A preliminary study on the effect of manuka honey on second-intention healing of contaminated wounds on the distal aspect of the forelimbs of horses.

This research investigates the impact of manuka honey on the healing process of contaminated skin wounds in horses. Utilizing an experimental method involving Standardbred horses, wounds were created and treated with manuka honey in half of the instances, and observed for healing progress. Results found that while manuka honey effectively reduced the area of the wounds, it did not affect the overall healing duration.

Methods

• The study focused on full-thickness skin wounds on the forelimbs of adult Standardbred horses. Eight horses were involved in the study.
• Each horse had a wound created on the dorsomedial aspect of the third metacarpus in both forelimbs. The wounds were deliberately contaminated with feces and bandaged for 24 hours.
• After 24 hours, the bandages were removed, and the wounds were cleaned with isotonic saline solution. Manuka honey was applied daily to the wounds on one limb (eight in total), while the wounds on the opposite limb received no treatment (also eight in total).
• The bandages on the wounds were replaced daily for 12 days. After this period, treatment stopped and the bandages were removed, allowing the wounds to heal naturally.

Results

• The wounds were measured 24 hours after their creation and then weekly for eight weeks.
• The use of manuka honey was identified to minimize wound retraction, causing the treated wounds to remain significantly smaller than the untreated ones until 42 days into the study. However, there was no noticeable difference in the total healing time between the treated and untreated wounds.

Conclusion

• The research concluded that the application of manuka honey aided in reducing wound area by limiting wound retraction, and this effect persisted for a significant duration of the healing process.
• However, despite the smaller wound area, the use of manuka honey did not influence the overall healing time of the full-thickness distal limb wounds.
• This suggests that while manuka honey could be beneficial in reducing the physical damages of a wound, it does not accelerate the wound healing process in this context.