At the advice of my vet, I’ve been treating Nilla’s leg with Sugardine. If you’ve never heard of it, you’re not alone. My vet explained how to make and use it, but I still had to look it up when I got home because I had never heard of it. It seems like even vets don’t really know why it works, just that it does.
Before I get in to how well this is working for us, I want to remind anyone reading this that I am not a vet and you should follow your vet’s advice in dealing with wounds, not mine. This blog entry is only a description of Sugardine and it’s effects on Nilla’s leg, not an invitation to follow my lead.
Sugardine is Betadine mixed with sugar. That’s it. You want it to be about toothpaste consistency.
This stuff is super sticky so I highly recommend gloves. Annoyingly, it’ll stick to your hands, but does not stay on the horse’s leg. This is one of those tasks where you really want a third hand. You have to try to hold the Sugardine onto the leg while wrapping it with plastic wrap at the same time. I get my husband to help when he’s with me. If I’m by myself I manage it by having the plastic wrap ready to go and holding the Sugardine onto the leg then holding the plastic wrap onto the Sugardine and then using my free hand to wrap the plastic around the leg. It’s a PITA.
Then wrap the leg to keep the whole thing in place. Leave it on 12-24 hours. I find it really fascinating that when I remove the wrap the next day, the Betadine has leeched out over top of the wounds.
I don’t know if it’s been absorbed by the wounds or just moved into the neighboring sugar, but it’s pretty cool. However it works, it really does work. Her leg has improved pretty dramatically since we started using it.
The first picture is before Sugardine. The second is about 3 weeks later. The second picture is actually from December and the leg actually looks even better now, but I don’t have a more recent picture. I’ve been using it every other day or so depending on when I can make it to the barn. I alternate with the Alluspray you can see on her leg surrounding the wounds. I cannot wait for these wounds to finish closing so I can be done with this.
This is so interesting! I have never heard of it, but the progress pictures look great! I really want to know why it works lol!
I wonder if the sugar changes the ph or something like that, to make the environment unfriendly to bacteria growth? I always tend to trust those old farmer type of remedies – there's a reason people have used them forever, even if they can't spout out the science of why.
Glad it's working for Nilla!
ha interesting! i only just heard of this method a couple weeks ago and it kinda blew my mind. the vet was very specific tho in using regular betadine, not the soapy scrub stuff. anyway her leg looks great! fingers crossed it finishes healing soon!
Fascinating! I've never heard of this, but it's definitely a good thing to know about.
That's neat! It kind of looks like it is getting rid of proud flesh too.
My vet was also very specific about the type of Betadine. The scrubbing kind is caustic.
Exactly. I flipped out a bit about the proud flesh so she recommended this.
They think it's probably similar to the healing effects that some honey has when applied to wounds. But the healing honey is prohibitively expensive and this is fairly cheap.
I do wish they'd figure out why it works, but it's not like anyone's going to do a study on something that won't make them any money.
I keep thinking I know all the tricks and I keep learning new ones.
Hmm! Sugardine sounds very interesting.
Wow, I'm going to remember that for future reference 🙂
I have used it before for a hoof abscess…worked like a dream. I didn't know it had a name though, sugardine is kinda catchy 🙂
Some of the articles I read said it worked really well for hoof issues.