Q: My horse has recently had surgery. What signs would suggest his wound has become infected?

A: The appearance of the surgical site may vary significantly depending on its location on your horse’s body, the surgical technique used and the way the wound has been closed (e.g. glued or sutured). A neat, small incision used for keyhole surgery, for instance, is a very different entity to a large midline incision for colic surgery.

Infection in a wound is usually easy to spot, and the signs to look out for include:

• Redness
• Swelling, which is usually found around the scar, in the limbs or under the abdomen
• Heat
• Pain when you touch the area around the incision or pain when your horse moves
• Loss of function e.g. lameness
• Discharge from the wound, which is usually thick, smelly and non-transparent
• Gaps between sutures, which usually appear 4-5 days after surgery if infection is present (even if there are no other obvious signs).