Poulticing with Nappies
Poulticing with Nappies!
Our new horse, Whisky who we seem to have acquired (goddaughter came back from Wellington Riding with it and the place where it was meant to go fell through so muggins here said “you’d better bring him here til you sell him” as if thats going to happen!) He is an ex-racehorse 9 yr old who cant be kept with the other horses as he crib bites and has to be fed all sorts of extra supplements, has very thin skin so horseflies turn him inside out! Obviously not our normal easy-care ponies who live out all year and eat grass in a lovely organic field!
Anyway I went out the other morning to feed Whisky and he was just getting up from a roll and was hopping lame. He had ripped his shoe off and the toe clip had pierced the sole of his foot. Apparently at Wellington, they used new-born nappies for poulticing to hold the poultice in place. I was a bit dubious to start but when you look at the cost of Vetwrap which is around £1.50 per roll (and you usually need a whole roll to poultice one foot!) compared with £3 for more than 25 new-born nappies I was intrigued.
So simply take your poultice and cut to size, press onto the foot, then slip the baby’s nappy over the foot and pull the little tabs around the fetlock. Fits the shape of the hoof to perfection, holds the poultice in place and fits snugly but gently around the fetlock..then we put one little layer of vet wrap and then lots of black duct tape to keep it dry, clean and waterproof. It was so much simpler, much cheaper and a complete poultice revelation for me!! When you take off the poultice, the foot is not all soft from being damp..Brilliant, I wish I had thought of it!
