I just had reverse shoulder replacement surgery and rotator cuff repair. Made a mess out of my shoulder and 2 days post surgery I can’t seem to get arm and hand swelling to go down. Icing and moving fingers isn’t doing job so thought maybe one of those 3m poultices might work. Any thoughts?
Mary in north country of NY
this did not involve a horse
while I will confess to using animalintex on dirty cuts on myself (farrier) in your case i would be talking to your surgeon ASAP a) how much swelling is normal? b) goop near incisions is a bad idea
I’ve used clay poultice on a sprained ankle to help with swelling and heat. I agree that I would not be putting it anywhere near an incision of any kind - even if it was bandaged.
I have for an injury like a strain/sprain. For surgery issues, I’d contact your doctor.
I would call your doctor. If the post-op swelling is more then expected you may need that arm checked for a blood clot. I work in healthcare and deal with this type of post surgical complication all the time.
Second this.
But also saying that, I have used medicated poultices on myself many, many times. But go see a doctor first and make sure it isn’t anything serious.
I had shoulder surgery and no swelling at all.
I would double check with doctor’s office.
They may want to see you asap.
As for using horse stuff on human skin, not a good idea.
You may get a chemical burn from that, human skin is not horse hide.
Once you are in trouble and need something is not the time to see what happens.
Don’t want to maybe add to the problem.
In your case, I would absolutely contact your doctor as others have recommended. That doesn’t sound like something I’d mess around with.
As for using a horse poultice, I was taking my horse to our local lameness expert vet clinic and my partner somehow managed to slam his finger in the trailer door. Vet applied a furacin wrap just like we’d put on a horse (after explaining the lack of license to do anything medical to a human and the potential cancer risk of furacin). Turned out to be broken as he had to go to the human doc the next day, but the wrap did help keep the swelling down until then.
I’ve used nearly my whole barn vet kit on myself at one time or another, but I’ll add to the pile that this is a call for your doc.
And if icing isn’t doing it, poultice is really unlikely to make a bigger difference. Do you have a game ready?
Definitely give your surgeon a call. Hope it’s nothing severe and you have a positive update to share soon 
Definitely contact your doctor ans describe what’s going on. Don’t put anything on an incision site that’s not cleared with them first.
I routinely use Sore No More on myself. The last time I did was when my mare bit me (by mistake! she was aiming for the flake of hay I was carrying under my arm - she immediately realized her mistake and looked soooo embarrassed lol) . She didn’t break the skin because I had 2 layers of clothing on, but it hurt like he11 and a nasty bruise developed right away. Using the Sore No More right away lessened the pain and prevented any swelling. I followed up with arnica gel at home and the bruise disappeared quickly.
That said, I am more likely to use human meds/creams (Nexium, Wound wash, Neosporin etc) on my horse than the other way around.
It’s really best to read the product label before making such a determination. Just because it’s labeled for horse use doesn’t mean it’s any stronger than a human product or will cause chemical burns. For example, the A.I. for Biofreeze (human) is 4% menthol, same as Absorbine Liniment Gel (horse). Bigeloil liniment is only 2% menthol. Horse skin isn’t really much thicker/tougher than human skin.
I have seen some very ugly burns on grooms at the track when they used horse liniment on themselves.
One had terrible burns on his elbow after he blistered it with horse liniment when it was sore.
All I will say, use those kinds of horse products on people with caution.
I’ve seen ugly burns on horses from liniment products as well, it’s not tied to using a horse product on a human, it’s the nature of the chemical itself. I always dilute liniments 50/50 with water when I use them on the horses.
I’ve used Arnica gel and Sore no More Gelotion on sprained ankles - but not open skin.
I’ve used Absorbine gel on various strains/sprains but never used anything on broken skin.
Another vote for don’t do it and call your dr.
No but I do quite often use my horses fancy expensive ice boots on my dodgy knee.
In your case I’d give your doc a ring.
Call your doctor. I just had a total shoulder replacement and had no arm swelling, but my fingers were swollen for well over a week. I did the ball squeezes, but what helped it most was when I was up and moving around.
Sounds like your shoulder / arm had a lot of trauma and I imagine you will have swelling for a while. Are you in any pain?
What are you using to ice it? When I had an open rebuild of my shoulder (Bankhart repair) I had a unit with a special cuff that went over my shoulder and was attached to a container with ice water. I can’t remember what it was called. It pumped water through the cuff and lasted for hours and was comfortable.
The surgeon warned me not to cheat on the exercises so my shoulder wouldn’t freeze.
I’ve used Sore No More and Effol’s gel liniment many times as well as ice boots lol. My mom used Sore No More regularly with both of her knee replacements (with full blessing from her PT who is a horse person).
I had an infected cyst on my back, years ago now. I showed it to my doc. He said, “Yup, that needs to come out. But it is too infected right now, so here is a perscription for some antibiotics”. I got the antibiotics, and took them like a good girl. But I also put an epsom salt poultice on it at night, taped into place. When I went back for the thing to be removed, the doc was VERY impressed with how much it had cooled out, looked far better than he thought it would. He removed it with the superficial surgery in his office. I knew this doc for a long time, he was a bit of a family friend. I sent a lot of horse owning people to him as patients with my recommendation. He told me that he loved working on horse people. He said that they came in with the most horrific looking things, injuries etc, which the first thing they told him was that they had been treating it themselves, with horse medication, and it was looking WAY BETTER now that he was seeing it. This doc learned was “vet wrap” was.
PS- OP, you need to take your issue to you doc, it is not something that you should be treating without professional input and guidance.
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