Hi Everyone–In posts and articles about sweating a horse’s leg to reduce swelling/inflammation, I often read that the wraps should be kept on no more than 12 hours (usually 12 on and 12 off). It got me thinking–is there a minimum amount of sweating time that is effective? I don’t always want to leave wraps on overnight (horse is at a boarding facility), so if I ever needed to do so, I would be limited to the amount of time I could give during the day.
Personally, I’d not bother shorter than 8 hours. No real data behind that, just a gut feel and observational in sweating limbs. It takes time for the body to absorb that fluid.
Agree with Simkie. 8 hours or less of a sweat bandage will probably make very little difference.
If your horse doesn’t bother with his wraps, there’s no harm in leaving bandages overnight or even up to 24 hours if they are applied properly. In fact, when my vet does an ankle injection he wants the bandage to stay on for 36-48 hours to provide compression so the area doesn’t get puffy in response to the injection.
Also, educate yourself on different sweats and how they are used. If there’s even a subtle sweat and you apply a hot sweat, you can make a leg pretty mushy and blown up.
The key to injuries or inflammation is that if it’s cold, make it hot (sweat) and if it’s hot, make it cold. (Start with cold hose and poultice and then move to a cold sweat and then a hot sweat.)
Also, be careful of certain over the counter products that may blister a leg if they’re applied and then bandaged. Mineral Ice is one of them that I learned the hard way on.
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Thank you, all! Very helpful.
Interesting. What is a cold sweat vs a hot sweat?
A cold sweat is one that produces a cooling sensation under the wrap. A hot sweat is one that produces a warming sensation under the wrap.
Thanks. What products produce a cooling sensation? I usually think of a wet clay poultice as the opposite of a sweat wrap, but I would just call that poultice, not a cold sweat wrap, and don’t know if I’d say it’s actively cooling.
I guess the term “sweat” is a bit of a misnomer, but I generally think of a sweat with horses as some sort of substance being applied and wrapped to contain it. So, in that sense, cold sweat, to me, just means a wrap with a cooling substance under it. I’d think poultice would count, or any liniment based solution.
For me, a liniment = cooling, something you would do to a hot leg, and a sweat = heating, to pull filling out of a cold leg. Then poultice = clay, which is cooling.
But I’ve always sweated a cellulitis, which is about as hot as they can get, at the direction of the vet, so there are things that don’t follow the rules!
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Cold sweat would be furasone or Alcohol.
Hot sweat would be furasone with dmso mixed in, maybe even some dex.
Both are used with plastic wrap. You might start with the plastic between the pillow wrap and the standing wrap and eventually end up with the plastic right on the skin.
Thanks, interesting. I’ve always sweated with Furazone and plastic wrap, never thought of it as “cold” though!
To break it down in order of how I would use hot and cold therapy…
If the leg was hot, I would start with cold hosing, ice boots, poultice, etc. they make awesome boots that trickle water down the leg and also boots that hold ice. They are supper convenient and much nicer than holding a hose.
Once the leg is COLD, I switch to heat.
Starting with some furasone, a pillow wrap, then the plastic and then the top bandage. Next day, plastic right on the skin.
Next switch to furasone and dmso. Start with plastic between bandages and then next day, plastic right on skin.
Last is the furasone, dmso and dex combo and I do the same thing with this mixture. As you can see, it’s a long process to tighten a leg back up but it works. If at ANY point, the leg gets mushy, you go back a step and see if the leg, tightens back up, if it doesn’t, go back another step. If it does, do this step another day and then move back forward.
At the end, when I have a finished product I’m happy with, I brace the leg with alcohol for a few days and a dry bandage.
