# Underwood Horse Medicine.



## G and K's Mom (Jan 11, 2008)

When my gelding ripped his chest open top to bottom a lot of people on Horsecity recommended this product.

It wasn't readily available where I am so I used Cothivet, which is just as amazing, but most had good things to say about it.


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

I'd like to know the ingredients. I notice they're not listed. I'm not willing to put anything on my horses without knowing first what's in it.


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## soileddove (Jul 27, 2010)

My bottle reads--

Thymol, Menthol, 1.27%, aromatic essential oils, chloroxylenol 0.50% copper sulfate, pentahydrate, Wormwood, water, iodine, acetone, potassium permanganate, FD&C Blue no. 1, compound tinctures, Potassium iodine, inert ingredients.


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## G and K's Mom (Jan 11, 2008)

Speed Racer said:


> I'd like to know the ingredients. I notice they're not listed. I'm not willing to put anything on my horses without knowing first what's in it.


The other thing, not to take away from the OP, but the healing process shown in the pictures is what you would EXPECT in normal healing. My gelding went from ripped top to bottom and 8-10 inches deep into his chest to hardly anything in 78 days.


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## soileddove (Jul 27, 2010)

G and K's Mom said:


> The other thing, not to take away from the OP, but the healing process shown in the pictures is what you would EXPECT in normal healing. My gelding went from ripped top to bottom and 8-10 inches deep into his chest to hardly anything in 78 days.


That's definitely true and I'm in no way disputing that. Often times if you just leave things alone, it will heal just fine.. Seen it done many times. But there are products that can help anything along, no one can deny that. ha Otherwise I wouldn't have a bathroom shelf dedicated to frizz reducing products that work reasonably well.


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## Speed Racer (Oct 21, 2009)

soileddove said:


> My bottle reads--
> 
> Thymol, Menthol, 1.27%, aromatic essential oils, chloroxylenol 0.50% copper sulfate, pentahydrate, Wormwood, water, iodine, acetone, potassium permanganate, FD&C Blue no. 1, compound tinctures, Potassium iodine, inert ingredients.


All of those things listed have antibacterial or anti-inflammatory properties. There are also one or two that have an analgesic quality, to help with the pain.

I'm not sold on how great it is, but at least there's certainly nothing in it that would harm a horse and may very well help, especially the anti-inflammatories and analgesics.


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## soileddove (Jul 27, 2010)

I'm not here stating that this is some wonder product, heal-all deal, but we've used it on smaller injuries (mainly on cattle) with success, although that is relative since we don't really have anything to compare to because injuries and animals are all unique. 

I'm just offering this up as an option for anyone else who might be interested in seeing what it has done for others and if they're interested in following Peppy's progress with it. This will be my first time using it on anything other than minor cuts that probably would've healed mostly fine on their own, granted this is it not some horror story worthy injury, but I thought it was still worth mentioning.


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## G and K's Mom (Jan 11, 2008)

I'd be interested. I'm always interested in how another horse has healed up. "Education"

In case you interested here's George's photo log GRAPHIC
George-laceration pictures by kevang - Photobucket

And if anyone's interested info on Cothivet, which is 100% natural
http://www.neogen.com/animalsafety/pdf/ProdInfo/Tech_Bulletins/08888.pdf


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## soileddove (Jul 27, 2010)

G and K's Mom said:


> I'd be interested. I'm always interested in how another horse has healed up. "Education"
> 
> In case you interested here's George's photo log GRAPHIC
> George-laceration pictures by kevang - Photobucket
> ...


Thanks for sharing.. I looks like your horse has made a wonderful recovery.. Cothivet was the main thing you used, I assume, correct? What other sorts of treatment did you use, if any? That's definitely impressive..


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## G and K's Mom (Jan 11, 2008)

This is the shortend version of an article that appeared in July 2010 Western Horse Review Sorry about the format, it was a PDF that I put into text........

