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What's all the BUZZ about? HONEY!

You wake up to a bluebird day, the temperature is perfect, and it’s time to hit the trails with your dog. As you two are out exploring new territory you notice your dog limping back to you, and dread fills you as you realize he/she has a cut to the pad of the foot. 


Step number one, head home and call to schedule a visit with your Veterinarian TODAY. Your Veterinarian is the best person to assess your dog’s wound and determine if sutures are necessary. Depending on the severity of the wound, its location, and the amount of time since the injury occurred, they may recommend suturing the wound. But, they may also recommend daily bandage changes with honey. What, honey?!? Yep, you read that right. Bees make an amazing natural healing agent.


So, why honey? Honey has a very high sugar content that is antibacterial and helps wounds heal twice as fast as they would compared to no therapy at all. Now, don’t get me wrong, many wounds still need an oral antibiotic to heal as well, but honey bandaging can be an amazing part of your treatment plan to get your dog back on his feet faster.  Oftentimes you can purchase regular honey from the grocery store to use on wounds.  HOWEVER, there are times where STERILE honey is mandatory, especially if the wound is over or near a joint space.


Here are a couple examples from my practice over the years…..

1. Six month old Golden Retriever puppy: A young client of mine brought home a golden retriever puppy but soon realized that puppies are a lot of work and he didn’t want to put the effort in. Sadly enough, my first encounter with this dog was when the owner brought her in with a “wound” on her neck.
Turns out he had put a puppy sized collar on the dog, but never upgraded as she grew. This collar grew into her skin down into her muscle tissue by over 1” around the full circumference of her neck. The neglect we witnessed that day was horrific. While he was very willing to do whatever it took surgically to fix the dog, it was too little too late for surgery. I couldn’t close this wound, there was no way. All I could offer him was honey and laser therapy. Though this was not the ideal place for laser therapy, as the thyroid gland was very close to where we were lasering, after a discussion with the owner of the risk involved, we began laser therapy twice weekly with daily honey (regular honey you would purchase at the store) application in the wound along with antibiotics. The neck was completely healed in two weeks. It was an amazing transformation. And, I’m happy to report that he transferred ownership of the dog to a neighbor, and she is now living a wonderful life.

2. Another Golden Retriever puppy: Another client of mine had a litter of Goldens. These puppies were about 7 weeks old and just about ready to go to their new homes. On one beautiful summer evening the puppies were playing outside and one puppy got tangled in the umbrella stand under their outdoor table.
She lacerated her back leg between the Achilles tendon and the tibia (right above the ankle). As I was out of town that weekend, this client took the puppy to another local veterinary clinic. However, when I returned on Monday they scheduled a second opinion appointment with me because something was just not right. Sure enough, this wound was very infected and she was at risk of losing her limb due to the location and severity of the injury.  Knowing that referral to a specialist was her best option, I sent her family immediately to see them.  She was hospitalized there for two days while they got the infection under control with numerous daily bandage changes and wound cleaning (debridement). Upon returning to me, we had a plan in place to continue daily bandage changes with STERILE (notice the difference in this case as the wound was so close to a joint) honey. I'm happy to report that she made a speedy recovery, and is a happy healthy four legged dog. Besides the scar on the inside of her hind leg, you’d never know how close she was to losing her limb.

3. One final case: A male kitty with a deep laceration in the groin. A young cat came to me after misjudging the distance to jump over a baby gate. He had a huge laceration in his groin very close to his man parts. This was a wound that definitely required sutures.
We anesthetized him, did a beautiful repair, and advised the owners to keep him very quiet due to the wound’s location and our desire for it to heal without complication. Well, not everyone listens and he was back to racing around the house over the next few days. He returned to me a few days after surgery with the wound wide open. At this point it was obvious that surgical repair wouldn’t work in this case, and we elected for an e-collar (cone so he couldn’t lick) and daily honey. And you guessed it, two weeks later on recheck, it was completely healed. Hooray!


Such cool cases! If your pet is wounded, visit your Veterinarian first and let them assess the wound for the best possible way for it to heal as quickly as possible. But, if they bring up honey as a possibility, know you are in good hands!
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