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EQUINE HEALTH
BURN
INJURIES
in Horses
by Heather Smith Thomas
Burn injuries are rare in horses, but sometimes a horse is burned in a barn fire or by lightning, electricity,
caustic chemicals or friction.
Dr. Reid Hanson (Professor of Surgery,
College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama), has treated
a number of burn injuries in horses and has written chapters on equine burn injuries for books on medical treatments, discussing the various types and degrees of burns and how they are treated.
“Fortunately, most of the burns we see in horses are just first-degree burns,” he says.
These are similar to sunburn; only the top layers of skin are affected, and these injuries can heal fairly well in a short time with very little treatment. Prognosis is excellent unless there is ocular or respiratory involvement.
Deep second-degree burns are more serious, damaging some or all of the deeper layers of skin. “These burns are usually very painful because
the tactile and pain receptors remain intact. However, they typically are not life threatening and are similar to superficial burns but have vesicles and blisters. These vesicles should be
left intact for the first 24-36 hours following their formation because the blister fluid provides protection from infection. The intact blister is
also less painful than the denuded and exposed raw surface if the blister breaks,” he explains. “It’s a good sign if the horse has pain in the
burned area because this tells you that the burn is not too deep,” he says. This means the nerves have not been destroyed, as they would be in a deeper third-degree burn in which all the skin is gone.
“After 24-36 hours, or even as much as 48 hours in some cases, we typically partially excise the blister and apply an anti-microbial dressing to the wound. This allows the eschar to form, which is collagen tissue, like a scab. Up until about
20 years ago, people would remove scabs from
a wound, but now we know that a scab is very good for protecting the wound,” says Hanson
Deep second-degree burns are more serious since they damage some or all of the deeper layers of skin.
84 SPEEDHORSE October 2022
Third-degree burns are potentially life-threatening.
Courtesy of Heather Smith Thomas