Wounds - Editor's Choice

The fastest acting use I have experienced for FG DE is for teeth. I have a lot of teeth problems from a narrow jaw and bad dentist interventions. When I get a tooth pain, I place a wad of DE (made into a dough like blob with a drop of water) on the offending tooth, clamp down my teeth and go to sleep. Right as rain in the morning. And this is the report with everyone I've prescribed it to. Unfailingly. But use it the first sign of pain you get.

What more, two teeth that the dentists said have to be pulled off six years ago are serving me fine after my having given them the DE wad treatment for a week continuously.

The DE just pulls out any kind of necrosis.

And that's the second great thing I've seen it work its magic on. It also saved the paw of my cat, which was just rotting and the digits were falling off. Dipped her paw into DE, and the whole thing became a hard lump. But finally, the paw stopped rotting and whatever was left of the paw was saved.

Same thing with another cat I recommended it for. Another cat had an anal sac, with a hole as deep as the first digit of my index finger, and a foul smell. I stuffed it with DE multiple times in a day. After two days reduced application to once a day. By the seventh day, even the scar was barely visible.

Well, it wasn't doing too well so we went to the store near our house and grabbed some Amish-made raw honey. We applied liberally, even gave her some to snack on, wrapped in gauze & medical tape, and the "sock trick" and by the next morning, you could see new growth and some of the old tissue dying off, and the bleeding was MUCH less so the poor puppy didn't have to be on a serious "crate rest" which was hard enough on her!

Within a week it was closed up but not fully healed. 10 days after the cut (again, clear across her pad and pretty deep) it was 100% healed, not black yet as the rest of her pad, but it was enough for her to run and play without bandages and socks on! Miracle! The vet had never heard of it but he's now done research on it and recommends people keep some in the cupboard just in case! Wish I had known this with my other dogs, greyhound that was always getting cut and banged up (they're graceful most of the time, goofy the rest! Ha! ) and my Brittany constantly had hot spots that drove us both insane, nothing worked on them!

Try to make sure you get local and RAW honey. Regular honey from the store will work, even plain sugar, but the raw honey works SO much faster, I've found. It works by drawing the water out of the tissue so the old bits can die off faster and are way less likely to get infected, there's more to it than that but roughly that.

**Also the sock trick for pets, amazing and so often necessary! Grab an old sock, preferably as tall as possible, unless you have a small pet, and put it on the foot/paw/leg having trouble, and use medical tape to tape it to the dog's leg above the injured area and fold the top over the tape so the dog can't get at the tape. Make sure it's not too TIGHT, just enough that it won't fall off or be easy to mess with.

Another tip that was invaluable to me was skipping the "cone of shame" and instead, using a travel pillow from the regular big box store that I got for $10. It has a clip that keeps the two ends together and if you put that up by their ears they usually can't get it off. Rescue remedy on their paws and ears (or drops on food/water/treats) can also help keep them calmer so they can rest and heal!

Vets are amazing! But the less we have to stress ourselves and our pets out by going there and using home remedies instead, with good judgment, of course, the better off we'll all be. Blessings!

Some time ago, one of my Guinea Hens was seriously injured and developed Gangrene in the wound on her leg. I like to try to save my animals rather than put them down, so I found the recipe on Earth Clinic for the Activated Charcoal Poultice and used it. She recovered from the Gangrene and although she had a limp, she lived a good life. I've since used it for other wounds on my animals to successfully prevent Gangrene. Activated Charcoal is a staple I would never be without. Hope this helps someone else to save the life of their pet or farm animal.

Well, she is a budding herbalist I suppose. She went straight for the herbal wound powder that we make and keep on hand. She sprinkled it onto the wound to help it to stop bleeding. I think she repeated this several times over a short while. She knew the powder would stop the bleeding. And it did. It helps to form a scab as well.

Here is what was in my wound powder:

1 part plantain leaf powder
1 part omfrey root powder
1/8 part Myrrh gum powder
1 part slippery elm bark powder
1 part Oregon grape root powder

I keep a little jar of this in my kitchen and also one in each car. A friend loves to use this on her pet dogs and cats and has gone through a couple of jars!

Some of those ingredients are pricey. Lalitha Thomas, who wrote "Ten Essential Herbs" just uses equal parts of goldenseal and slippery elm bark powder.

These herb powders have anti-infective properties and also styptic properties (they will stop the bleeding.) The powders mix with blood and form a scab. The scab should not be removed once formed, but if bleeding reoccurs, more powder can be added.

Herb powders like this should NOT be used on puncture wounds. Epsom salt soaks would be better for that. I would also not use this on wounds that were deep and not clean.

I was reminded of the recent story of my daughter and her cat when I cut my finger last night while trimming my son's hair. I have done this several times and a cut on the knuckle is painful and wants to keep opening back up. Last night I put wound powder and a bandaid on it. It helped the pain and stayed the bleeding. Today the cut looks good without a bandaid. And it doesn't hurt at all.

If I were faced with a bleeding wound and I didn't have the above powders on hand, I would mix together 1 part cayenne pepper powder and 2 parts turmeric. The sting from the cayenne would not last long. (I have used it straight on paper cuts and it didn't hurt at all! )

~Mama to Many~