Tag Archives: injuries

Happy Halloween, throwback style! AKA a little sugar with your gore?

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**warning, graphic content**

I don’t think I’ve posted this before…

10 years ago, right around Halloween, I got a call from my barn owner/trainer that Subi was FINE, but had gotten kicked in the shoulder and had a nasty open wound that couldn’t be stitched… Darn hind shoes…

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Instead, he was getting SMZs and they were packing it with granulated sugar at the vet’s direction…

Being a new library graduate student, I had to research the crap out of what my trainer was telling me, but yes, it was a thing. Sugar packing, who knew?

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He was also on stall rest and hating life. But, no swelling because a certain IDIOT walking circles and kept the swelling down. Lol.

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Sugar packing was fine. My trainer attempted to clip is leg and everyone nearly died…. They decided they’d skip that step. I scrubbed and curried sugar and blood off that leg FOREVER. 

And yet, after a couple of weeks, it healed nicely (despite the face that at one point, you could stick your entire hand inside the wound).  It ultimately healed without a scar. Then my idiot horse somehow scratched himself the SAME PLACE (no blood) and THAT scarred…

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2 weeks post kick

If you are interested in reading more about sugar…

Scholarly Articles

Dunford, Cheryl, Rose Cooker, Peter Molan, and Richard White. “The use of honey in wound management” Nursing Standard 15, no. 11 (29 November 2000): 63-68.

This article discusses the history, background, and use of honey in the wound healing process. A more well known treatment (dating back more than 2000 plus years), this article also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using honey in wound treatment. Furthermore, multiple images are included.

Gordon, H., Middleton, K.; Seal, D.; Sullens, K. “Sugar and wound healing” The Lancet 2, no. 8456 (21 September 1985): 663-665.

This article chronicles the treatment of foot abscesses using a sucrose sugar paste and includes both scientific text as well as images. Furthermore, the article also address the use of sugar in wound treatment throughout history, referring to Egyptian use of honey as well as explaining how sugar works in the healing process.

Mathews, Karol A. and Allen G. Binnington. “Wound management using sugar” Copendium 24, no. 1 (January 2002): 41-50.

This article discusses wound management in dogs and other small animals using sugar. Written by a pair of veterinarians, the article chronicles a research study on sugar impact in the healing process of large wounds in dogs, includes multiple images, and address the healing properties unique to sugar.

Seal, David V., Roderick J. Hay, and Keith R. Middleton. Skin and wound infection: investigation and treatment in practice. London: Informa Health Care, 2000.

This book addresses infection and wounds and discusses different treatments and practices related to wound care. Though not entirely devoted to the use of sugar, this book does devote an entire chapter to sugar paste and wound healing.

Happy (?) 5 Year Anniversary

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Some people celebrate birthdays. Some people celebrate memorials. Others celebrate other life changing events.

And I’m not sure how life changing or momentous this event was, but it’s something I try to think about because it certainly was more life changing than I like to admit.

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And that was that. I’ve talked about it before on this blog. I remember it, but I don’t. It’s blurry. If you want to know what happened, read the blog I linked to.

The thing that bothers me the most about that day is that it completely ruined my relationship with Hayley. It shouldn’t have, but it did. There was nothing vengeful or malicious about the kick. She wasn’t targeting me, she was aiming at Batt, but more than anything, she, my crippled mare, was feeling good. With all her health issues, was feeling good. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, untying a freaking knot of all things and got kicked in the head.

So I play the if only game.

If I had stayed at work instead of coming home early due to a headache, I’d have been fine.

If I’d have come home, but NOT fed and left if to my husband instead, I’d have been fine. After all, he always fed that meal.

If I had left the damn hay net alone, I’d have been fine.

If I had let myself fall into the mud instead of refusing to fall, I’d have been fine, after all, the second impact, the “catching myself” may have caused more injury than the initial kick.

If I had argued with the ER doctor who told me I was fine when I knew I wasn’t.

If I hadn’t gone back to work when I knew I wasn’t fine just to prove a point.

If I hadn’t waited until I couldn’t talk to see my primary care doctor (not exactly true, I called and made an appointment, but the office took my word which was the ER doc’s word that I was fine. That was what he told me. No fracture, no concussion), I’d be fine.

If I had done any of the above, my migraines wouldn’t be as bad as they are now.

The what if, they don’t help. But, they give an overly analytical person stuff to obsess about.

And the truth of the matter is, I had migraines before this happened. I left work BECAUSE of a migraine. Just not a bad migraine. And, I’d had bad spells before this. And, my neurologist has told me that he’s not convinced this concussion has played role in my current situation.

But, I never had speech issues at all before this concussion. I get the speech issues now when I’m stressed and a migraine is coming on. That said, speech issues are a symptom of migraines.

So, looking back 5 years, I consider the what ifs because that’s be, but I also remind myself that there are what if that are so much worse that I try not to consider. And for that I am grateful.

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The sweetest mare there ever was