Superglueing a wound

[Queenofdiamonds]

A horse at my yard cut himself on barbed wire.
The YO said to superglue the cuts?
I've never heard of this before? Although, Touch wood, I've never had a horse injure itself that badly.

Has anyone else heard of or done this? Is it common? My brother said the hospital used ordinary super glue on his head when he got attacked and hit with a bar.

I've had my head glued before but didn't know it was ordinary superglue?!

Someone enlighten me? I'm terribly confused.

 

[orionstar]

As far as I know it's been used since vietnam and it its just superglue.

 

[be positive]

Did the YO mean for the owner to use superglue as it would not be a good idea, the risk of sealing in a foreign body or infection taking hold would not be a good idea also it would be hard to avoid getting hair in the open wound, best left to the professionals to treat I think.

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

If you close up an infected wound or a wound containing a foreign body, you cause problems.

 

[TrasaM]

Yes it's ordinary superglue and it stings!
Much better than steri strips too.

 

[Joanna710]

My mum's bloke seals up little cuts and scrapes from his work (mechanic) with ordinary superglue. I personally wouldn't use it on a horse as it stings like buggery ('scuse my French) and I think it would most likely warrant a heft double barrelling from the horse if you were within reach of his hind legs. They can't understand the link between a little extra pain and fast recovery, whereas a person can just grit their teeth and bear it.

ETA: I guess it can't be much worse than stapling though, just remember to clean the wound out with antiseptic before sealing it up!!

 

[JFTDWS]

As others, I'd be hesitant to use it unless I could be very confident the wound was clean and there's no FBs in there. However, the principle is sound and it is just standard superglue

 

[Queenofdiamonds]

Did the YO mean for the owner to use superglue as it would not be a good idea, the risk of sealing in a foreign body or infection taking hold would not be a good idea also it would be hard to avoid getting hair in the open wound, best left to the professionals to treat I think.

Yeah he literally meant superglue the wound, He told her how to do it, and to shave the fur off. No idea if she actually did it or not, as i had my son with me and needed to get home

 

[Queenofdiamonds]

I am genuinely amazed we use superglue though on ourselves! I had my head glued once and i always assumed it wasn't literally the same glue you use for sticking other things together. I don't know lol.

The cuts are pretty big.. some of them are several inches long. It's not my horse though so up to her what she does. I was just amazed by the superglue thing!

 

[Arizahn]

To my knowledge, superglue was originally developed by the military for medical purposes. Still, I'd rather get a vet out myself, unless the animal would bleed to death in the interim and glue was the only way to prevent this.

 

[Goldenstar]

When I was a kid one of our dogs cut the end of its tail cue many trips to vet huge bills and discussion of amputating the end of the tail.
Dad glued it with superglue end of issue not sure I would do it myself to a horse .

 

[GinaGeo]

I know of Rock Climbers that superglue up cuts and scrapes. Two of them are also Doctors - consultants.

I wouldn't want to use it on my horses though! Wounds need to heal from the inside out and be kept clean, easier for humans than horses. As others have said I'd be worried about foreign bodies being in there.

 

[KSR]

My appy ripped a big v shaped flap out of his chest on a fence post.. The vet glued that instead of stitching..

Also I had abdominal surgery in January.. They gave me internal stitches and glued the superficial layers back together! I was scared to move but it worked great..

 

[Devonshire dumpling]

Yes I would. In the vets we do superglue during some operations...
Last year my husband had a massive flap of skin on the bottom of his foot, he slashed it on some barnicals at the beach, he could barely walk and was bleeding fairly heavily, I cleaned it rather savagely to insure not a grain of sand was left, superglued and he was walking fine within secs. Now this was very risky as had we left something in there, his foot would have gotten very infected.

So yes you can, but you need to be 100% sure you have no debris left!

 

[paulineh]

I would use it on the horses as I do on humans.

As long as the wound is clean there is no reason why you should not use it. The quicker the shin of a cut is put together the better. With glue nothing can get into a wound ,but with stitches there is a possibility something can get into the cut unless bandaged.

Glueing a cut where it is difficult to bandage is always useful.