Re: Hydrogen Peroxide Treatment

["Susan Garlinghouse" <suendavid@worldnet.att.net>]

> This past week end I had a friend tell me about having her horse trainer
> flush out her horse with a hydrogen peroxide solution mixed with DMSO , B
> vitamins and in a dextrose base . This was given intravenusly and done I
> believe a total of three times , has anyone else ever heard of such a
thing
> ?
>                                                          Drin Becker
>                                                          Mtn. Region

OK, maybe I was missing something, but NO WAY would you give hydrogen
peroxide intravenously.  This stuff is way toxic to cells and there's no
justification for it in an IV solution for anything.  I would also be pretty
worried about a trainer giving DMSO IV.  Yeah, it is given IV for a few
specific conditions like laminitis or cerebral edema, but then it's diluted
in a big bag of saline.  It has some anti-inflammatory effect at the right
dosage, but can cause damage if overdone, and I'm not real convinced I'd
trust a trainer to have a handle on that sort of thing.

Plus, wasn't the original question something about soaking a foot abcess?
How would an IV help with that?  I'm confused.

Anyway, just to be sure, I asked one of the equine surgeons at Colorado
State what his suggestion was for an abcessed foot.  He's been around
practically forever and IMO, his is the Last Word when it comes to horses.
Anyway, he said once you've opened up the abcess so that it can drain
ventrally (towards the ground), flush it out with betadine diluted to the
color of weak tea (it actually has more germicidal properties diluted than
it does straight).  Use a syringe to flush it out really well (get some
presure behind it to blast out the junk), use a scrub brush to get the
bottom of the foot clean, then pack the foot in icthamol (getting it up into
the drainage hole), pack that with cotton, wrap up the whole foot with
elasticon and vet wrap (and maybe an easyboot) and leave it the hell alone.
If you did it right the first time, you're not improving anything by messing
with it every day and the main thing it needs is a clean environment,
ventral drainage and bandaging away from more contamination.

Susan G