You are not alone.
Chiropractor once told me to cover stifle with Palmolive dish soap & leave on overnight.
Imagine my surprise when sponging dried Palmolive off the next day & HAIR came with it! :eek:
I had scalded my poor horse :no:
As far as Non Vet-prescribed treatment…
My TB bit a chunk of lower lip off DH’s TWH.
No bleeding, so I used a wire cutters to cut off the hanging piece so it wouldn’t tear further.
Healed w/o a scar.
Well now I just want to know WHY the chiro recommended you do that. Lol
Unpopular Opinion: Until someone can fully explain the osmotic mechanism of epsom salt solutions to me, I’m pretty sure soaking abscesses is a waste of time. Poultice too. And another thing: how exactly does Animalintex work? I bet it doesn’t.
If it makes you feel any better, chlorhexidine blisters fairly easily- I’ve blistered myself with it!
I had a horse tear through its lip pretty badly. It was initially sutured but didn’t hold well, and the wound was packing up with chewed food, so I just removed all the sutures, flushed twice a day, and let it do it’s thing. Healed great with barely a scar.
Well, I use a saturated epsom salt solution.
I do know that when I soak and wrap the abscess breaks through the frog and heel and when I didn’t it came out the coronet. But I don’t know if that’s just the wetness. Maybe I would have same effect soaking in plain hot water and poulticing with wet kleenex?
Retired horse got his hind leg leg stuck through a rail fence and kind of turned it to hamburger on the inside for about six inches on either side of his hock. Chestnut was gone. It was 6 pm on Friday. He was tough. I tied him up and hosed it. Not gently. Did that once or twice a day. It healed. Chestnut grew back. Vet said she was grateful not to get called out.
The chemistry part of the theory is that the concentration of ions is higher on the outside of the horse (the Epsom salt solution) than the inside. Water molecules pass from the inside of the horse to the outside in a vain attempt to equalize the concentrations inside and out.
As far as how this works, or doesn’t work, physiologically, is above my pay grade.
You do need a saturated solution as was noted above and that requires a lot more Epsom salts than most people use. You also need a pretty warm solution and some people either don’t get it warm enough or don’t take into account that adding the Epsom salts to the hot water causes the temperature to decrease (dissolving is endothermic).
Never bathe yourself in epsom salts. I believe it’s magnesium, which substitutes nicely for calcium, (both have a three plus charge) in your muscles. All I remember from physiology classes is that the calcium ions are needed to contract muscles. So, my little experiment, after a hard day working outside, was to slip in a bath with several cups of epsom salts. I was a noodle. I think the magnesium replaced the calcium ions. It was actually physically difficult to crawl out of the bathtub and I got nothing done that night. I wasn’t as sore, but, dang, that was dumb. Years later, I learned that magnesium supplements are used to calm your heart if you have a lot of extra beats (PVCs). That makes sense! Do not underestimate the effects of epsom salts…
Some 45+ years ago, we were treating two calves for pneumonia with an injectable IV.
That medication was a clear liquid the vet provided in a plastic 500cc bottle.
We were using another such bottle to keep scour medication, also a clear fluid, to be used orally.
Our medications were always clearly labeled by the vet clinic we bought them from.
As the first calf came thru the chute, he was given his shot.
As we let him out he staggered and fell down and just sat there, dazed.
We tended to him and he seemed ok, no need of epinephrine, he didn’t seem to be going in shock.
We hurried with the next one so we could get him treated and out of there, then go see about the one down and decide what to do.
Next calf, same thing, got his shot and letting him out, he joined the other down on the floor.
Then we figured, something must be wrong with the medication itself.
Calves were just laying there, fine other than not getting up.
We called the vet clinic and the vet figured, someone put the wrong medication in the wrong bottle and the scour medicine was tying the calcium and, as in the quoted post, muscles were not working.
Sure enough, after a bit calves got up and were ok to run back thru and get the proper medication.
Vet said, in vet school they told them if a vet had to euthanize and didn’t have anything on hand, that scour medicine given large amounts IV and fast was one that would do the job safely in an emergency by stopping the heart.
Scary that.
After that, we double checked every bottle before assuming what was in there.
Not that it would have helped us not make that mistake, but made us aware how easy it is to make mistakes.
You can’t be careful enough.
Over decades and many horses, we had few injuries.
One time mares were in a miles long pasture full of canyons and brush that had trails to the plains flat land with nothing but grass and cacti, no brush there.
Most times mares stayed below the caprock, especially in bad weather, where they had protection for them and their foals.
This one evening a quick storm must have hit as they were in the plains and they probably were standing against the barbed wire fence, butts to the wind and rain, when lighting hit.
We fed alfalfa every morning all year around, to supplement and as a way to keep an eye on them as they came in to drink by headquarters.
This one morning, no mares anywhere, so we went looking for them.
They were in the plains, against that fence and one filly was on the other side.
Luckily she only had a long gash on her chest, must have hit the fence and jumped it.
Put her back and mares ran back down the caprock to their morning meal, where we took mare and filly in the barn.
