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Arnica Gel for Horses
This is a brief article to describe some sucess I have found in using Arnica Gel in treating injuries to standardbred race horses. I can't take credit for coming up with the treatment entirely on my own. Vern Hornquist, a blacksmith who has since passed on, recommended that I try Arnica tablets for my shoulder when I had been badly injured by a killer horse. He picked me up and shook me like a rag doll, and I had serious bruising and swelling. I was afraid to try it because I was pregnant at the time, but I did commit the name of the stuff to memory. A few weeks later, we were struggling to bring down the swelling in a horse's knee. We couldn't find anything that was causing it, and it didn't seem to be especially bothering him, except during a race. It was so badly swollen that it was almost impossible to even get his knee boot buckled, and yet he wasn't lame on it. We had two different vets look at it, and neither of them could figure out what was causing it. Both said it was nothing more than a hematoma, or in other words, a big ugly bruise, but we couldn't get rid of it. We tried ice, icthamol, everything you can imagine. This went on for a month. Finally, it dawned on me what the old blacksmith had told me about my shoulder. I went to the health food store and started looking around. I found Arnica tablets, and right beside them, I found a topical gel. For $7 or so, I thought I'd take a shot. I bought the gel figuring it'd be easier to use. I went back to the barn and use about half the tube, covering the horse's swollen knee. I then wrapped it about 6-8 times in plastic wrap to make a sweat, and then used a bandage over the top. (For those of you who don't have standardbreds, this is pretty common practice. You get yourself some saran wrap, and wrap it loosely around the affected area... please do NOT cut off your horse's circulation! Then you use something akin to an ace bandage to cover it and hold it up, it insulates and keeps everything in place, but use caution and check it often to make sure you're not damaging the leg!) The next day, the swelling in the knee was about 50% better. He went out and jogged, slow enough so as not to whack that knee. After his bath I just repeated what I had done the day before, using the other half of the tube of arnica gel. I used the plastic wrap again, and the next day... the swelling was gone. I don't know what caused it, but I know what cured it. I've never seen anything like that before. A few weeks ago, I had another case of a not-so-bright gelding who likes to kick the wall. He kicked until he blew up his hind leg. He couldn't stand on it and was having a good bit of trouble walking on it. I treated him the same way, covered it very generously in Arnica Gel, and wrapped it up, this time using just a regular cotton wrap and bandage. The next day he was walking on it. I didn't reset the bandage, I just left it be. The day after, I took the bandage off and the swelling was gone. I don't discount modern medicine folks, that's not what I mean to say here. It's not going to heal a broken bone, and it won't fix a ruptured ligament, so you better know what you're dealing with, and be sure to call a vet when you need one... they are the experts, after all. But I have seen with my own eyes that this stuff will take away swelling in a matter of two days. It's inexpensive, and at the very least, it can't do any harm. These days, every penny counts, so give Arnica a try. I find that more often that not it gives relief to your wallet and your horse both. |
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May, 2012
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