EQUINE HEALTH

. 
“I had come home to feed the boys their 
lunch,” recalls Kevan, “when I noticed George 
standing off by himself and thought it a bit 
odd, as he always comes to the fence to greet 
me, particularly when there’s food involved. I 
called to him, but he stood perfectly still with 
his back to me and his forelegs somewhat 
spread-eagled.” That was when Kevan noticed 
the trail of blood leading to where George was 
standing. He ran to the horse, but as he approached 
George from the left rear, he didn’t 
immediately see what had happened. Says 
Kevan, “It wasn’t until I reached his side that 
I saw the huge flap of flesh hanging from his 
chest. Then when I got around to the front, I 
could barely believe my eyes as I knelt down 
in front of George and saw a huge, jagged, 
gaping hole in his chest.”
Kevan later deduced that George, who 
was probably roughhousing with his brother, 
Kooter, had impaled himself on an upright 
post from which a gate had recently been removed, 
but the hinges had been left on. As 
George struggled to get free, the top hinge had 
likely done the most damage, tearing and slicing 
the muscles of the chest. Though George 
had managed to get clear of the post, the resulting 
wound was deep and massive – and 
extremely frightening. 
Kevan immediately got on his cell phone to 
call in the vet while urging George to follow him 
back to the barn. The next call was to Sherri. 
“It was mid-afternoon when Kevan called my 
office,” she remembers, “and all he said was, 
‘George is hurt and it’s bad’.
When Sherri first saw George and realized 
the extent of his injury, she was terrified. “I 
thought this is it, I’m going to lose him. The 
wound was so large and so deep that you could 
see 8-10 inches into his chest. George could 
barely move and his breathing was quite shallow 
from the pain. I’ve never been so scared 
in my life, but surprisingly my fear didn’t paralyze 
me – it was empowering. Kevan had been 
trying to care for him while waiting for me get 
home, and now I needed to take over. Diving 
in, trying to comfort George calmed me. I 
knew if I was calm George would relax. Once 
I started to tend to him his breathing slowed 
and he slowly walked into his stall.”
When the vet got to the farm, he was quick 
to assess George’s situation. Says Kevan, “He 
shook his head when I asked what could be 
done for George, then explained that the nature 
of the wound dictated that suturing was 
out of the question. Trying to put a positive 
spin on the situation, he added that due to the 
vertical orientation of the gash, the wound was 
less likely to retain contaminants, and would 
probably drain well as it healed. Apart from 
prescribing routine antibiotic treatment for the 
next 14 days he shrugged his shoulders and 
said, ‘The rest is up to George’.”
However, neither Sherri nor Kevan were 
content with the minimal treatment regime 
prescribed by the vet. “No horse owner likes 
to take ‘nothing’ as a plan of action when their 
beloved friend is hurt,” says Kevan, “so Sherri 
and I agreed the next call was to Henry Cheng 
at the Cloverdale Pharmasave. Henry is the 
local homeopathic guru and resident source 
of alternative remedies for both horse and human. 
He is the ‘go to guy’ for virtually everyone 
at Fraser Downs, the local Standardbred racetrack. 
I quickly shot a series of digital pictures 
of the wound and emailed them to Henry so 
he had an idea of what we were facing. By the 
time I arrived at his store, Henry had all the ingredients 
and remedies prepared, along with 
detailed instructions for their administration.”
Continues Sherri, “At the time George was 
on Recovery EQ and Lakota for his hocks and 
Henry suggested we continue with both, plus 
he added ten days of a homeopathic medicine 
called Thymuline 9CH Liquid, which is an immune 
balancer given orally, and ten days of 
injectable Traumeel, which is a homeopathic 
complex for inflammation and pain resulting 
from trauma. Plus another herbal product 
called Cothivet, which we sprayed on the 



wound twice a day.” 
Sherri and Kevan followed Cheng’s suggestions 
to the letter, with remarkable results. “After 
two weeks,” says Sherri, “the vet came out 
to check on George’s progress. 
The first words out his mouth 
were, ‘Wow, I can’t believe the progress’. He 
was truly amazed at how fast the wound was 
closing, but we never mentioned the use of 
‘extras’”.
. Says Cheng, “I recommended 
several products for George, one of 
which was Cothivet, a Canadian product made 
by Vetoquinol. It is a pharmaceutical company, 
but this is not a pharmaceutical agent. This is 
an absolutely natural product that contains 
herbal substances that promote healing, as 
well as mild antiseptics; and somehow, it also 
prevents the overgrowth of granulation tissue 
(proud flesh). It is labeled as a cicatrizing 
agent, which means it promotes the formation 
of connective tissues. It doesn’t say that it will 
prevent proud flesh, but based on my experience 
of using or selling this product for over 
20 years, the wound usually heals quite nicely, 
and very seldom do we come across proud 
flesh when this is used.”
Whether you believe in alternative medicine 
or not, there is not doubt that George’s 
wound healed quite nicely indeed, and faster 
than anyone would have expected, including 
Cheng. As he recalls, “It was absolutely 
amazing. Kevan took pictures of the healing 
process, and within something like 100 days, 
there was nothing but a tiny scar the size of a 
thumb.”
The only setback during George’s recovery 
was about three or four weeks in, when Sherri 
noticed something strange. “I was grooming 
him,” she remembers, “and when I got to his 
left shoulder there was a ‘sound’ coming from 
under his skin that I can only describe as the 
sound of cellophane. The sound continued 
over his withers and down the right shoulder. 
The area was swollen and hot to the touch.” It 
turned out that George had subcutaneous emphysema, 
a condition in which air or gas gets 
trapped under the skin. “In George’s case,” explains 
Sherri, “the motion of George’s breathing 
was causing outside air to get sucked into 
his chest cavity. The concern was that if the air 
was getting trapped, there could also be bacteria 
present.” They ended up keeping George 
on antibiotics for another couple of weeks, and 
the problem resolved with no further complications.


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