Manuka honey - your thoughts, and best places to buy

+1 for Manuka honey to treat wounds!

Used on TB with large wound - vet not happy but gave me a week's grace to try it before going down skin graft route. It was amazing to see how fast it accererated healing of wound which resulted in no further treatment and prompted the vet to now carry a stock, for future use!

I used http://www.hyperdrug.co.uk/prodinfo.asp?number=ACTIVONT&Variation used once then thrown away to ensure it was sterlie.

Total convert!
 
olderthanshelooks said:
My Tb got caught in stock wire and had a huge chunk of flesh missing. We started off just dressing it, but started to get proud flesh. Alot of people recommended Manuka Honey, was very sceptical about it but thought it was worth a try. Anyway put it on and 2 days later when we dressed it again it had smoothed right out. Would post a pic but I don't know how to.

Got it from local health food shop. Cost me £14.99 for a 500g tub. It needs to be active 5+ but I was told that any more than about 10+ and your just wasting your money.
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Very similar thing happened to my mare, only she fell down an embankment through fencing into a flood river, she had a huge chunk taken out of her leg, down to the bone. When she did start to heal she started to get proud flesh and we though she'd end up with a 'chestnut' on the out side of her leg, (wound was in the gaskin area and was very difficult to bandage, each morning she was wearing the bandage like a pair of knickers round her ankle!! ) Vet suggested Manuka Honey, but we had to debride the wound everyday prior to putting on, and now 2 weeks later, the wound is 90% healed and is definately not going to be proud of her leg. So, basically, yes i would recommend Manuka Honey, and no, i didnt discard after 5 days of opening, i kept using until the tube was empty and then just opened another, and that tube is still in my tack box and will remain there until needed again. I too bought off the internet (Ebay) at my vets recommendation, and it has to be medical grade use only, and it has to say on the packaging 'Manuka Honey', not any other type of honey. Miracle working stuff!!!!
 
Auslander said:
Apologies if any of this sounds like I'm patronising - I don't know how geeky you are!

Pasteurisation kills micro-organisms with heat. Generally, honey is heated to 145° F for 30 minutes during the pasteurisation process - this is enough to destroy Chlostridium Botulinum bacteria and the toxins it produces, but the CB spores are considerably more resistant - it would take many hours of boiling at standard pressures for them to be destroyed, or for them to be exposed to 250° F for several minutes.

Once introduced to a wound, the spores (which remain inactive whilst suspended in the acidic environment of the honey) are again able to grow, proliferate and create toxins.

Make sense?
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Absolutely, I'm studying to get into med school and have just been doing some microbiology/infectious diseases courses so always interested in this sort of thing and was wondering how the C. botulinum would survive.
 
Manuka Honey comes in various strengths 5+ is usually just for toast 10+ and higher starts to help with medicinal issue.

The food grade should only be used internally purely as our bodies can handle the bacteria, if any in the honey (however, some people do use this on small scratches/grazes). The sterilised version is for wounds and is used in hospitals etc, the Wound Gel by Comvita has over a 10+ rating
 
Enya had an awful open wound last Jan from jumping out of her field in to some barbed wire.

It's was fairly large, full of puss and other gunk. Vet gave me all the usual stuff, and after a week it still wasn't healing great and she developed some proud flesh. A friend then gave me some Manuka Honey and another week later the wound was clean, proud flesh had gone and the wound slowly began to shrink.

I did check it over with my vet, and even her exact words were "it's better stuff than anything i can give you, for a fraction of the cost".
 
Victoria25 said:
I use it on all cuts - best place - Aldi :D
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It's NOT the best place though. Cheapest perhaps...

This whole thread has gone into in great detail about why medical grade is the smart option for woundcare. It's not even that much more expensive than food grade stuff that could potentially, expose your horse to botulinum spores.
 
Auslander said:
It's NOT the best place though. Cheapest perhaps...

This whole thread has gone into in great detail about why medical grade is the smart option for woundcare. It's not even that much more expensive than food grade stuff that could potentially, expose your horse to botulinum spores.
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I thought it was OK to use anything over 10+???
That’s what my vet told me and had done a fab job for me over time … my mare is in foal so vet suggested it rather than antibiotics when she cut her leg open … never had a problem? x
 
Victoria25 said:
I thought it was OK to use anything over 10+???
That’s what my vet told me and had done a fab job for me over time … my mare is in foal so vet suggested it rather than antibiotics when she cut her leg open … never had a problem? x
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All high UMF manuka will work, but the medical grade is processed differently so that it is totally sterile. Food grade isn't subject to the same processing, and can carry dormant chlostridium Botulinum spores, which spring to life again once they are introduced to a wound. It is a small risk, but not one that I personally would be willing to take.

Awareness amongst vets isn't very high - so many of them are happy to recommend supermarket manuka. There's plenty of research out there, but they have to know that they need to read it first! There are a few of us out there trying to get the message across - hence my regular outpourings on the subject on here!
 
Well I'm very impressed so far :D
I put a manuka dressing on her on Friday evening, applying the honey to where the abscess had burst and then using normal animalintex. I then left it until this morning (Sunday) as I worked 12 hours yesterday and didn't get up to see the horses. I don't normally like to leave dressings on that long but I was a bit stuck really :(. When I took it off today the foot smelt much cleaner, the hoof was cool and the honey had helped to draw out some of the remaining gunk. So I redressed it this evening using more honey, and I'll see if anything else has come out tomorrow. Thanks a lot for your help Auslander, I'll make sure there are always a few tubes of activon in my first aid kit from now on :D
 
HashRouge said:
Well I'm very impressed so far :D
I put a manuka dressing on her on Friday evening, applying the honey to where the abscess had burst and then using normal animalintex. I then left it until this morning (Sunday) as I worked 12 hours yesterday and didn't get up to see the horses. I don't normally like to leave dressings on that long but I was a bit stuck really :(. When I took it off today the foot smelt much cleaner, the hoof was cool and the honey had helped to draw out some of the remaining gunk. So I redressed it this evening using more honey, and I'll see if anything else has come out tomorrow. Thanks a lot for your help Auslander, I'll make sure there are always a few tubes of activon in my first aid kit from now on :D
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Yay! Excellent news!

Don't worry about leaving the dressing on too long. The antibacterial effect of the honey increases over time, so it's common practice to leave a dressing on for a couple of days.
BTW - a nappy would be far cheaper than using Animalintex (and less impregnated with boric acid!) ;-)
 
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