RE: [RC] furacin and wounds - Susan E. Garlinghouse, DVM
> I've used a mixture of 2 parts betadine, one part
peroxide sprayed or squirted on twice a day. Every other day I take a clean
cloth and swipe the >wound once--not hard--any scabs that come off come off,
anything that doesn't come off isn't ready to and I leave alone. This has worked
well even >on large flap wounds, no infection and no scarring. It doesn't
seem to hurt. I learned it from a nurse on a burn unit who said it's how they
treat burned >people.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of peroxide on equine tissue
except maybe sometimes on abscessed soles. That solution is more
indicated for tissue that’s already devitalized/dead and needs to be
debrided (as you describe with removing scabs and such). For tissue that’s
just newly dirty, but more or less healthy, I was taught in vet school not to
use anything on an open wound that you wouldn’t be willing to put into
your eye---obviously pretty darn mild. Thus the very dilute betadine and
salty water solution for cleaning and disinfecting virtually anything. If
it’s too strong to put into your eyes, then it’s going to be
irritating to the tissue and defeating your purposes to one extent or another.
At least that’s the theory I was taught and happily go by, your mileage
may vary.
The very best ‘gold standard’ to resolve
wounds is with an alginate biodressing that occludes contaminants but keeps the
wound moist. The most recent of the wound management texts also recommend
keeping healing wounds moist, clean, largely undisturbed and with a bit of
pressure. If you already have an area that looks like it’s turning
into proud flesh, then I apply a generous amount of triamcinolone (long-acting
steroid) cream mixed with chlorhexidine cream under a telfa, sheet cotton,
vetrap and elastikon, and leave it alone for about a week until the next
bandage change. If the proud flesh extends above the level of the
surrounding skin, it gets carefully carved back down with a sterile scalpel to
sea level again. If the granulation tissue is minimal, I only very gently
dab at wounds during bandage changes to clean off dead tissue that’s
already unattached. All that was taught to me by Mike Peralez, DVM, pretty
much the undisputed king of wound care outside of universities-where-the-really-smart-people-live,
at least in my book, and it works like magic. We’d get an awful lot
of lowly, ill-bred glee out of being presented with nasty, ugly proud flesh
wounds that had resisted traditional treatments for the previous six months,
and then getting them cleaned up in about 2-3 weeks. There’s not
much in equine practice more fun than carving down proud flesh and getting it
all tucked away properly, but I might just be under-medicated and a little
twisted or something. Not to say it’s the only method, but it’s
a pretty good one.
