I’ve owned and ridden horses for a LONG time and for some reason have been fortunate enough never to need DMSO for any injury/ailment.
But what is it? It seems as though it’s used for many different things and I would just like to know what exactly it is and what the most common uses are. Maybe I missed the boat somewhere along the way and could have used it 
I don’t know tons, but I’ll take a shot. It’s generally marketed as an industrial cleaner. It reportedly can bring down inflammation, and I believe that’s the most common use for it in the horse world. The nasty thing about it is that it can carry things into the bloodstream as I understand it, which is why you’re supposed to wear gloves when applying it. A chemist that boarded with me said ‘if you have ink on your hand and DMSO gets on that spot, that ink gets carried into your skin’. That may be over-simplifying things. My gray mare got kicked in the rear and it got a good hematoma (big swelling ‘bruise’). Trainer told me to put DMSO on, and like a good student, I did what I was told. Next day I came out to an abcess – larger, HOT swelling. EEK! Vet opened it and crap literally shot out 3 feet. He said the DMSO had carried in some dirt or germ from the skin and basically put it in a nice warm, moist, blood-filled home and it went to town. Blech. Never used it again – threw it out. Same trainer had students wrap front legs with a “DMSO sweat” for a horse with some stocking up. Left wrapped overnight. Next day horse has oozing chemical burns on both front legs and is clearly in great discomfort when they’re exposed to air. Vet again comes out and explains how to clean, treat, rewrap and how often. Poor mare has to be rewrapped daily for a week or two, dancing like mad between when they unwrap her and get her ointment on again, plus she has a bunch of white burn marks now on both front legs.
I’m sure some have had good luck with it. 
My mileage varied considerably.
It is supposed to help reduce swelling. I use it AFTER heat has subsided and the lump just won’t go away (my TBs seem to keep their lumps a while 
after a kick, for example). Apply using gloves or you get an awful taste in the mouth.
Do not use it on broken skin.
I’ve never wrapped over DMSO–just clean the area, rinse, apply, and allow to “airdry”
Many use DMSO as a much cheaper alternative to SURPASS. I haven’t used SURPASS yet, but people rave about it–I just can’t afford it! I think SURPASS might be better for “hot” swellings as well, and again, I use DMSO on cold ones.
I haven’t had a bad DMSO reaction yet–I’ve been using it when needed over the past 15 years–it seems to reduce persistent lumps and bumps that just won’t go away.
I’ll try too
DMSO has been used for a long time by all kinds of athletes, typically on old injuries. In our case, people especially like them for reducing the size of cold splints. During it’s long history, not many peeps (at least those around me) knew how it worked. Some now think it “works” on old swellings because it’s a powerful antioxident.
Reasons to be cautious–
It can chemically burn skin. I’m not brave enough to wrap DMSO
It is also one of the few chemicals that crosses the blood-brain barrier. So if you horse has a head or spinal injury, you want to combined DMSO with an anti-inflammatory (or steroid) in order to have it bet to those tissues.
For the rest of us, you want to make sure your horse’s leg is clean and dry. While DMSO does drag “stuff” with it just about everywhere in the body, I think we are talking molecules, not things as large as germs and certainly not anything macroscopic like dirt.
Alone, or mixed with a steroid, DMSO can be useful for helping reduce inflammation in tendons and ligaments-- where blood supply is so poor that NSAIDS or other drugs delivered by the bloodstream won’t do their job as well.
Ask your vet or someone who really knows what they’re doing. Know your horse’s skin, and you should be fine.
My vet mixed up a furazone sweat for a leg injury. He took half a jar of nitrofurazone and mixed in dmso untill it was runny. I smeared that on a CLEAN leg (lather, rinse, repeat with betadine surgical scrub due to it being and excellent solvent) and wrap plastic wrap around that. Then apply a standing wrap. I’d leave it on over night and wash it again in the morning. Did that for two nights and it took the swelling down. I learning in toxicology class that DMSO causes birth defects and you should always glove up while handling the chemical and scrub your hands afterwards. Also, if you read the jar of the yellow nitrofurazone, it says it causes tumors in mice. So, never handle that ungloved. We also would use straight DMSO on older injuries of fox hunters.
I have used DMSO sweat wraps and they really helped with the inflamation. I left the wraps on overnight and was quite pleased with the results. I wore gloves but someone came in contact with it and was tasting the DMSO in my mouth for hours after I applied it bc it absorbed into my skin.
longtime lurker here –
so had anyone used DMSO successfully on a cold splint? if not, what have you used? My TB gelding was one and it doesn’t bother him but I’d like to get rid of it if I could.
will it take down a boggy hock that is just a blemish?
My thoroughbred received a large shot of DMSO from our vet last fall after a suspected neck injury from a paddock accident left him wobbly…barely able to hold himself up. Vet explained that it is a strong anti-inflammatory and the best option to help something like spinal pressure/swelling…which makes sense in the context of the contribution of a poster above. It took my horse a while to recover from the injury, but I did think that the DMSO helped stabilize the situation initially.
It smells…absolutely awful.