Vet was coming and he said she didn’t need stitching and in that spot it would be hard to get any stitches to hold, too much movement.
Gave her some shots and told us to just wash it with water twice a day until it was healing well and to keep an eye on it.
Our foals were all handled and halter broke the first three weeks of their lives, before turning them out, so she was very sweet to care for.
Once it was practically healed, vet gave us some scarlet oil to put on it every few days.
In short time, she healed and it didn’t even leave a scar you could see without parting the hair.
Some times we get lucky, but just in case, we always run any question or injury by our vets, so as not to miss something and also if things get worse, vets already know what happened, what has been done and is easier to tend to, with less guessing in the moment.
Horses have incredible healing ability when it comes to flesh wounds. For many wounds, care like cold hosing, excessive cleaning/debridement, fancy dressings, and complicated bandages is hocus pocus at best, harmful at worst. IME, most wounds benefit from a basic initial exam and cleaning and application of something to keep the flies off if it is summer. Obviously listen to your vet and discuss possible approaches, but I think in many cases equine wound care is more of a culturally accepted practice vs. something that actually benefits healing. (Obviously more complex wounds that involve punctures, ligaments/tendons, and/or joint structures may require more intense care.)
Mg and Ca are in the same column of the periodic table (both are alkaline earth metals) and thereby share many traits, including ions with a +2 charge.
Thank you Peggy. I’m saying the same epsom salts I pour into my bubble bath after a long day do not empty my open pores, don’t come with a hazard label as to how much I should use, and so surely don’t create an outward-drawing force to pull an encapsulated abscess through layers of fascia, epidermis or horn that are acting as pretty effective barriers.
This is my opinion as well. Animalintex may work to soften tissue by keeping it constantly wet, but I think most hoof abscess management is just giving the owner something to do.
I put off looking at it.
Farm manager came in one afternoon: “Hey, I noticed your guy had scratch while I was fixing fence today. You should take a look at it.” Yeah, I’ll look at it later…
That evening after farm manager and other assistant trainer had fed: “Hey, did you look at the stratch on his leg?” No, I’ll look at it later…
Farm manager and other assistant trainer the next morning after feeding: “You need to go look at your horse’s leg.”
The poor pony had a small puncture up on his forearm, on the outside. But in the 18 hours I had put off going out to check it/clean it it had started to become infected. His entire front leg looked like a tree trunk. We scrambled to clean it up and vet prescribed a stack wrap until she could get out the.
Do you know how hard it is to find wraps for a pony WEANLING and wrap him? It is like trying to put wraps on a moving target.
Vet was out that evening and cleaned it up well and may have prescribed an antibiotic (I can’t remember). That and the stack wrap quickly brought everything under control.
But he was very cute in his little stable bandages…
My mare rubbed her head against something pokey and put a tear on a lower eyelid - the part of the eyelid that meets the upper lid, right next to the eye. I discovered it probably 12 hours after it happened. It was Easter Sunday morning.
It seemed too late to try to put sutures in that delicate area. I cold hosed that sucker a couple times a day and probably gave bute the first day or two. When the hanging-off piece of skin dried up, I used a human’s nail clipper to snip that dangly piece off. It healed great…just made an odd little dip in the lower lid. The vet eventually saw it and I explained what I’d done. He gave me an A+.
Two plus charge, lol! Three plus is Aluminum, etc… It comes back sometimes. Other times, not so well. Thank you, Professor.
My horse was mauled on both his forelegs. More than 100 stitches all told. All the vets told me to just keep the wounds clean and bandaged to keep the flies off the wounds. The clear directions the vets gave me was to NOT put topical stuff on the wounds because they actually impede the body’s ability to heal. I know this is not possible in all cases but with my guy it worked a treat. He healed perfectly with no scarring.
My horse was mauled on both his forelegs. More than 100 stitches all told. All the vets told me to just keep the wounds clean and bandaged to keep the flies off the wounds. The clear directions the vets gave me was to NOT put topical stuff on the wounds because they actually impede the body’s ability to heal. I know this is not possible in all cases but with my guy it worked a treat. He healed perfectly with no scarring.
Topical stuff IMPEDES the the body’s ability to heal wounds? How can this be?
Recently dealing with rubbed raw heel bulbs due to hoof boot problem. My gut was to spray blu-kote on it, to dry it up and blu-kote is about the only thing that stays on low-to-the-ground wounds. Apparently vets don’t like blu-kote anymore, something about damage to tissues??? My farrier agreed with me, spray it w/ blu-kote to dry it up. The vet wanted ssd silver cream. Now I’m using that since it got pretty dry.
As far as Non Vet-prescribed treatment…
My TB bit a chunk of lower lip off DH’s TWH.
No bleeding, so I used a wire cutters to cut off the hanging piece so it wouldn’t tear further.
Healed w/o a scar.
Holy Smokes! You used wire cutters? without sedation? And the vet wasn’t needed? You Are Brave!
Ok, I had to look up dermagel on the internet. Seems its for keeping wounds moist? Like Neosporin or triple abx ointment? So would ssd silver sulfadiazine cream been good in this situation? Just curious and trying to learn.
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