My 8 yo TB Hollywood Hotel (Darn That Alarm) has been suffering from chronic hoof abscesses. He is in a hospital now for surgical debridement that will be followed by Maggot therapy. I understand the theory as I know of the wounded WWI soldiers' amputation stumps healed better and cleaner when flies layed their eggs into the wounds in dirty field battle conditions... but...
Anybody here has experience with this kind of treatment in horses?
Thanks for any info.
Maggot Debridement Therapy
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It's actually quite effective, because maggots eat dead tissue but not live tissue, and do no harm. It's just really tough to look at. Yuck! They actually leave the tissue very cleaned up.
"When I am on my deathbed, I imagine I will say, 'Thank God I did that'" - Arthur Hancock, on buying back Gato del Sol from Europe after Exceller was killed in a slaughterhouse in Sweden.
Interesting. I know that maggots are sometimes used in human wound management and I've heard of them being used in small animal veterinary medicine, but never in horses for this purpose. Keep us posted on how the horse progresses!
"I'll lay me down and bleed a while, and then I'll rise and fight again." Sir Barton
Hollywood Hotel came home from hospital Friday, his hoof wrapped and packed with Maggots, he is supposed to be on hand-walk/stall rest for 2 weeks.
After that he can go to turn-out and start being ridden.
This horse is hyper and while I did change his diet - he is still a bomb trying to explode.
I want to see the maggots are alive and thriving doing their job, I am not sure how much O2 they can get from tightly bandaged hoof.
After that he can go to turn-out and start being ridden.
This horse is hyper and while I did change his diet - he is still a bomb trying to explode.
I want to see the maggots are alive and thriving doing their job, I am not sure how much O2 they can get from tightly bandaged hoof.
freshman wrote:Interesting. I know that maggots are sometimes used in human wound management and I've heard of them being used in small animal veterinary medicine, but never in horses for this purpose. Keep us posted on how the horse progresses!