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Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Naturally Treat a Horse's Wounds

 Horses tend to get themselves into a lot of scrapes, sometimes coming out of the pasture with cuts or wounds on them. While these wounds generally aren't serious, it is still helpful to learn how to treat these them, preventing infection and helping them to heal more quickly.

 The first thing to do if your horse comes out of the pasture with a wound is to check how serious it is. Is the wound just a slight cut or is it deep enough to require stitches? It is not really necessary to call the veterinarian it the wound is not deep or does not have a flap of skin hanging off. Use your best judgement.

click to enlarge.
 Next, clean out the wound as best as you can and apply an ointment or spray. I use the Animal Scents Ointment for my dog when she gets wounds. It can be mixed with five drops each of Thieves, Melrose, and Helichrysum for every tablespoon of ointment. It is helpful to set aside a small amount of the ointment as you will not be using the whole container. Apply the ointment several times a day. Don't use a lot–a little goes a long way.

 Something that I often use, both for myself and for my dog, is a mist spray. I pour some distilled water into a small glass spritz bottle and mix several different anti-infectious oils in with it. I generally use Purification, although lavender, Melrose, helichrysum, myrrh, and other anti-infectious oils can be used in addition to or in place of Purification. This spray can be sprayed several times a day or as often as needed.

 If the wound is bleeding a lot, take some sterile gauze and hold it to the wound to stop the bleeding. If you plan on putting your horse in the pasture, or even his, it's a good idea to keep the gauze on; it will help keep the wound clean and prevent in infection. Take the bandage off several times a day to spray it or put ointment on it, then put it back on. You can use both the spray and the ointment, but if you do, you should apply the ointment after the spray.

6 comments:

  1. Interesting! I used the essential oils over the summer to keep ticks away, I'd say it was pretty successful.

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  2. Great post! I LOVE natural healing both for myself AND my pets! LOVE this!

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  3. We have just started using essential oils. I have not used them with the animals yet though. This is good info. Thanks for sharing with us at The HomeAcre Harvest Hop!

    Please join us again Thursday for our special edition The Thankful HomeAcre Hop at:
    http://summersacres.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-thankful-homeacre-hop.html

    ~Ann

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  4. YouTube video with vet explaining different types of wound and how horses heal. There are demonstrations of how to dress and bandage wounds at different locations on the horse - foreleg, hind leg, on the hock, above the hock and the foot.

    http://horse-clips.co.uk/2013/11/video-wound-management/

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