# Making a poultice from a nappy?!



## horsesatemymoney (11 January 2012)

Has anybody tried this and if so, how and does it work!? Thanks


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## Jazzy B (11 January 2012)

I've not done it myself but have heard it works


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## horsesatemymoney (11 January 2012)

I was just wondering what size to get!


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## loobylu (11 January 2012)

One large disposable nappy (for 'normal' TBx sort of size hoof), dribble a little hot water on inside, make sure not to soak it as the nappy will then explode when horse puts hoof down! Put toe in the fold of nappy and bring tapes round pastern. Cover with silver/black tape/ feed bag/ hoof boot etc.


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## RobinHood (11 January 2012)

Tesco value nappies work fine


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## Gingersmum (11 January 2012)

The nappy holds the poultice on ! So you would apply an animalintex or mailing to the area, probably hoof in this case and the nappy shape creates the caseing to hold it in place. Tape over the top !


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## Dizzle (11 January 2012)

I found them useless, much prefer animalintex, vetwrap and then silage tape over the top. The problem with nappies is that they appear to contain some sort of water absorbing gel, the nappy isn't hard wearing (even used with vet wrap and silage tape) so you end up with this horrible gel stuff everywhere. I do have a packet of nappies in my first aid kit but they're not my preferred poultice.

Best thing i find is hot tubbing them in a low sided feed bucket filled with hot (but not burning!) water with epsom salts,  then into a vet wrap etc poultice, if you need added protection add in a layer of feed empty feed sack. Vet wrap and silage tape hold everything together. Another top tip is to pre-cut the silage tape and stick in on a free standing saddle horse next to you so you can pull bits off easily to stick the poultice together in one go.


Can you tell I've done this a few times before?!


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## Gingersmum (11 January 2012)

'Mailing' lol should be kaolin ! Blessed phone !


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## Slightlyconfused (11 January 2012)

I put the animalinex, you know what i mean, on first, then vet wrap, then k-ban then the nappy for extra padding then dutch tape 
xx


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## Meowy Catkin (11 January 2012)

I use Midi (4 - 9kg) size on my 15.2 and a bit AA mare (horse on the left in my sigmature). She does have dinky hooves though. 

For a hot, wet poultice I cut the animalintex to size, soak in hot/warm water, squeeze excess water out, place on gunky hole then place the nappy over the whole hoof. I then wrap half a roll of vertwrap on top of the nappy, followed by duct/gaffer tape as the top waterproof layer.

This lasts 12 hours.


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## Meowy Catkin (11 January 2012)

Dizzle said:



			I found them useless, much prefer animalintex, vetwrap and then silage tape over the top. The problem with nappies is that they appear to contain some sort of water absorbing gel, the nappy isn't hard wearing (even used with vet wrap and silage tape) so you end up with this horrible gel stuff everywhere. I do have a packet of nappies in my first aid kit but they're not my preferred poultice.

Best thing i find is hot tubbing them in a low sided feed bucket filled with hot (but not burning!) water with epsom salts,  then into a vet wrap etc poultice, if you need added protection add in a layer of feed empty feed sack. Vet wrap and silage tape hold everything together. Another top tip is to pre-cut the silage tape and stick in on a free standing saddle horse next to you so you can pull bits off easily to stick the poultice together in one go.


Can you tell I've done this a few times before?! 

Click to expand...

I agree with the tubbing with epsom salts. 

Iodine and sugar mixed together is good to apply to the fromerly gunky area when you've stopped wet poulticing.

I found that the key with nappy poultices was to make sure that you put extra tape on the sole so that the bottem of the poultice doesn't ware through. Also don't turn out in deep mud or long grass as you don't want water to get in from the top as the gel in the nappy does swell if it gets wet. 







This blue gaffer tape was fabulous, really sticky and tough - I wish that I'd bought rolls and rolls.


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## 5horses2dogsandacat (11 January 2012)

I just use the 'normal' sized nappy for my 16.1 TB and Id prob look at getting new born for my sec a if he ever needed to be polticed. Got mine from wilkos value range, I did find at first it split, but after a few days and I got the hang of it they stopped. lots of gaffer tape strategicly placed and an extra layer around the edge of the hoof.

I may next time look at cutting out the top of a supplement lid to the size of the hoof and putting it between nappy and vetwrap to help protect nappy some more... will let you know if it works or not! 

xxx


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## horsesatemymoney (11 January 2012)

thanks everyone i'll give it a go x


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## katherine1975 (11 January 2012)

I used animalintex when wet poulticing then used the nappy as a dry dressing. I put the nappy on then gaffa tape and then a boot, worked really well.


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## Randonneuse (4 September 2014)

Old thread but...could I poultice a hoof which has white line disease with a nappy?
Since today I have been cleaning it with one part water/one part vinegar and then put hoof putty in the hole but I've read it's not always good to plug the hole as if they are bits left in it can make the matter worse.
My pony lives out 24/7 so trying to find a way to make him more comfortable as he is lame 
Thanks!


