I’m in cellulitis hell and close personal friends with a DMSO/furazone sweat wrap. Well, maybe we’re frienemies.
I know there are other ways to sweat a leg out there. What’s your fav?
I’ll be following this too! I use the above, but I’m open to less nasty suggestions.
I googled, and read about using straight up furazone. Or glycerin. Or magnapaste with DMSO.
If anyone loves any of those, tell us about it! 
I tried some magnapaste straight up and it was like trying to spread bubble gum on the leg. Not sure if that’s how it’s supposed to go? It was a brand new container :-/
I’ve used several furacin based sweats, made by Rood and Riddle.
“Osmotic” sweat: furacin, epsom salt, wintergreen, and dmso. I make this at home without the wintergreen, it is my all-around sweat for fat legs and wounds.
“Furad” sweat: furacin, DMSO, and dex. Used for older injuries to reduce swelling/increase bloodflow… such as a healing soft-tissue injury (tendon after initial ice/poutice).
“Faso”: furacin, scarlet oil, and dmso (I think). Great for wounds and scratches (mud fever) in particular.
“Butecort” is not furacin based; something clear, not sure. Mix of bute, dmso, and dex as active ingredients. Used for joints, knees/ankles.
I’ve used Finish Line’s Fura-free product, it works like furacin but more user friendly.
http://www.finishlinehorse.com/products/external-application/fura-free-/
Magnapaste/epsom salt paste certainly does not spread well. I usually reserve it for packing ouchy feet.
Butecort mentioned above is fabulous stuff, I forgot all about that.
Glad to hear the magnapaste is always a pain…I have a distant memory about it being good for legs and was pretty disappointed!
Are there any good sweats without DMSO? Given that sweating often goes along with cold hosing, it’s always such a production to ensure the leg is dry before applying anything DMSO based.
Just furacin. Cover with sheet cotton then plastic wrap. Then quilt and standing wrap.
I’m ‘just furacin’ too ^^^ – always works for me.
Do you also use cotton between the leg and the plastic wrap? I’ve always just done sweat/plastic/standing wrap.
Just furacin would simplify things! Can anyone comment on how well that works vs adding DMSO?
I do wrap with sheet cotton (the thin stuff - a couple times around the leg) in between leg coated with furacin and plastic wrap. Absorbs actual ‘sweat’ and keeps things from getting all runny overnight. When I worked at the track as a groom we never bothered with the addition of DMSO. But the combo does work great on nasty swellings from bug bites. I keep a little jar handy for that exact purpose.
I agree that you have to have something absorbent for the fluid you are sweating out to be absorbed into or it doesn’t work very well. You can put the plastic on the outside of the no bows then wrap and let the no bows themselves absorb it but often times that causes your outer wrap to slip down. I use sheet cotton.
I don’t wait for legs to dry completely before sweating. I towel them off, apply goo, saran wrap, and standing bandage. The leg is going to be sweaty and damp soon anyway, so a bit of wet hair doesn’t seem to affect much.
For sensitive skinned horses, I’ll add a blue shop towel under the plastic wrap. Sometimes a continuous sweat wrap can scurf the skin, especially for long term treatment. But for a minor injury (not massive cellulitis) wearing a wrap for 3 days or less, I usually am ok using plastic alone without cotton or shop towel.
I’ve never used anything between the skin and plastic, and my sweat wraps have always worked fine!
I HAVE had a horse really object to a dmso sweat on damp skin. That’s a pretty impressive exothermic reaction, so I’m very careful now. Maybe overly so? Although I never keep them in a sweat continuously…usually a sweat at night, and a dry standing bandage during the day. Sometimes a poultice or liniment. Or, if they’re improving, naked during the day and in a sweat at night, but generally by the time they’re ready to be naked I’m ready to be done with the production of sweating! :lol:
Using a blue shop towel is a neat idea. Always keep those around, and seems easier than finding the cotton.
I don’t like to use DMSO on a covered application. I only use it on weird body bumps and welts open to the air. I was taught that all it really does is make whatever else you are using absorb faster. It’s an industrial solvent.
I also use shop towels between leg and plastic wrap.
I’m looking for something less irritating to help sweat Q’s leg, I was doing the DMSO/Furacin/Dex but had to stop because it was scurfing him and now he’s got some white hair on the front of his fetlock :(. His bow has healed nicely but the leg still gets puffy, I think from stomping at flies and he’s also barefoot right now and a bit tender still and I think that does not help either. The rest of his rehab is to be under saddle but I don’t feel shoes are needed yet, so we are doing Keratex to toughen his feet.
Maybe eliminating the DMSO would irritate him less or the dex?
You could try using plain poultice – clay or ‘mud’ as us trackies call it – with a wrap of plastic over it, then standing bandage. Can work wonders overnight or even 24 hours. PIA to get off though – but that’s par for the course.
I always do wet shop towels over mud, not plastic. Figure the cold hosing required to get it all off is part of the treatment :lol: Or just unwrap and let the mud fall off on it’s own during turnout…it helps with flies!
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Yes it does!
I do have some Uptite… a giant bucket of it in fact
