nature’s hidden remedy Sugardine: History & Uses


Horsemen’s folklore credits farriers with the ‘secret recipe’ behind sugardine, used to treat hoof abscesses, thrush, sole bruising or damage, and skin problems ranging from rain rot to burns


S by LA Pomeroy


ugardine is a paste made from sugar and iodine with the consis- tency of peanut butter. Sugardine


is applied to the hooves or skin to reduce the possibility of infection or inflamma- tion, and speeds healing.


Treating topical problems with sugar is not new. Long before Mary Poppins sang how a “spoonful of sugar” could help the medi- cine go down, a document dated from 1700 B.C., Te Edwin Smith Sur- gical Papyrus, described treating wounds on the battlefields of Egypt with honey and grease. Other sticky sweet substances, like molasses and syrup, have also been used.


toward sugardine was it seeming “too simple” a solution.


See “How to Make a


Sugardine Prep” video at HolisticHorse.com


“Some thought any treatment must be complex or costly to be effective,” he wrote in his 1989 AFA article, Using Sugar to Treat Tose Nasty Wounds. Chapman urged his colleagues to try sugardine. Veterinarians and farriers nationwide reported as much as a 100 percent recovery rate, in less than 14 days, in thrush cases treated with sugardine. Te only horses that experienced a recurrent problem, he said, “did so because of contaminated and unhygienic environments.”


From Egyptian battlefields to modern equestrian sports, more than


two thousand years of experience can’t be wrong: sugardine is one recipe worth handing down to the next generation.


Excerpted with permission of LA Pomeroy.


WHY IT WORKS Folklore made sugardine a household word and science explains why it works. Sugar can help restore a proper pH balance in tissue, and has antibacterial properties. In 1981, the results of a five- year study on sugardine were published in Southern Medical Journal: “Te use of sugardine seems to accelerate granulation tissue and epithelial tissue production, thereby covering wounds, burns or ulcers with skin.”


Researchers noted how wounds treated with sugardine responded differently from those treated with antibiotics. “Unlike (wounds) treated with antibiot- ics, sugardine-treated wounds clean up rapidly; sugardine reduces edema, nour- ishes surface cells and has no fetid odor. We also found it effective on coronary band lacerations, burns, and thrush.”


Te late Burney Chapman, an American Farrier’s Association (AFA) Certified Journeyman, and pioneer in the creation of the heart bar shoe for horses with laminitis, said people’s chief reluctance


8 | www.holistichorse.com Holistic Horse™ • August/September 2010 • Vol.16, Issue 68


Common symptoms of thrush


(continued from page 7)


• Resistance to having feet picked up and cleaned/ inspected


• Sensitive, painful frog, usually with a deep central cleft


• Hoof wall separation, flat soles, high bars and sunken frogs


• Toe first landing, even when the foot looks healthy


• Irregular hoof wear patterns due to a compromised gait


• “Wry” or twisted hooves • Thin, distorted or displaced frogs


• Club feet that began in mid•life or after an injury or laminitic episode


Source: No Horsing Around, LLC


• Contracted heels that won’t relax and sprea


• Seasonal soundness issues


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