July 2003

Go After Inflammation Aggressively

Sooner or later, every owner is going to face an acute injury that needs immediate inflammatory control.

A chilled poultice is a good choice for continual cold therapy.

Inflammation is good. It informs the horse’s brain that there’s a problem, prevents overuse of an injured area that could make the damage even worse, and also mediates the important process of cleaning up and removing damaged tissues.

However, there is a down side. Those inflammatory reactions of heat and swelling can easily become excessive, causing unnecessary damage to healthy tissue in the area and even becoming self-perpetuating. For this reason, it’s important to get on top of inflammation rapidly and aggressively. Luckily, you have a number of treatment options. …