Rescue Remedies – Firewine
As part of our new Rescue Remedies column we’ll be bringing you handy hints, tips and recipes we’ve picked up along the way which we think you might enjoy.
“Firewine” is a simple recipe I picked up years ago from a friend and it’s a great one for winter. You can use it to treat all sorts of minor hoof problems during the wet season and I found it particularly effective at stopping the spread of thrush and white line disease (WLD) – also commonly called ’seedy toe’ and/or ‘rain rot’. I know others who’ve used it to treat hoof abscesses too.
These ailments can also be picked up in a dose of White Lightning, (Chlorine Dioxide), however this recipe you can try with common barn supplies too:
Ingredients
- Epsom salts (Magnesium Sulfate)
- Iodine solution (e.g. Vetadine)
- Hot water and a bucket
The mix:
- In a bucket, you’ll need enough hot water to submerge your horse’s hoof up to the fetlock – make sure you’re getting coverage above the coronary band. Ensure the water is as hot as your horse can handle.
- Add epsom salts until saturation. Magnesium sulfate disolves in water at around 250g per litre (@ 20 degrees celcius): so for a 5 litre bucket you’re looking at 1kg of epsom salts. This can be purchased at feed and tack stores pretty cheap – I wouldn’t recommend trying to pick it up at the chemist unless you want to pay a lot.
- Once epsom salts is stirred in, add a ‘good dose’ of iodine solution – I generally prefer the water to be a nice rusty colour, however you can tailor to your own tastes. 2-5 cap fulls should be plenty.
- And this is the tricky part – ‘poopsikins’ needs to stand nice and still to soak for 10 minutes.
You can also modify this recipe into a dressing for hoof abscesses – instead of mixing epsom salts and iodine in a bucket of water, you can mix the two as a paste and apply directly by packing it into the sole. Use your usual gamgee / duct tape / boots combo to keep it in place, and stick to your regular re-dressing routines.
