Does anyone have any tips for preventing scaring and proud flesh? It seems like every time my horse gets a cut, no matter how small, he develops proud flesh. Even when I am able to clean the cut right away and put ointment on it my horse still seems to not heal fully. It’s starting to get to the point where I look at my horse and wonder if he was in a battle.
In a word…Granulex
Wonder dust or barn lime which is what Wonder dust is mostly made of.
My vet has told me to never use wonder dust.
I have found that raw honey is AMAZING for preventing proud flesh and for healing nasty wounds. I buy the Manuka Honey at my local health foods store. Hose the wound, pat it dry, and slather the honey on 2x daily.
I second the raw honey for preventing infections and proud flesh. I get mine from my next door neighbor. He sells a lot of it to a local TB operation.
What ointment are you currently using ?
If the cut is bleeding I use Wonder dust. Otherwise I have used SSD a bit in the past after everyone at my barn swears by it and says it helps with quick healing and I also/mainly use Tri wound care, which has worked the best in the past for other horses I’ve used it on.
So I opened this thread thinking you were talking about ways to avoid frightening your horse!
Or your students. Or yourself …
So you meant “scarring,” right?
We had good luck in our area with scarlet oil, as per the direction of your vet, of course.
I know of someone with a very serious forearm degloving injury, that took months to heal, that turned extremely well, with hardly any scarring, that they used a mixture of sugar and honey on.
The trouble with pure honey is that honey carries impurities, sugar at sufficient strength kills bacteria and suppresses molds, I think that is why the mixture.
We need to remember vets, not only have the education to understand biological processes, they see all kinds of injuries, all kinds of treatments and so have a better idea of what works for what and what not so much.
I would check with the vet and see what his experiences are with your kind of injury.
I am sure you already started there anyway.
I use triple biotic ointment, the same ointment I’d use on my own wounds, on horses. My experience is that it helps wounds heal faster than “horse remedies”. Sometimes, I’ll seal it in with Desitin.
I never use Wonder Dust. It’ll stop bleeding…but so will the horse’s immune system. That stuff is harsh on cells and does not promote good healing, IMO. Blot a bleeding wound with sterile or at least clean gauze. The horse’s immune system will stop the bleeding and healthy cells take care of a wound MUCH better than unhealthy cells.
Another vote for manuka honey.
Best stuff ever, vet hospital recommended
https://www.valleyvet.com/ct_search_results.html?gas=derma%20gel
Link didn’t work but were you linking to Veterinus DermaGel? It is the best stuff ever.
When I read the thread title I thought, “don’t go out on Halloween”, but I’ve always been a smart ass. Carry on…
Underwood’s Horse Medicine has had good results, but may just depend on the injury.
granulex followed by bacon grease
I think a better question might be “why is your horse getting cut up so frequently”?
Or more to the point, “What is your horse getting cut on?”
I’ve had my mare since the day she was born and 25 years later, after multiple moves, living in many different environments, I have run into only one lower extremity injury of the type where proud flesh was even a possibility.
Proud flesh is most common on lower extremities due to the way the healing occurs. Upper body is better at contraction–bringing the wound margins together–while legs tend to heal via epithelialization–filling in with granulation-- which is also why you typically do not see white hair scar marks on the upper body but may on the lower.
There are a number of remedies people swear by for preventing proud flesh, as you can see from this post. But when it comes to hairless or white hair scars on the legs, there’s really nothing you can do because the hair follicles are destroyed or the pigment follicles are. When tissue granulates back in, those things aren’t “repaired”. They just don’t exist at all and no topical will fix that.
So if you’re really having “a lot” of injuries, I’d be focused on figuring out why and taking action steps to prevent that vs looking for the holy grail of anti-scar topicals.
Good luck.
I don’t know Buddyroo, maybe my horse was lucky or a freak of nature. Both of his nasty wounds to his leg and knee healed beautifully. You couldn’t tell he took out a chunk on his rear leg and there was a very thin line over his knee. No discoloration or big ugly scar.
Were his wounds sutured though?
Nope. Wounds too large, not enough skin to suture, bad areas to stitch, and would be too tight if stitched.
