping it covered helps maintain the fluid. We are currently dealing with removing the outer scaring. When Petra's bandages came off I kept a light cover on the leg. The air helped dry it out it was washed once a day with the Elite Wash. That made sure no infections would set in after the thick skin developed.

It is important to keep a wound like this covered tightly for some time. In Petra's case, it was healed over with very little scarring but the flesh was thin and filmed over. It started to itch, no matter what was put on it. As the nerves healed back she was constantly biting at the leg and ripping the new growth up. So, keep the bandages on longer then you think if necessary. If someone see the horse has an interest in the leg by looking at it, put a bandage on it.

The bandages took awhile to get off totally. I looked for scabbing - total time 3 months. She did not have any bandages while she was in her stall and tied. The itching with the healing was awful and she would break it open alot. I think that is why she has a bad scar. When the scabbing started, I let her go longer and longer with the bandages until it came down to a 4x4 and just a tight piece of vet wrap but they can get that off easily too.

Petra's leg was totally done with Equine Elite products. I also boosted her immune system with the suppliments you sent (Select) to Raz. It is important to keep the immune system strong with all of the changes her body did with the healing from the inside out.

The following photos are NOT for the feint of heart.