Our most recent rescue-colt has greasy heels, really, really bad. He had a big (palm size) flap of skin near his pastern that was covering a horribly nasty area of pus & blood. My vet said go ahead and pack plain white sugar into the wound & wrap it. Then, each morning unwrap it and rinse with the hose, then re-sugar & re-wrap. My vet says she has heard fabulous things about this method, that you can use it on animals who have really dirty wounds or infections that just won't heal, or in situations where there is so much shredded tissue that you just wouldn't know where to begin to suture.

So, I'm game, we'll see how this works. Does anyone here have experience with using sugar this way? The drug companies have gotta love it!

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), March 14, 2002

Answers

I don't know about this but, I remeber my mother used to make some sort of a salve with brown sugar (I wish I knew the other ingredient) I think it might have been old brown soap. Anyhow, this concoction worked especially well to draw out the infection. I assume plain white sugar would have the same effect. Let us know how it works.

RenieB

-- Irene Burt (renienorm@aol.com), March 14, 2002.

Found this link with references on Honey in wound Care, http://www.beekeeping.co.nz/info/molan.htm Sugar Pastes in Wound Management

Found these studies from the 1970’s and 1980’s:

In 1976, Herszage and Montenegro of Argentina used ordinary sugar to treat the wounds of two patients with post-surgical necrotic cellulitis. Further successes followed and in 1980 they reported on the use of sugar paste in 120 infected wounds and recorded a cure rate of 99.2%.[1] The time taken for the wounds to heal varied between 9 days and 17 weeks, but it was observed that odour and secretion began to dimin- ish within 24 hours and disappeared totally after 72 to 96 hours of treatment. In 1985, Trouillet et al[2] described the use of sugar in the treatment of 19 patients with acute mediastinitis following cardiac surgery. Wounds were packed every 3 to 4 hours with ordinary commercially available granular sugar (sucrose). The authors noted near complete debridement followed by the rapid formation of granulation tissue and eradication of bacterial infection after an aver- age of 7.6 days of treatment.

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), March 14, 2002.

Shannon, I have had great luck with sugar packs. You should give it a try. Best wishes!

-- cowgirlone in OK (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), March 14, 2002.

Sugar pack was once used for "bed sores" quite effectively.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), March 14, 2002.

Yes -- a guy who works drafters around here (used to be my neighbor) had a horse that ripped a large chunk of his hoof off. He packed that with sugar and wrapped it the way that you described, and eventually the hoof did regrow.

Sugar used to be used in India in the years of the British Colonial rule and was issued to the workers whose elephants were attacked by tigers. The claws had all kinds of bacteria from rotted meat, packing the wound draws body fluids to the site (think of sprinkling sugar on cut fruit and how it produces syrup by drawing out the juice), and moving infections out, rather than driving them in, which can happen with using hydrogen peroxide, etc.

I have read accounts of honey used in wound care in medieval herbals for the same reasons of drawing infections out, plus the propolis in unpasturized honey has some antibacterial action on its own.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), March 14, 2002.

Shannon,

I've heard of using raw honey on wounds but never sugar. It's a good thing to know. It sounds much better than some of those purchased salves and ointments that often don't work very well. Much cheaper to! Thanks for the tip. Please let us know how it works.

-- Murray in ME (lkdmfarm@megalink.net), March 14, 2002.

Hi Shannon..yes, my cousin had a breast removed and was saying she just could not get it to heal. I had read in one of my alternative med books that sugar would heal it..she tried it and with in a couple of days she could see that it was healing. Also my sister in law had a horse with a deep cut on his shoulder..it also would not heal. I told her about what I had read..she tried it..the shoulder healed..and you have to look to find the scar.

I would definitely try it..good luck to you and your horse!

-- Sher in se Iowa (riverdobbers@webtv.net), March 14, 2002.

Another amazing healer - - especially for deep wounds. MOSS If you have access to it. Just take a knife and slice it off where it is growing. Lay it over the wound, bandage, and you only have to change once a week.

