Lots of horse people have a tub of ichthamol in their tack room somewhere. I know I do! I recently used the stuff which got me curious about what the other uses are for it. Ichthamol isn’t something that I have used very often.
Ichthammol is a black, tarry substance that is extracted from rock schist (also known as oil shale). It is known to have antiseptic properties and may also be effective as an anti-inflammatory, antibiotic and anti-fungal. It is safe to use as a topical treatment and is most commonly found as an ointment. The ointments usually also contain an oily substance, such as mineral oil or beeswax, which helps the active ingredient of ichthammol to penetrate the skin.
At Death Valley when Chief felt a little footsore going over the rocks during the ride I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to pack his feet with ichthamol later that day and put boots on him overnight.
I’ve had numerous horse people tell me that ichthamol is great for healing various hoof ailments and works great as a drawing agent. I wasn’t sure what was wrong with Chief, just that he is normally not hoof sensitive. I’ve known for some time that there were stress rings (caused by separating laminae) growing out on Chief’s feet that were caused from the stress of multiple eyelid surgeries, antibiotics, etc. and that it might catch up with him.
I cleaned Chief’s feet out really well then smothered the entire bottom of both front feet, including the frog crevices with ichthamol. It’s messy and it stinks! Then, I threw on a pair of Epics. I knew doing this wouldn’t hurt anything, and if he was brewing an abscess or just a little sore, maybe from a case of deep thrush that wasn’t readily visible – it might really help. Ithchamol is a drawing agent and it is also antiseptic. I left the boots on overnight and the next day. During the time I kept checking to see if there were any other signs of what the problem might be. There was no swelling anywhere, his legs stayed nice and tight and he didn’t appear to be sensitive anywhere. Chief was standing square, alternating resting diagonals like normal. He wasn’t trying to get off of any part of his foot and didn’t exhibit any signs of anything bothering him, other than not being ridden again. 
The next day we trotted Chief for Kristen (vet) and she said she didn’t see anything in a tight circle either direction. I don’t know if the ichthamol helped but it certainly didn’t hurt. Not riding him again didn’t hurt anything either. No use making a minor problem into something more serious, right?
Still no heat anywhere, no swelling or signs of anything being wrong. Chris Heron put hoof testers on both of Chief’s front hooves and got no reaction at all. Which is what I would normally expect. I think that the problem might be a little higher up and in the area where the stress rings are.
No signs of an abscess to date. So far (knocking on wood) I have never had a single abscess in a working endurance horse. One of these days it might happen!
I put the boots and ichthamol back on Chief’s front feet and left them till we got home. By then it appeared that Chief had recovered. At least enough to be able to trot soundly barefoot over the gravel in the driveway without a single flinch. Since then I’ve kept him barefoot and have treated for thrush plus put some Durasole on the bottom of the sole a couple of times.
I think that I’ll take it easy with Chief while his damaged hooves grow out the rest of the way. I will be more careful about riding him in rocky terrain and will be more careful in selecting which rides, if any, that he does. I may also use boots with pads on him until I am able to feel confident that he is back to having his solid footed and not sensitive feet back. I am also going to get a couple of radiographs taken of his feet just to see if anything else might be going on in there. It’ll be nice to see where everything is inside those feet, and also get an idea of how thick his sole callous is. I’ll post more about this later.
Back to talking about ichthamol and what other things it’s good for. I did a quick search online and found that ichthamol has many other uses:
Use ichthammol to draw out splinters (like wood or glass) from the skin. Cleanse the affected area and then put some ointment on it. Cover it with a bandage and check after a day to see if the splinter is at the surface of the skin. Use tweezers to pull out the foreign object.
Treat boils, carbuncles or abscesses with an ointment containing 20 percent or more of ichthammol. A staphylococcus infection causes boils, which can swell and have pus. Draw the pus out by applying some ointment to the boil; let it form a head, lance it and then let the pus drain.
Relieve the discomfort of painful bites and stings with ichthammol ointment. For bites or stings from bees, wasp, spiders or other insect, apply some ointment to the area. Be careful with insect bites, as some people can have an allergic reaction to these and may need medical attention.
Apply a 20-percent ichthammol ointment to animals like horses with wounds, dry hooves, inflammations or skin irritations. Use ichthammol ointment once or twice daily on the area.
This is on the jar of ichthamol:
* Topical salve for horse wounds, dry hooves, skin irritations, and more
* Soothing ointment also acts as a topical antiseptic to draw out infection
* Convenient and economically priced 14 oz jar saves you time and money
Relieve skin irritations. Treat dry, cracked horse hooves. Versatile topical wound ointment contains 20% Ichthammol. Use on wounds, minor skin irritations, hooves, inflammations, and more. Works as an emollient and mild antiseptic. Relieves itching and helps draw out infection and pus from open sores and wounds. Simply apply to affected area twice daily with or without a bandage. Economically priced 14 oz plastic jar is a must for any stall, barn, or stable. Salve is black colored.
Has anybody else had good luck using ichthmaol? Is there anything that works better?
I’ve used it to pack sore hooves; apply the ichthamol, put on a baby diaper, then wrap with vet wrap or duct tape. Also
Also gave it to my niece to use successfully in treating some carbuncles.
We have used it on a pulled 100 miler when we suspected the horse stepped on some glass, coated the entire foot on the bottom, wrapped with saran wrap and vet wrap and duct tape on top, left it on overnight. When we pulled it off the next morning–there were several decent sized glass shards drawn out of the heel area. Removed those and wah lah–sound horse–never abcessed or had another problem related to the glass. We have use it many times with the saran wrap/ vet wrap protocol when having foot issues and it always always helps, normally pulls a tiny piece of “stuff” out of the foot.
My vet had us slather one of our horses chest and underside when he came down with pigeon fever. Messy stuff, but works so well.
I know someone who would smear it on bandages on the OUTSIDE to keep horses from chewing them them. But sure made a mess, and stained the bandages. lol
Ichthamol is also great for splints.
When my horse aquired a high splint my vet had me take some DMSO and some ichthamol and put it in my gloved palm and mix it with my fingers and then apply to the splint and rub it for five minutes.
The spot gets raally warm and then apply a sweat bandage. I did this for a couple of days and bingo the splint was gone.
Strange but true! I have psoriasis on my own feet which causes really deep painful cracks. You can get Ichthammol tincture (dissolved in alcohol not in an ointment) and coat the cracks with this. It stings for about 20-30 seconds while the alcohol evaporates but then the crack is stuck together and sealed with this tarry flexible stuff. Put a plaster on to stop socks etc. getting stained. The crack will heal and grow out with the ichthammol still holding it together but with no pain. Brilliant. Please feel free to pass this info on to other humans!