Vetericyn

After a lifetime of working with animals and keeping livestock I have tried many, many different products for all the various ailments that crop up. Most work pretty poorly. It is rare that I will find something to rave about--something that lives up to it's claims. My normal course of action when I find an injury and fear infection is to start an aggressive triple antibiotic application and strive to make and keep the injury free of dirt. It is really the only thing that I have had work for me and what my vet normally recommends anyway.

My horse, Scooby, is prone to these kinds of scrapes and scratches. The other day I went out and found him with a long slash on his rear. It was long and deep enough that I thought about calling the vet for stitches but it was in a place that I knew was likely to rip out and clean enough that I thought it would mend without stitches. I treated it with triple antibiotic ointment for several days and it looked great. On day four he rolled and inflamed the area, filling it with dirt. I washed the wound and dressed it but I was very worried by how swollen the entire area was and the nasty red tissue that was showing in the now widening slit. Proud flesh is a huge problem with horses. Granular tissue grows around an inflamed area and won't go away.

I went on line and found a post about a new product called vetericyn. It sounded too good to be true...it treats wounds, burns, eye infections, fungal infections and it's safe to use all over the animal without fear of irritation. I was willing to try anything at this point. It is expensive, $30 for a 20 oz bottle. I was really hoping that I wasn't being an idiot by buying it. The company claims that the spray works by penetrating and oxidizing the wound, helping the animal's own natural defenses activate which, frankly, sounded like a lot of hoopla to me.

The instructions say to saturate the wound 3 or 4 times a day...which isn't possible for me. I could do it twice a day. When you apply vetericyn it goes on like water and runs off. I gave the wound a thorough dousing...about ten shots with the sprayer it comes in. I was very dubious. It looked like it was all just running down the horses flanks like water. I wondered if any penetrated the wound at all and even thought about trying to scrub the wound open (bad idea). The next day the swelling was gone. After two days the wound had shrunk to half it's size and in three days I cut the second spraying. I am no longer using so much--just a few squirts and I am completely and utterly in awe of how quickly and completely this stuff works. I'm in love...where have you been all my life, vetericyn?