HONEY - AND HEALING WOUNDS ON HORSES

This is one for the horse lovers in the Huds and Toke family……but I suppose this could be applicable to any other pet as well???

A colleague, and friend, of mine recently had an incident with her horse where it sustained a gash on it’s leg.

As a passing comment, she asked if I knew anything about using Honey to heal wounds?

Now, I understand that this seems irrelevant to pet treats, however, in actual fact, it goes right the core of what it is we do……..and that is to create products with our pets health in front of mind.

And so it is not unusual to find us up late at night researching ingredients and their benefits etc……. because we care!

Anyway, back to the honey question…………I remember my mother using a certain type of Honey to help heal bedsores on my darling old grandmother when she was bedridden in her old age………However I never took the time to query the process?

So with that in mind, and understanding that I had no idea about the healing qualities of honey, or lack of, and that I am, in now-way a health professional, nor a science researcher, I thought I would take a quick look and see what I could find to try and help my friend out.

What I found was quite interesting. Please, remember when you are reading this, I am not a professional health care person. Just someone who cares for animals and the people who look after them.

So it turns out that some of the chemicals in Honey may kill certain bacteria and fungus when applied to the skin.

Furthermore, it has an enzyme called glucose oxidase that produces the mild antiseptic, hydrogen peroxide, when it is combined with water from the skin. This will also act to decrease the pH of wounds which discourages other germs to grow.

Another benefit is that it has the ability to absorb water, and as such, dries the wound out somewhat, which will inhibit certain micro-organisms to grow which can cause infections. It can do this because of the two sugars it is composed of which, when combined, will attract water.

There is a trick here though……..these properties will only apply to Raw Honey.

Honey bought in the supermarket for human consumptions has been processed at high temperatures and in some cases pasteurized as well. The reason for this process is that Raw Honey can contain bacteria which reproduce using spores such as the botulism bacteria…….as such, to protect us from contracting this potentially terrible disease, the honey is treated.

Soooo……understanding that this discussion is about the healing properties of Honey, it is important to remember that if you are going to use honey to aid in healing one must remember to use RAW HONEY.

Interestingly, Raw Honey is considered one of the oldest known wound dressings and can be traced back to ancient Greece where they used Honey to help with sun burn and infected wounds!

So, as it turns out, Yes, honey can be an aid to helping treat wounds……however, it needs to be Raw Honey. Plus, there are certain kinds of Raw Honey with differing properties….. such as Manuka Honey which is a very well-known type of Raw Honey……..but there are a treasure trove of Raw Honey’s out there and all are potentially viable options for alternative wound treatment none-the-less.

I hope this has been of some interest. Take a look at a couple of the links in this article to find out more……Just remember; ALWAYS consult a trained health professional if you have a horse with a wound before you treat it with alternative therapies such as Raw Honey.

Have a great week.

Regards from the Team at Huds and Toke Pty Ltd.