Scholarship/Background Info

I'll be honest. At the time of my horse's wound, my vet was not very helpful. After a couple initial days of treatment (flushing it out, granulex, antibiotics, and bute for pain), the sugar packing began. I wasn't there at the time but was more or less told "we're packing the area with sugar because it will help prevent infection and help heal the wound more quickly than more conventional treatments." They told me/facility employees to pack the area with sugar twice a day. I never got the chance to ask why this treatment would work and instead of asking, I did a little research myself. More or less, sugar works because, when applied to an open wound, the sugar absorbs the moisture in the would which then prevents bacteria growth. Furthermore, it also has anti-scarring properties.

I've read that honey has been shown to be more successful than sugar though, from my vets perspective, it's easier and more practical to pack a large wound (as it opened up, it was large enough to fit two fists inside) with sugar 2 times a day for 3-4 weeks than to use honey. 10 lbs of sugar is a lot cheaper than the amount of honey that would be required (not to mention easier to apply!).

I thought I'd include just some of the background articles/scholarship I have found thus far.

- Sugar's Healing Powers from the Sugar Association

- Managing Wounds with Honey & Sugar veterinary use

- Skin and Wound Infection

- Wound Management Using Sugar veterinary use treating dogs

- Why do some cavity wounds treated with honey or sugar paste heal without scarring? Discusses the anti-scarring properties of sugar/honey treatments

- Successful treatment of chronically infected wounds with sugar paste

This article poses a warning about using sugar.

- Healing Wounds and Reducing Scars

It cites a medical article that I have not yet had the chance to look for. I haven't yet found many other article focusing of the negatives of such treatments.