Hi, I own a QH that is Hypp NH and he has a leg wound that is developing proud flesh. I am using Furazone at the moment but I read that if I could use wonderdust on the wound in rotation with it the chances of it healing properly would be better. I am hesitant to use it because one of the active ingredients in wonderdust is potassium Alu 5%. Anyone have any advise or may have used wonderdust on Hypp NH horse before?
Thank you!
Both furacin and wonder dust are known to cause proud flesh so I wouldn’t use either in any horse. If you already have proud flesh you can use Equiaide, if not I like Alushield or Derma gel.
4 Likes
Wonderdust is primarily lime - it simply burns tissue & damages healthy cells along with proud flesh. This won’t be helpful for the wound in the long run. Talk to your vet about better options.
2 Likes
I think proud flesh of any significance is a call to the vet - or at least text or email them a picture of it so they can advise you on the best treatment. When proud flesh goes awry and covers the original wound, it sometimes needs to be removed so that treatment can reach the actual wound underneath. Just putting something like Furasin on top won’t do much.
I stopped using Furizone (Furacin) years ago. I’d had it in my horsey first aid kit for decades. My vet told me that new research had shown that it actually retards healing (I have no studies to quote - its just what my vet told me). That and its link to cancer made me ditch it from my repertoire of treatments.
I’ve never used WonderDust but I believe that it needs to be used Day 1, after initial cleaning of the wound. I’m not sure if the wound is that far along that you already have proud flesh that it would help. I could be wrong, but I always thought that WonderDust was primarily to stop bleeding, as in it cauterizes the wound.
A picture posted here might be helpful as well. One person’s definition of “proud flesh” can be quite different from anothers, which I was reminded of in another thread here on CoTH recently. For instance, when I think of the term proud flesh, I think of an abnormal amount of new tissue that sticks out from the wound or the area around the wound. But that is not everyone’s definition.
That IS the definition of proud flesh - abnormal amount of new (granulation) tissue that grows above the level of the skin. It’s all the right tissue, it just didn’t stop when it should have.
Wonder dust doesn’t promote it though, it’s caustic and eats away at flesh. It can be very useful as long as you first cover the healthy tissue with an ointment of some sort. But that’s a pain.
Furacin is a terrible thing to use on wounds in general, as it is proven to slow the rate of healing. But also on lower leg wounds in particular, where the risk of proud flesh is already high, as furacin is a known promoter of proud flesh (possibly due to the retarded healing, not sure).
Animax and Panalog are great if there are still concerns about the wound itself.
2 Likes
Thank you for the replies, the Vet actually gave me the furazone to treat the wound but I was looking for a better way of treating it because of the cancerous warnings on the label. He showed signs of some excessive growth in some areas so I have been scrubbing the wound and applying the Furazone afterward once a day. The flesh is below the skin level at this point so I stopped using the Furazone today and just applied and ointment and sprayed it with alushield to see how it will heal…cross fingers
My vet (and new-ish research) said that the best thing to use on wounds is saline to clean, and then a triple antibiotic ointment/silver ointment/or even just petroleum jelly, and then Alushield if you can’t bandage. Essentially, you want to keep the wound moist with something mild, and protected from dirt, and that’s pretty much it. She was horrified at the idea of using Furazone on a wound (one of my barn mates still uses it) and said she literally only uses it in situations where she needs to get swelling out and nothing else is working…and even then, she frequently only recommends it to her TB-barn or similar clients, because she trusts them to use it correctly (i.e., wearing gloves and not placing on broken skin).
2 Likes
My previous mare once got stuck in a tied loose piece of hay bale twine. At the time, the BO did not notice for 2 days (full care but outdoor board), by the time I came to ride her leg was so swollen and had pieces of twine stuck in it.
We cleaned it out well and used Furazone, which seemed to increase the proud flesh activity. Vet came to cut it down twice. From there we used sugared honey on the healthy looking days and wonderdust when proud flesh started to brew.
The combination worked incredibly.
1 Like
If it’s in a wrappable place, then a decent compression wrap wiill help minimize exuberant granulation tissue, also.
However, you do need to be careful not to cause a bandage bow.
I have used a wad of gauze pads over the ointment-ed wound, a chunk of cotton, wrapped firmly over with a few turns of brown gauze, then vetwrap, held in place with some of that sticky flesh colored wrap I am currently having a ssenior moment about the name of. snip top and bottom of wrap an inch to take any pressure off structures like tendons.
Leave for 2 days between changes–give it a chance to heal without being constantly disturbed. If it’s oozy, use a Telfa pad as the bottom layer, or the last time I had to do this on a serious wound, the vet supplied me with some really great charcoal pads from 3M that wicked the goo through to the gauze behind it and left the surface clean and dry.
When you change, just carefully wipe any exudate off the wound–don’t disturb it any more than absolutely necessary, re apply your ointment of choice (I like panalog for this kind of thing) then rewrap.
Ain’t life fun with horses?
1 Like
