Life has its hectic moments, like when your dog gets free of his leash to chase a squirrel, or your dog ends up with something prickly stuck in her paw. Minor wounds like these are nothing to get too worried about! There are a plethora of natural remedies you can use at home to treat your dog’s wounds. No vet visit required! These work for most minor wounds, open or not. When you notice a bad scrape or cut, try out some of these natural remedies to speed up your pup’s recovery.
This article covers:
- Hydrotherapy
- Herbal tea rinse
- Topical treatments
- First-Aid products
Hydrotherapy for Dogs
One of the first concerns of an open wound is infection. You’ll want to clear the wound and its surrounding area in the gentlest way possible. You can accomplish this with a soft wet towel or hydrotherapy. By running a gentle stream of water over the dog’s wound, you can successfully remove any debris, dead cells, and/or pus. Hydrotherapy is also beneficial for stimulating growth of the healing tissue.
Here’s how you do it: get into the schedule of running cool water over the wound one or twice a day for about five to ten minutes. Make sure the stream isn’t too strong as it would cause more harm than good for your pup’s healing process, and it wouldn’t be pleasant to endure either. If you have a small dog, you can try doing this in your kitchen sink. For larger dogs, you can use a hose or try the faucet in your bathtub. Once you’re done with the water, dry the wound and its surrounding area by dabbing gently with a cloth.
Doggy Herbal Tea Rinse
We’ve seen how water has strong healing powers with hydrotherapy. Well, water takes another form of medicine here. Don’t use just any tea you have lying around. You can make your own healing brew by bringing some herbs home, grown wildly or in your garden, or available for purchase at your natural foods market. There are several herbs that you can consider purchasing for their known skin-healing properties, such as comfrey leaf and root, St. John’s wort blossoms, calendula blossoms, broad- or narrow-leaved plantain leaves, and lavender leaves and blossoms. You can also get ingredients for your herbal tea that are anti-inflammatory and help soothe and reduce itching and discomfort.
Comfrey contains a cell growth stimulant that makes it especially effective at wound healing, making it a great ingredient for tea that will be applied to scrapes, burns, cuts, insect bites, and other minor injuries. You don’t want to use comfrey if you’re using it on a wound with sutures that will need to be removed or to a puncture wound, as healing a wound like that too quickly would trap harmful bacteria inside.
Once you have your ingredients, use two teaspoons of dried herbs per cup of boiling water. If you’re using fresh herbs, that ratio becomes two tablespoons to a cup. Cover the tea and let it steep until it has cooled. You can then strain the tea, refrigerate it, and apply it when needed to your dog’s wound. Apply it via spray, rinse, wash, or compress.
First-Aid Products That are Safe for Pups
Have some first-aid products in your home in case of an emergency. There are some basic supplies you can get, such as bandages and ointments. Add to your first-aid kit the Fauna Care First-Aid healing spray. This spray is easy to use and extremely effective at both treating and protecting your dog’s minor wound. Having simple first-aid products like these at home will keep you ready for anything!
Make Your Own Topical Treatments for Dogs
There are several oils that you can apply to a dog’s wound that will promote healing. These are great to add to your first-aid kit, although keep it mind that they do not keep indefinitely. What’s great about these highly effective oil infusions is that you can make these yourself at home! All you need is a jar, some oil, a dark place in your home, and the right dry herb. You’ll want to use either calendula flowers or symphytum leaves, which you can grow in your garden or get at your local natural food store. Here are the quick steps to making your own topical wound treatment:
- Fill the jar once with your dried herb
- Fill the jar again with olive oil (Cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil has an anti-inflammatory effect but doesn’t keep for long)
- For six weeks, leave the jar in a dark and cool place
- Strain the contents of the jar
- Apply the oil infusion to the wound when needed!
There’s a lot you can do to make sure your dog is safe and comfortable at home. Just like how we deal with a lot of scrapes and burns without going to the doctors, you can manage the minor injuries your dog gets at home without seeing a vet. However, if you notice the wound isn’t healing or your dog is acting strangely, contact your vet and schedule an appointment to make sure the wound hasn’t become serious. For most cases, these natural remedies will do just the trick for helping your dog get better faster and easier!
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