Using sugar to stop bleeding???

[CD2387]

Can you use sugar to stop bleeding?

A horse at the barn today cut a vein in his leg and bled everywhere (left puddles everywhere he stepped:eek:). Someone ran up to the house and got some sugar (I think to stop the bleeding, not sure though).
Will that actually work?
How?

[Bay Mare]

Never heard of that one :eek:

Best thing to do for bleeding is to apply pressure preferably using something clean (cloth/gauze) to apply the pressure with. At work we have to puncture people's arteries to get the tubes up to the heart and afterwards either seal it with a collagen plug or apply pressure until the bleeding has stopped.

If the bleeding is bad or spurting (arterial) then you have to get the vet out as an emergency.

[becs]

Never heard of that either. Sugar used to be used in a paste for ulcerative wounds years ago (on humans) so maybe it's a leftover from that?

Agree with Bay Mare - best to apply pressure, should start clotting & ease bleeding in few minutes. Try not to move them unnecessarily until it's stabilised & dressed.

[IrisSilverMoon]

I imagine the idea behind it is that it thickens up the blood around it and keeps it in one place so its easier to coagulate, since sugar with thicken up most liquids. But I've never heard of the remedy before...=/

[NoviceNic]

Yes sugar does stop the bleeding. My Mum uses it alot for her dogs. We used to own Great Danes and they were always splitting the ends of their tails on radiators. Oh and paw cuts. So yes it does work. However it shouldnt stop people calling the vet out as well.

[Bay Mare]

Playing devil's advocate here ... but wouldn't the bleeding stop anyway? Maybe it's just a case of something appearing to work rather than actually working?

I'd prefer not to introduce anything into a clean wound (sugar doesn't come in sterile packets!) as you then add the risk of infection to the mix. Saying that, though, I've heard that honey is good for infections. Haven't tried it myself!

The current recommendations for treating wounds is to make sure that they're clean by irrigating with sterile (or boiled and cooled) water and leave be, don't put wound powders or pastes on as they can actually slow the healing time down!