Wounds on a horse's lower leg are notoriously difficult to heal, and often these injuries develop exuberant granulation tissue, commonly called proud flesh. This granulation tissue becomes a chronic wound, often requiring veterinarian intervention to remove the rapidly growing tissue and encourage wound healing.
Dr. Paula Alessandra Di Filippo and her Brazilian research team created a study to see if sunflower seed oil can assist with wound healing and prevent proud flesh development. They created two full-thickness wounds on the front cannon bones of eight horses to test potential wound healing protocols: On four horses, ozonated sunflower seed oil or pure sunflower seed oil was applied to the wounds on one limb and the other limb was treated with 0.9 percent sodium chloride. In the other four horses, a saline rinse was used on one limb and the others were treated with pure or ozonated oil.
Treatments were applied once daily on the wound area and contraction rates were measured on days 0, 3, 7, 14 and 21. At 21 days, the team found that treated wounds healed better — those treated with ozonated sunflower seed oil saw a 72 percent contraction rate while those treated with the pure sunflower seed oil contracted by 53 percent. The sodium chloride group contracted by 35 percent.
The team found that proud flesh developed only in the non-sunflower seed oil groups. The wounds using ozone oil-treatment healed on Day 25 and the pure sunflower oil group healed by Day 27. The saline group healed by Day 30. The ozonated oil significantly reduced wound size. The team determined that ozonated sunflower seed oil accelerates wound repair and prevents the formation of granulation tissue in horses.
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