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I have experienced the benefits of clay over the years and I would like to share some recent examples that had excellent results with horses.
Tex's sheath
Tex has had a bad sheath infection for several months now. He is 15 years old and even though his owner cleaned it regularly (once or twice a year) during summer with the extra heat and sweat he developed a smelly, greasy, clay like substance which would not clear up no matter how much she washed it out. As it was so bad, his owner called the vet out, who prescribed a course of antibiotics and a special shampoo and Neocort cream to be used every three days. This worked quite well however as soon as it was stopped it came back straight away within a few days. His owner kept this treatment up for four months and still had no change. The sheath area is particularly difficult to treat as it has a balance of good bacteria and by washing it regularly, it killed the bad bacteria but also the good with it. After talking to Tex's owner, she decided to use a more natural approach that would not kill off the good bacteria. His owner mixed some green clay, coconut oil and some essential oils together, washed his sheath and applied the clay mixture once every three days. Within one week it had cleared up and his owner is increasing the number of days between treatments and currently have not touched it for 2 weeks with no sign of it returning!His owner also fed him some herbs to help support the process including cleavers, echinacea, garlic and rosehip.
Pastern injury
A couple of years ago, my mare cut her pastern in the paddock. It was about 4 cm long and 1.5 cm at the deepest spot. It had just happened when I saw her as it was bleeding freely. Of course, these things always happen at unusual hours and my vet could not make it so she told me over the phone to clean the wound and bandage it.
I cleaned it with a weak solution of Betadine in water, then made a clay paste with water, put a gauze and bandaged it. Needless to say that people at the agistment place asked me questions regarding this green paste I was using!
They all said it was going to be a bad wound, that she might be lame for ever and she’d develop proud flesh. I was unable to change the bandage every 2 hours as it should be, but I changed it morning and night.
After a couple of days, the wound looked very filthy. Knowing how clay works, I kept doing it regardless of the comments I received from others.
After 2 weeks, the wound was completely healed. There was never any infection, definitely no proud flesh, she never was lame and it rained 80% of the time during those 2 weeks!
Today, the scar is just a very fine line, hardly noticeable.
Wound above the eye socket
The second story happened few months later the day we moved to a new agistment place. We had just arrived and it was about 4.30 pm. I had my two horses tied up to a fence and they were eating their dinner while I was unpacking my gear and putting it away in my designated area.
Suddenly I heard a loud bang. I turned and saw that my big gelding had banged his head against the fence some how. I went to him and as he turned his head towards me, blood was gushing out of his forehead!
Of course I panicked! There was no one around and I didn’t have everything unpacked. I found a cloth and put it on his wound to stop the bleeding. After looking closely, he had a deep wound just above his right eye socket due to a piece of thick wire on the fence that he hit when he suddenly raised his head and bang it on the fence. It didn’t seem to bother him at all!
I quickly made a clay paste with coconut oil and basically packed it into the wound as much as I could. This stopped the bleeding at once as it acted as a plug. Because I used oil, the paste was very sticky. The next day I tried to remove it to replace it with fresh clay but I couldn’t because of its stickiness and my horse did not stay still long enough!
After few days, I could see the clay started disappearing (washing away) so I put some more. One lady there (who became a good friend), was amazed how the injury healed.
Today, there is absolutely no scar and you wouldn’t know he hurt himself there.
Leg fracture
Last year, my mare (yes, her again!) managed to fracture her left hind leg, just under the knee on the side of the canon. My vet diagnosed it and told me that there was nothing to do except to wait 6 weeks for healing to occur.
Of course my mare was lame as soon as it happened. She looked miserable as she could not run freely with her friend any more. I made clay poultices with water and coconut oil and applied two a day for about 2 ½ weeks.
After only a week, she was able to trot again and did not seem lame. After two weeks, she was back to her normal self and was able to play silly in the paddock.
I was very worried that she hurt herself again, but she did not. I waited 8 weeks to ride her again to ensure the injury had healed completely though.
Although there is now a lump where the fracture occurred, she has fully recovered and does not show any signs of lameness.
In this case, this is a little bit more difficult to prove that the poultices have played a role in her recovery but the fact that she stopped being lame after only a week is significant.
Rain scalds
Last year, the gelding of one of my friends developed rain scalds. I gave her a pack of clay, some coconut oil, and lavender, niaouli and rosemary essential oils. I told her to prepare a clay paste with coconut oil and a drop of EO each.
We first washed the skin with a weak solution of Betadine in water. She applied the clay mixture to her pony every day. We saw a positive result after the second day. It cleared up after 5 days.
It was obvious this horse was missing nutrients so I advised her to get him some supplements to help him fight the disease, which had a positive results on his health and well being. Related Articles |
Remedies 4 Pets 