And just when you think the smell couldn’t be worse, try having it being urinated out. Then you might consider burning your barn down and building a new one instead of waiting for the smell to dissipate. :winkgrin: :lol:
However, it is pretty useful for certain issues.
Only certain strengths of DMSO should be used. It’s acually more effective if it’s a little diluted. Do not use the 99% straight – it must be diluted (with distilled water, I think). I had a friend in med school who had a hugely swollen ankle and was supposed to run a marathon the next day. He was limping. Another doc told him to use DMSO. He put it on that night and ran the next morning with no problems. (This was about 20 years ago.) It must do something right. I’ve heard it compared to aspirin as a wonder drug, and that aspirin wouldn’t be approved now, either.
An Internet search brings up tons, like this: http://www.dmso.org/
[QUOTE=MistyBlue;4234888]
It smells…absolutely awful.
And just when you think the smell couldn’t be worse, try having it being urinated out. Then you might consider burning your barn down and building a new one instead of waiting for the smell to dissipate. :winkgrin: :lol:
However, it is pretty useful for certain issues.[/QUOTE]
:yes:
And don’t ever handle it without using gloves. Double gloves, even better. Any small amount of it that gets on your skin will cause you to have an immediate taste in your mouth akin to spoiled milk mixed with garlic, only more nauseating. And that nasty taste isn’t in a hurry to clear out, either.
DMSO can also be administered intraveneously for treating acute laminitis.
Am I the only wierdo that likes the smell of DMSO? I don’t mind the taste, either. The only time I found the odor overpowering is when my vet gave my down mare DMSO IV- now that smell was almost nauseating.
The way I understand it is that DMSO can carry drugs through the skin. I have a jar of it, but rarely use it. I’ll mix up a DMSO/furacin/-azole wormer for case of scratches, but that’s about it- and as previously mentioned I apply it only to clean skin. I’m not brave enough to wrap, either, as it can cause blistering.
ShakeyTails…the DMSO IV smell is the one I’m talking about…my gelding had it IV for stones. His urine could have scared away bears. :eek:
[QUOTE=Bacchus;4235051]
Only certain strengths of DMSO should be used. It’s acually more effective if it’s a little diluted. Do not use the 99% straight – it must be diluted (with distilled water, I think). I had a friend in med school who had a hugely swollen ankle and was supposed to run a marathon the next day. He was limping. Another doc told him to use DMSO. He put it on that night and ran the next morning with no problems. (This was about 20 years ago.) It must do something right. I’ve heard it compared to aspirin as a wonder drug, and that aspirin wouldn’t be approved now, either.
An Internet search brings up tons, like this: http://www.dmso.org/[/QUOTE]
DMSO + water = HEAT It will get hotter than hell. I certainly wouldn’t be hosing a horse and applying it. I use it on dry skin only and I’ve used the 99% straight with no problems.
I dated a guy who had been a "power lifter " in early years. Needless to say his back was a mess. He began to use it daily and I didn’t know it.
It wasn’t until he began having an odd odor that I was suddenly very turned off being around him!! It ended that relationship!
HaHa wasn’t til sometime later I realized what it was. I instantly think of him when someone mentions using DMSO…its that smell connection thingy! ugh…
Yes, I’ve gotten on my hand and you instantly taste it!!
DMSO
I’ve used DMSO on the backside of the racetrack for a long time and it is a wonderful therapeutic tool that must be respected and handled with extreme care.
When used topically, DMSO enhances the absorption of medications through the skin. My groombox always has a bottle of D & C (DMSO and cortisone) which I will paint on an affected area that may be poulticed over or sweated. For problem areas that involve a lot of filling, a super sweat can be miraculous. Mix Furazone (let’s say about half a jar) with an ounce or so of DMSO, a little less Ball Solution and a packed of dex. Mix it up to a dark honey-colored mixture and use it as a sweat. I have wrapped over DMSO hundreds of times and rarely seen blistering, although I know it can happen.
Also, DMSO can be delivered IV for therapeutic purposes. I’m sure it is used indiscrimately by some people, but it can be helpful for racers who, for example, are bad bleeders. They REEK for hours.
Yes, it can create a great deal of heat. Some horses don’t mind the stuff and others go totally bonkers. DMSO must be kept in an airtight container and it freezes at a very high temp (I think 62 degrees fahrenheit).
My ex, who is a research scientist at Cornell, reminds me that DMSO is a highly controlled substance in a research lab and is handled ONLY under a hood. Gloves are absolutely necessary. I don’t mind the smell and the taste it delivers: it’s not great, but I don’t find it intolerable.
BTW, ex and I had a three week trip in San Francisco almost 30 years ago and many, many storefronts had big signs for DMSO. Don’t recall what it was being marketed for, only that it was being advertised for something to a general market. Scary, that!
I’ve used it for two uses: 1) on a young horse with a capped hock and 2) recently mixed into a cream of steroids and anatibiotics for bad scratches. No more than 20% into the cream or it is too strong. Within days the inflammation had gone and the healing started.
A third use was when my horse got a big leg (huge - the whole leg) and the vet mixed up furocin/steroids and DMSO in his own recipe and sweated the leg.
Always use rubber gloves and always know what you are doing and why.
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