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## only_me (4 September 2014)

If you have a hole in the foot what we have always done is tub the foot (warm water and epsom salts) then I would "flush" the hole by squirting warm water and salt into it, then i would plug it with cotton wool covered in stockholm tar.
Horse has had a nail in frog on 2 occasions and this is what we have always done and *touch wood* no problems so far  

If we were poulticing then what we do for that is tub the foot, then pack hole with epsom salts, then put nappy on, followed by a plastic bag of some sort (feed bag, shavings bag etc.) and then tape over it, that usually works for those living out


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## Britestar (5 September 2014)

Personally I find an old fashioned sanitory towel much easier to use. Either whole thing or cut in half. Kotex night time or superplus are best.


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## Randonneuse (5 September 2014)

Thanks  
With a bag over the foot...would the foot breath or doesn't it matter?


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## khalswitz (5 September 2014)

I use the nappy as padding. Animalintex/naturalintex poultice goes on, then nappy (which is perfectly hoof shaped and hold poultice on) then duct tape all over. That usually lasts 8 hours in a field with my lad!


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## diamonddogs (5 September 2014)

I use newborn on my mare - her hoof is around the size of a week-old baby's bum!

Regarding the gel problem, if you go for Tesco Value or similar they tend not to have the gel in them unlike Pampers etc.

Has anyone tried the pull-up style of nappy? I was thinking they'd come up too big on your average horse, but if they're not too big they'd probably be easier than struggling with the business end of a bored and fidgety horse!


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## Exploding Chestnuts (5 September 2014)

Nappies are not cheap and unless you know about babies it is a minefield. The stuff goes all crumbly in my experience, proper poulticing works better....

.......... I see from previous post that mine suffered from "explosion"


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## Exploding Chestnuts (5 September 2014)

Britestar said:



			Personally I find an old fashioned sanitory towel much easier to use. Either whole thing or cut in half. Kotex night time or superplus are best.
		
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Reminds me of a story : when the Clyde still had shipyards, the dirtiest job was cleaning rust, the apprentice was sent to local shop for a pack, when asked what kind he replied "the kind with loops that go round your ears"


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## Pinkvboots (5 September 2014)

Faracat said:



			I use Midi (4 - 9kg) size on my 15.2 and a bit AA mare (horse on the left in my sigmature). She does have dinky hooves though. 

For a hot, wet poultice I cut the animalintex to size, soak in hot/warm water, squeeze excess water out, place on gunky hole then place the nappy over the whole hoof. I then wrap half a roll of vertwrap on top of the nappy, followed by duct/gaffer tape as the top waterproof layer.

This lasts 12 hours. 

Click to expand...

This is much the same as I do it, I sometimes put a hifi bag wrapped several times over the hoof before covering with duct tape as I have hard standing in my field and the constant walking on it can cause it to wear away without it.


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## Magister (5 September 2014)

I've just done the opposite and raided the horses First Aid kit for a nappy for my daughter!. 
However when I use it for a horse;
Piece of animalintex, tesco value size 4 over the top and a Cavallo Simple boot over the top. Cheap,quick and stays on in and out. Never had one explode either!.


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## Randonneuse (5 September 2014)

I was going to poultice from tomorrow so grit etc doesn't get in the white line but as a hoof with white line disease needs to breathe...maybe I shouldn't poultice?


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## Mike007 (6 September 2014)

The sad thing is that Animalintex used to work well ,but then EU restrictions made them remove much of the active ingredient ,Boracic acid , and they stopped working.


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## LuckyMare (6 September 2014)

Faracat said:



			For a hot, wet poultice I cut the animalintex to size, soak in hot/warm water, squeeze excess water out, place on gunky hole then place the nappy over the whole hoof. I then wrap half a roll of vertwrap on top of the nappy, followed by duct/gaffer tape as the top waterproof layer.
		
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This ^^^^
Pound shop for duct tape and Aldi for cheap nappies! 
One of ours had a monster of an abscess (vet was all ready for putting the ol' girl down, she assumed that so much pain in lower leg and no obvious signs of anything meant a fracture somewhere, the morning she was coming to PTS a huuuuuge abscess had appeared- Phew!) so we hot poulticed twice daily and did a soak in hot epsom salt water every other day, wasnt a huge pain and cleared relatively quickly for its size


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## Exploding Chestnuts (6 September 2014)

LuckyMare said:



			This ^^^^
Pound shop for duct tape and Aldi for cheap nappies! 
One of ours had a monster of an abscess (vet was all ready for putting the ol' girl down, she assumed that so much pain in lower leg and no obvious signs of anything meant a fracture somewhere, the morning she was coming to PTS a huuuuuge abscess had appeared- Phew!) so we hot poulticed twice daily and did a soak in hot epsom salt water every other day, wasnt a huge pain and cleared relatively quickly for its size 

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Good grief, I would be getting another vet.


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## LuckyMare (6 September 2014)

Bonkers2 said:



			Good grief, I would be getting another vet.
		
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Tell me about it! Safe to say she was rather red faced about it that morning and we were certainly less than impressed! But then again pony was in so much sudden onset pain which originated well above where you'd expect an abscess to ever bother. She was so lame that we our selves thought something was broken.
Just goes to show you should never believe they know it all and definitely question everything!


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