Your recipe for a natural salve for sheep/goat lesions and abrasions?

Hi to all,

If you are willing to share, could you suggest any home made salve remedies for sheep or goat lesions and abrasions? Im talking mostly non store-bought concoctions from components you might grow yourself? Many thanks.

Well, knowing almost nothing about real goat issues, and having learned only rudimentary issues with goats, I would start with medicinals that will do the job you want that are safe for the goats to eat. Comfrey is the first to come to mind.

I do make an all natural, herbal ointment for people that my daughter has used on her dogs to great effect. It has comfrey leaf and root. It also has alot of other stuff that may not be good for goats, should they lick it off. Tea tree oil, lavender oil, cedarwood oil being the ones I would think might not be best for goats. But the dogs don't lick it off!

The base oil you use should also be goat safe; I use olive, as it has it's own healing properties.  And I thicken with beeswax. I can't imagine that to be a bad thing for anyone in the small quantities used. Unless an entire jar is consumed!

Good luck.

My favorite way to treat cuts/scrapes/abrasions on any of my animals is to make a good strong decoction (a decoction is a tea that is simmered for at least an hour, or brought to a boil and left covered to sit overnight) of an astringent healing herb (plantain is good, comfrey is great, various tree barks work as well) and douse the wound with it several times a day until it is fairly closed up. I don't use salves because I'm afraid the goats would lick it off, which for me is not a problem because of the plant matter it might contain, but rather because I'm pretty sure that the fatty/oil base would present serious digestive difficulty for an herbivore. For nannies in milk, I use their milk on wounds or fevered udders--it really is a miracle cure for most problems.

Hope this helps!

I should have known that--Comfrey.  Thanks for that.

What about garlic/comfrey? Garlic is supposed to be a pretty powerful wide spectrum anti-biotic and antifungal?

Comfrey is antibacterial, antifungal, used to reduce inflammation, eases pain and stops swelling. https://danusjourney.wordpress.com/2015/04/30/natures-medicine-chest-comfrey-leaf-symphytum-uplandica-x/

So, maybe the garlic would not be needed? If you do choose to use it, please do an extract of some sort. I know of one human who got a burn from garlic cloves applied directly to the skin for reducing swollen lymph nodes.

Thanks for that John.  I happen to be immune to any effect from that...pure garlic juice stings me but doesnt harm me, but that doesnt account for other people and livestock....Yet good thought.  M