Management of Thermal Injuries in Large Animals

Findings and strategies for treating horses injured in open range fires

“…Scientific literature describing equine thermal injuries is helpful when managing horses that have been burned in barn fires, but the literature regarding large numbers of horses in rural grass fires is scant (Geiser and Walker ; Hanson , ; Adam ). In grass fires, the burns are often on the extremities and ventral abdomen, and the treatment of burns in these areas varies from the dorsal thermal injuries experienced in barn fires.…”

Defocused CO2 laser on equine skin: a histological examination

“…The present study found a location-dependent difference in the thickness of normal, nontreated epidermis (controls), which corresponds to earlier studies on equine epidermis (Talukdar et al 1972). It is possible, but not likely, that the thickness of epidermis had an influence on the severity of morphological changes as the risk for thermal injury decreases to some extent with increasing epidermal and, to a greater extent, with dermal thickness (Geiser and Walker 1984;Jiang et al 2002). However, the main thermal effect of the CO 2 laser is most probably connected to its absorption pattern and then conduction to surrounding tissue, in contrast to conventional heating, which is usually more uniformly distributed in tissue (Polla and Andersson 1987).…”

“…The changes in skin morphology seen after irradiation with 91 J/cm 2 dose were mild, but with 137 J/cm 2 dose, moderate lesions, compatible with thermal injury, were observed. An inflammatory reaction secondary to a thermal injury, which leads to increased blood perfusion, has been reported (Moritz and Henrique 1947;Geiser and Walker 1984). The inflammatory reaction may function as a counter-irritant with a possible influence on pain perception (Le Bars 2002).…”

Management of Thermal Injuries in Donkeys: A Case Report

“…Burns are uncommon in horses and there are no reports of thermal injuries in donkeys in scientific literature. Emergency treatment guidelines are extrapolated from human and equine medical literature [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ].…”