Sweating legs? What’s the point?
February 82010
When I was at KBC Internationals retail store in Lexington KY, there was a man buying a product, that the woman working there warned him can cause cancer if you handle it a lot (I can’t remember what it’s called… Furacin, maybe? Figures, my vet would have me use the stuff. XD) and that it’s not good to use if he was buying it to sweat a horses legs. He said no, but said it in a way that makes me think he was lying. 
But anyway, what’s the point of sweating a horses legs, and what are the benefits? She said more, about the hazards of grooms handling the stuff as they sweat the legs of dozens of horses, so I assume it’s done with the Thoroughbreds a lot? It’s just something that I’ve wondered for a while.
Is it more effective, or just less time consuming than running water over a limb to reduce swelling?
He was likely going to use the Furacin with DMSO which is a deep penetrant. DMSO has a potent antiinflammatory effect, and is also used as a carrier to get medication to penetrate more deeply into tissues.
When it is used with Furacin as a sweat, the Furacin is applied to keep the DMSO from burning (blistering) the skin. The DMSO is applied over the Furacin and the leg is wrapped with cotton sheeting and plastic wrap, the a standing wrap over that. The idea is to dilate blood vessels to increase blood circulation under the sweat in order remove products of inflammation in tendons and to reduce swelling in the leg.
Sometimes Furacin is used without DMSO, but is considered to be less effective. The effectiveness of sweats is controversial anyway. They shouldn’t be used on new injuries or if there are any open wounds on the leg.
Add…..I personally prefer to just cold hose. When the leg sweats and gets everything soaked, it probably begins to reverse the effects and constrict the vessels anyway, so I question if it really does that much good. Lots of people believe in them, though.
February 9th, 2010 at 4:55 am
when the horse has a swollen or puffy leg you can put different stuff on it to make the leg hot and sweat and when the leg sweats it brings the puffiness down in it. but if used to much it can harm the horse and it’s not good for your skin so you have to wear gloves
EDIT – it’s used on tb’s alot because they have fragile bones and muscles a little more then other horses so on the track they may harm them self not enough for a vet but just a little puffy, and jumping the landing is never good on their legs so that’s why it’s common in tb’s but it can be used on any horse. It can be more effective then water or it could not be, it depends on the injury. my instructor did both water and sweating for his legs
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my instructors tb injured his leg and had to have surgery and his pastern was still a bit swollen so she put the stuff on him then wrapped it in ceramic wrap then over that a polo to make the leg less puffy and she let us stay late and gave us a mini vet lesson and showed us how to do it
February 9th, 2010 at 5:13 am
Sweating a horse’s leg reduces swelling.
The stuff is called Furazone. It says right on the package: "The active ingredient, nitrofurazone, has been known to cause mammary cancer in rats and ovarian cancer in mice. Some people are extremely sensitive to nitrofurazone."
It hasn’t been known to cause cancer in humans, but it’s still good to be careful. If it causes cancer in rats and mice it can’t be great for you.
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February 9th, 2010 at 5:47 am
Leg sweating came in with the belief that if you sweated the legs you get a better blood flow for healthier muscle tissue in the legs. Being the first thing to get ruined on a race horse,people try to prolong the longivity of em by sweating.
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February 9th, 2010 at 6:12 am
It helps swelling go down
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February 9th, 2010 at 6:50 am
He was likely going to use the Furacin with DMSO which is a deep penetrant. DMSO has a potent antiinflammatory effect, and is also used as a carrier to get medication to penetrate more deeply into tissues.
When it is used with Furacin as a sweat, the Furacin is applied to keep the DMSO from burning (blistering) the skin. The DMSO is applied over the Furacin and the leg is wrapped with cotton sheeting and plastic wrap, the a standing wrap over that. The idea is to dilate blood vessels to increase blood circulation under the sweat in order remove products of inflammation in tendons and to reduce swelling in the leg.
Sometimes Furacin is used without DMSO, but is considered to be less effective. The effectiveness of sweats is controversial anyway. They shouldn’t be used on new injuries or if there are any open wounds on the leg.
Add…..I personally prefer to just cold hose. When the leg sweats and gets everything soaked, it probably begins to reverse the effects and constrict the vessels anyway, so I question if it really does that much good. Lots of people believe in them, though.
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Registered Nurse and 57 years with horses
February 9th, 2010 at 7:11 am
You can sweat a horses leg without any type of product. My gelding had a puffy hock in the summer, and the vet reccomended just wrapping it with vet wrap ( the stretchy stuff that you can buy at most tack stores. Comes in a whole bunch of colours) We ended up putting a bit of Vetrolin at the end cause it wasn’t going down. It worked for a bit, but it never went completely down since the injury was more serious than we thought.
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experience