Several years ago I had a cow injure her rear leg. ALL the meat on the front of the bone was peeled from the knee down to the hoof, with the bone exposed. Called the vet. One quick look & he said get her to the sale barn! He said the infection would set in and at best she would be a "three-legged" cow, and even if there was a miracle, she would never be able to carry a calf, so would be worthless.

She was a nice cow. I told the vet, I could kill the cow anytime, first I'd like to try to heal her. He gave her penicillin, and all the usual wound treatments, and bandaging. Few days later the infection set in and lordy, what a mess!

Long story short. Wound was not responding. Old timer told me to put moss on the wound. Did so. The wound responded immediately. Edges started drawing together. One week later the progress was amazing. Cow took some weeks to completely recover. Never a problem carrying a calf. You couldn't even see there had been such a terrific injury.

Weirdest thing. The very next summer a mini horse ended up with the same identical injury. ( No clue what caused either of them). The ONLY thing I did was spray the wound with betadine, cover with moss, bandage once a week. Never gave any antibiotics. Recovery was, again, amazing, rapid, and complete.

Moss for bad cuts. Really pulls the edges of a wound together fast, seems to heal from inside out.

My camera puts a date on the front of each picture. . . and I took pictures of both animals each time the bandage was changed. Very interesting to see.

-- JMcFerrin (JMcFerrin@aol.com), March 15, 2002.

Used it often, but we always mixed it with Betadine to make a paste...called it Sugardine.

Works great for abcesses or bruising in the feet.

-- Tracy (zebella@mindspring.com), March 15, 2002.

I also remember using sugar in wounds. Years ago this was a common practice in bed sores in patients in nursing. ( guess I'm showing my age here) I believe we use to mix it with Crisco or betadine with the white sugar. Seemed to work back then too. Sometimes the simple things work the best. Good Luck !!!

-- Helena (windyacs@npacc.net), March 15, 2002.

I read that the Romans also used honey to promote wound healing. Spider cobwebs are another old time medical practice, though I'm sure the spider gets rather ticked off having to build another.

-- j.r. guerra in s. tx. (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), March 15, 2002.

Quite a few years ago when I was still working in a hospital, we mixed sugar and betadine to a paste and packed it into open bedsores. These were irrigated 3-4 times a day and repacked.

-- Kate henderson (kate@sheepyvalley.com), March 15, 2002.

Sugar has the same sort of "drawing" properties as salt, but it doesn't sting. It kills bacteria by literally dehydrating them.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), March 15, 2002.

Wow! I've never heard of this! What great info! I'd always drawn out infection with a hot water soak with epsom salts and baking soda in the water ~ you can see it working in minutes, the drawing power is rather dramatic even from a deep wound with a small opening. BUT this is obviously NOT practical on a farm animal or certain parts of the human body! *GRIN!* Thanks for posting about this everybody!

-- Wingnut (wingnut@moment.net), March 16, 2002.

In nursing school they did mention sugar packs, but said that it is not a recommended practice anymore as some bacteria find the sugar to be great food. Then you have moist, dark, and food...perfect place for bacteria to grow. This wound should also not be sutured unless you are totally sure there in no infection left. This will trap any bacteria inside and make things worse. I have also had some horses with grease heel (aka scratches). Horses with white socks are more prone to it, but it can affect dark areas too. One mare even got it on her pink nose! It is contagious to your other horses and can get into your soil so be careful, wear gloves, and always wash your hands after handling this horse. That's how my horses got it. I worked at a farm & they had a horse with it. I was treating him & must have brought it home to mine. I found the ONLY thing that got rid of it was plain old telnaftate cream. This is jock itch & athletes foot medication. Buy the generic. Clip the hair from aroudn the infected area (disinfect clippers after!). Each day wash area with betadine surgical scrub rubbing off any loose crud, dry very well, then apply a thick coat of the cream. Works like a charm! I would not try this on the deep wound area. Your horse should probably also be on an antibiotic for the infection if it is that bad.

-- ellie (elnorams@aol.com), March 16, 2002.