Blog | Preserving The Athlete

WOUND CARE-

Treating infection with CO2

 

Carbon Dioxide in my personal experience has been potent in addressing bacteria because of the following systems

Creating an oxygen free environment.

Intracellular Acidification- CO2 penetrates bacteria wall and dissolves it into water forming Carbonic acid, which lowers the ph. and disrupts its function.

Enzyme Inhabitation

Direct cell membrane disruption-

CO2 can affect the permeability of cell membrane causing vital cellular components to leak out.

This horse had jumped over arena wall catching the groin area under the thigh. Credit to the vet it is a complicated area to treat.  The laceration was significant. Vet decided to sutra the area and apply a drain, which in my opinion might have not been placed in the correct area. This contributed to fluids pooling, creating a pocket, which caught the fluids, as opposed to flushing them. The drain tube also fell out which compounded the problem.

Over a period of three days the wound became infected. Yard manager tried extremely hard to keep wound keep with saline supplied to flush the wound.

By the time I met the horse the wound was rancid. The puss was yoke-y and had a smell. I advised Yard manager to remove sutras so that we could clean wound out correctly.

I was initially worried that the horse would react badly to the Cryotherapy because it had been a couple days of the horse being prodded, but a couple seconds into the first treatment horse realized it was helping and stood very well for the rest of the treatments.

I treated the horse three times the first treatment. Meaning a 3x 60second flow of -174’ CO2. Same the next two days. The fourth day I only treated with one unit. But by this stage I was super confident that between the removal of sutras, applying the CO2 directly into the pocket, and the Yard managers efforts, we had cleared the infection.

I then supplied them with a squirt bottle of distilled water and surgical spirits and started redlight therapy.

 

 

Horses wound the first day I arrived. If you look closely, you can see the sutras, the drain had fallen out, and wound was filled with a yoke coloured, rancid smelling puss.

 

Day after first treatment. Sutras had already started being removed.

The change is significant. There is still some puss around the entrance of the wound- and inside. (I could smell it during treatment.

picture2

The change is significant. There is still some puss around the entrance of the wound- and inside. (I could smell it during treatment)

 

I am very confident and very happy with the result.

Credit must be given to the amazing Manager. It always contributes to the horse and the result when working with people who are open to suggestion and a different way of addressing problems.