Homemade First-Aid Recipes for Your Horse

Recipes for common horse care first-aid solutions.

In the February 2008 issue of Horse & Rider magazine we offered a chart of handy tools to add to your horse-care kit. Stock up some of the following supplies, then print out these homemade first-aid recipes and keep them with your first-aid kit for quick reference.

Make sure your first-aid kit includes ingredients you

Saline Solution

  • 1 tsp table salt
  • 1 quart water
  • Mix in clean container until salt is completely dissolved.

Double-strength saline solution

  • 2 tsp table salt
  • 1 quart water

Mix in clean container until salt is completely dissolved.

Scab softener

  • 1 16 oz. bottle mineral oil (baby oil is okay)
  • 1 16 oz. bottle 3 percent USP hydrogen peroxide
  • 1 1/2 oz. bottle tincture of iodine

Combine all in large container. Do not close tightly. Mixture will bubble slowly and expand and can cause a messy explosion.

Epsom salt soaking solution

  • 1/2 cup Epsom salts
  • 1 gallon warm water (like a hot bath)

Mix until salts are dissolved. Soak affected body part by immersing in a container (such as for a hoof), or by applying a wet dressing.

Poultices

  1. Mix Epsom salts with enough warm water to make a paste.
  2. Mix 1/2 cup Epsom salts + 4 cups miller’s bran; mix with enough water to make a paste.
  3. Kaopectate? mixed with enough flour or miller’s bran to make a paste.
  4. Sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) mixed with enough witch hazel to make a paste.
  5. “Sugardine”: Table sugar mixed with enough Betadine? to make a paste.

Leg sweat

Mix Furacin? liquid or ointment with an equal amount of medical-grade DMSO.

Recipes from Hands-On Horse Care From Horse & Rider, by Karen E.N. Hayes, DVM, MS; Edited by Thomas C. Bohanon, DVM, MS, and Sue M. Copeland.

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