Sunburn and folklore

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Please can lots of people, especially vets, doctors, nurses, healers of any description post answers to this post as I need to convince the young lady who will be having Angel on loan that she is certifiably mad.

Angel is a coloured gipsy cob and she had severe ragwort poisoning when I took her on. She also has a pink muzzle. These 2 things combine to mean she gets terrible sunburn. She is stabled during the day but even now the hair has started to be burned off her muzzle and she has early sunburn. You can feel the heat off her nose if you hold your hand an inch away, poor lass.

Anyway, the lovely lass who adores her and will be her new mum soon, said to me today that she will bring a flannel up tomorrow and boil a kettle. Then she will squeeze the flannel out in water as hot as she can bear her hand in and immediately slap the flannel on Angel's muzzle. She truly believes that hot things applied to sunburn are best. I've told her she's mad and tried to explain that burns (whether sun or whatever) need COOL things. My fear is that she'll slap this bl00dy red hot cloth on Angel's nose and Angel will be headshy forever more.

Please everyone, tell it like it is so I can get her to read this post. Thankies and Magnum lollies all round xxx

 

[Chico Mio]

What?? Noooo, COLD things for sunburn!! Anything that turns skin red needs cooling. Madness, ask her if her mum slaps red hot flannels on HER when she has sunburn! Poor Angel.

 

[Donkeymad]

NOOOO NOT hot,,, COLD...COLD

And get slapping some sunblock on the nose daily too.

 

[Slinkyunicorn]

Mmmmm......Magnum - thankies!!!

Absolutely nothing hot at all anywhere near her. For sunburn - as a pale english rose myself and having a coloured coblet with a pink nose - the three best things (after prevention) are

1) High factor (30) childrens suncream/block - is more waterproof and lasting than adult versions
2) Aloe gel - to heal, cool and soothe
3) Aloe vera juice in feed - again is healing,soothing and will also help with liver function.

Magnum was lovely......

 

[Rachaelpink]

Full face masks are good for preventing sunburn- my pony has a pale pink nose and pink around the eyes. However once sunburnt I normally put after sun or sudocrem on. Putting something hot on is just cruel!

 

[flips]

NO NO NO!! Even on ice burn you don't put hot anything on it.

I had a scewbald pony with a very pink muzzel and also suffered from terrible sunburn. If I had gone near him with anything hot i dread to think of the consequences! As other people have said nice cooling things like Aloe. I also used to put sunblock on him and that seemed to help prevent

Please don't put a hot flannel anywhere near poor Angel.

 

[Chestnuttymare]

Madness to put something hot on it. Tell her straight that it's not happening or she might see a flying Angel!
I use high factor suncream on my 2 and full face masks. Neither have had burns for about 6 years.
I love magnums, thanks x

 

[PapaFrita]

Perhaps she should try getting into a hot bath when she's got sunburn and see how it feels.
Agree with everyone else; you put something COOL on sunburn.

 

[Shilasdair]

I agree - cool things are best, to ease the pain and narrow the capillaries which are opened causing inflammation.

I also suggest buying the kids sunblock sticks (usually in vile pink or baby blue) to slap on Angel's muzzle - they seem to stay on my grey girl the best (and I get a laugh from her blue nose

).
S

 

[emma69]

Actually, there is a modicum of truth in there (and if Weezy is around she will back me up, we had this conversation some years ago). Whilst cold things will help with healing, hot water helps reduce the pain, and also, allows the skin to rehydrate better thus preventing peeling. It shouldn't be so hot it scalds tho, just like a hot shower temperature. Once you have had the hot shower, you turn the tap to cold, which closes up the pores to prevent moisture loss. However, as horses cannot adjust temperature themselves, or effectively communicate with the human, it is better to use something cool to avoid more pain for the horse - aloe vera works well, but mostly, prevent the burning in the first place - we had a similar situation, and we used a thick zinc-based sun block, factor 60 or something, and we never had issues with sunburn. Horses can get cancer from sunburn as well, so it makes sense that prevention is better than cure.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Thanks all. Angel is stabled every day from about 9 to 5. When it's a scorcher - and even though we are still only in May - the late afternoon sun is still enough to burn her. She has kids total sunblock - factor 50 at least, 60 if I can get it - but she still burns. I have tried every conceivable mask to help her but she gets them off in 5 mins flat. Part of the problem is the extreme photosensitivity caused by her liver being unable to properly break down the chlorophyl from the grass she eats. So her body becomes a giant leaf, cheerfully attracting the sun. I have even sacrificed one of my OH's white shirts to make an anti-sun noseguard. Took hours to make and she trashed it in a night. Didn't know about aloe vera gel being so good - tack shop/Boots tomorrow!

 

[Slinkyunicorn]

BoF - best place aloe gel/juice is your health food shop. The aloe in there will be 100% pure and have no colourings, perfumes etc.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Thanks for that SU - much better idea x

 

[Thistle]

A quick cheap nose guard is to take a tea towel, fold it in hafl and stitch over the noseband of a leather headcollar. Then cut into a wide fringe, alternating the slits on the top and bottom layer so her nose should always be covered.

On burns always use cold, never hot. Best prevent the burn totally. Mine go out at 8pm and come in at 8am. (7am if it's so hot I wake up early)

 

[kellyeaton]

the best think is after sun that has been in the sun that is very soothing!

 

[Sparklet]

My horse used to burn badly in Summer and I found that the spray on sun cream worked best. The thick stuff just wipes off when they are grazing but the thin spray stuff seems to get absorbed into the skin better.

 

[Nic]

You can get full UV rugs i believe. She wouldn't be able to get a mask off if it was attached to that (in theory!)

 

[Nic]

UV Rug

 

[Enfys]

[ QUOTE ]
BoF - best place aloe gel/juice is your health food shop. The aloe in there will be 100% pure and have no colourings, perfumes etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

BoF. Is Jelfs (is that the name?) still in Ammanford? I used to get all my stuff from there.

 

[Pidgeon]

have you tried a leather headcollar with nose shield from equilibrium on her as Pidge gets the face masks off in 2 minutes but not the headcollar and nose shield?

 

[emma69]

Have a look at P20 - it isn't super cheap, but it is very effective, doesn't rub off, and one application should be good for the whole day. It needs to be applied ahead of being turned out (I think 30 mins, don't have my bottle here with me) but it works in a different way to others, and has some rave reviews for human use.