A friend gave me some scarlet oil.
Well I read up on it for wounds and everywhere I have read seemed to say it is too drying/caustic for wounds.
I would feel bad if I could never use this stuff.
Maybe oozing bug bites?
It’s a very old remedy which we have moved on from to things more targeted for specific problems and without side effects.
Don’t feel that you HAVE to use it just because friend gave it to you, I wouldn’t. Say thank you and pitch it.
1 Like
I have used it ( long , long ago). If I remember right we used it on cuts that were scabbed over and it was supposed to keep the wound from being a scar. As far as I know it worked. My horses hardly had any scars. I don’t remember it causing over drying.
It works very well for wounds that you want to heal slowly (that need fill in time etc). It was recently used by New Bolton (and prescribed for continued use) on a horse that was sent to me, so yes, definitely still in use.
It’s one of a myriad of cans/jars/bottles of “wound stuff” on my shelves in the barn and I use it on leg wounds on occasion when I know the leg/wound is going to get dirty. My vet still likes it (despite the existence of many alternatives). My horses don’t seem to mind it…no flinching or acting like it causes discomfort.
Our vet gave us some for an older foal with a cut from shoulder across to her chest.
We washed it out every day, applied that, later just put that on it.
The cut healed without even leaving a scar at all.
May have anyway, but it sure didn’t hurt any.
1 Like
I once used it, under a vet’s direction, to soak gauze in and stuff into a deep puncture wound on the top of my horse’s hip (no clue how he did that, but, you know…horses:rolleyes:). Changed it daily for a week or so until it started to close up as I recall.
1 Like
I last used it, at a vet’s direction, to heal an fairly large area–not deep but a decent amount of surface area. Horse had lymphangitis and the combination of the swelling and the leaking fluid caused his skin to crack and then a few pieces, one shaped roughly like Australia, came off. Sorry, this was before ubiquitous cell phone cameras, so no photos.
I’m using it now. My mare managed to scrape off the side of her coronet band and slice a chink of flesh off above that. It’s hard to get into it all. When I take off the wrap, I cover it in scarlet oil as a coating and ride with it open, then rinse and cover. I use it sort of like an iodine wash to clean the wound and wash it off. It’s good if you don’t want proud flesh, too.
I used it last year at vet’s instruction for a VERY large gaping wound. Sprayed it on all the exposed tissue daily until it healed.
1 Like
I use it for cinch sore works great,also use it for other cuts & scrapes.
[QUOTE=TheHorseComesFirst;8835419]
A friend gave me some scarlet oil.
Well I read up on it for wounds and everywhere I have read seemed to say it is too drying/caustic for wounds.
I would feel bad if I could never use this stuff.
Maybe oozing bug bites?[/QUOTE]
If this is the stuff I’m thinking of, it’s marketed specifically for spraying/painting on “proud flesh” at the point where sufficient granulation tissue has filled in a wound, and you want that process to stop and start growing skin and hair.
Farnam called/calls it “Red-Kote.” There’s a newer, MUCH more expensive preparation that does the same thing that looks like blackish clay–“Equiaid” I think is the brand name. Either do pretty much the same thing. You can also stop “proud flesh” by letting it dry out and debriding it down to the newly-forming capillaries every couple of days.
1 Like
When my guy had a tie-back done Scarlett Oil was in his take home bag. The big open wound in his neck healed really fast. Left no scar.
Could have been the Scarlett oil. or maybe the wound from a tie back heals well. Regardless I hade excellent results.
My grandparents and I used scarlet oil on horses under the direction of a vet. It is wonderful. The one we used came with a dobber and was a scarlet red color. I once had a mare that came up to a barb-wire fence, then wheeled and created a huge scar across her chest. With continued use until it healed, any scar could barely be seen. It is excellent for healing, keeping flies off, and a wonderful wound care treatment.
My vet has given it to me a couple of times to use on my horse - used it on stitches in his pastern, on a bad scrape on his hind leg, and also on a deep cut he managed to give himself on the coronary band. I’ve also used it at my own discretion on some of his worst bite marks from some former pasture mates, and was really happy with the results in all instances.
I never noticed it being drying, but I typically use it every other day.
1 Like
Did a little fast research. It shares its active ingredient with dettol. Haven’t seen dettol in years but used to use it to soak human foot blisters or something like that?
Another interesting older remedy is Blukote, gentian violet. It’s an antifungal still used for mouth thrush in babies and being investigated for use against multiply resistant staph infections.
1 Like
Gentian violet is, along with red oil, some of those little bottles with a dauber our vet used to dispense for all kinds of things.
Now gentian violet was drying, red oil not really, as was used to keep scabs from becoming too dry and pulling and leaving scars.
Here is more on a resurgence of gentian violet in modern medicine:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4396813/
I remember it was used in little pill form given to kids that had pin worms.
I live in a very wet climate where scrapes and cuts can get wet and inflamed easily and take forever to heal. I like the drying properties of Gentian Violet. It also seems to create a slight coating across the wound that seems to keep out infection.
Why not ask the friend who gave it to you for her recommendations?
1 Like
This is a very old there started by me almost 2 years ago! very suprising to see it on COTH today. SweetCactus777 bumped it up again for some reason???
