Silver Whinnys⢠are coming to the rescue of owners all over the world battling insects and subsequent infected sores on the legs of their donkeys and mules. As of this writing, one little donkey, named Sienna, in Londonâs Golders Hill Park Zoo, is wearing her set of Silver Whinnys, the bandage/barrier needed to help her legs heal.
Donkey wearing protective sox
Sox for Horses and Donkeys provide an ideal bandage/barrier that stops insects, keeps skin tissue clean, and provides an environment around the legs that helps skin heal.
© 2015 by Sox for Horses
Sox For Horses, Inc., creators of Silver Whinnys, utilizes the most current yarn sciences, along with details of construction, to raise the status of its equine legwear from ideal fly protection to a year-around effective alternative in leg bandaging and wound protection.
The basics to helping sores and wounds heal are:
1. You must keep an impeccably clean environment around the wound/sore. That barrier must prevent dirt and debris from reaching the tissue.
2. Protection from insects. Insects carry disease from one infected animal to another. Donkey and mule owners who have seen flies chewing legs to blood know how critical it is to remove biting insects from the healing equation.
Why is it difficult to heal summer sores or scratches, the common forms of equine dermatitis that begin during the summer and go away in the colder season? The insects are gone, but barn environments continue to harbor bacteria and fungus.
It can take owners well into winter to resolve these issues. Mud fever begins its cycle of worsening with the fall and stubbornly persists all winter. For owners with equines susceptible to this dermatitis, it is stressful and frustrating. Leg problems, aside from injuries, are year round issues for many owners.
A bandage is a barrier. It is meant to protect and separate a condition from an outside dirty environment. Bandages prevent insects and dirt from reaching open, injured skin. Though essential protection for serious wounds and injuries, a drawback to traditional bandaging is that air can no longer reach the skin.
Air is important in healing of donkey's legs
Bacteria, fungi and mold require warm, moist conditions to propagate. Air helps dry tissue surfaces. Air also cools tissue surface, defeating the warm conditions needed by bacteria and fungi. When sores and wounds are durable enough to no longer require compression bandaging, air can be allowed to reach tissue and invite faster healing. When surface tissue is dry, the moisture and warmth needed by bacteria, fungi and mold are eliminated.
Silver Whinnys⢠(also known as Summer Whinnys® ) perform as a bandage/barrier on multiple fronts to defeat the environment needed for bacteria, fungi and mold to propagate. Our proprietary combinations of yarns and the construction of the socks are the reason. High quality moisture management yarn wicks moisture, and moves it from the skin surface up through the socks to where evaporation and fast drying take place.
This also acts to cool the tissue the same way that sweat evaporating from your body cools you in the summer. And a protective double layer of knit prevents insects from reaching the skin surface.
The necessary clean environment around the leg is provided by yarn embedded with silver that reduces bio-burden near wounds and sores, and silver is known as an effective antimicrobial. Silver Whinnys act as a self-cleaning bandage and are most effective when replaced every 24 hours with clean dry socks until the condition is healed.
Look at it this way: When you take antibiotics, it is for a specific duration and amount of time. Antibiotics have to constantly be reintroduced to the body to continue their fight against invading bacterial infection or the bacteria begins to overwhelm the body environment again.
A barn environment is contaminated but â if you change your horseâs socks at least once every 24 hours â the silver in Silver Whinnys can again battle bacteria and fungi, the same way a new dose of antibiotics works with renewed vigor in your body. When weather conditions are constantly wet and muddy, or the sores or wound are serious, changing our Sox twice a day will help overcome the disadvantages of the environment.
Silver Whinnys are machine-washable and will dry restored to their elastics and fit. The silver will not wash out or degrade during the life of these Sox. With a thorough washing, they are ready to again be an ideal bandage/barrier that stops insects, keeps skin tissue clean, and provides an environment around the legs that helps skin heal.
Sox for Horses, Inc. helps owners better help their equines, supports rescue organizations, and adds jobs to American manufacturing. Silver Whinnys ⢠and their winter line, Whinny Warmers ®, are Made In America. Learn more at www.soxforhorses.com or call (850) 907-5724.