Peptides for horse wounds: what is known about GHK-Cu and TB-500?

Which wounds need a vet today?

A small cut in the wrong place can be more serious than a big one in the right place. Call your vet straight away for any of these. The Merck Veterinary Manual says wounds over joints, tendon sheaths or tendons, puncture wounds and wounds that expose bone all need thorough exploration.

• Any wound near a joint or tendon, even a small one
• A puncture wound, however minor it looks
• Heavy bleeding that does not stop with pressure
• Lameness along with a wound. Merck says it may mean a more serious injury.
• Bone or tendon you can see, or a flap of skin hanging loose
• Any wound on the chest or belly, or a horse that is struggling to breathe
• A wound that gets hotter, more swollen or more painful over the next few days

What should I do while I wait for the vet?

Stay safe, keep your horse quiet and stop the bleeding. Press on a bleeding wound with a clean pad, and use a pressure bandage if you can. Check the rest of your horse too. Ask your vet on the phone whether to rinse the wound with clean water or sterile saline, and whether to cover it.

Leave creams and powders out unless your vet says otherwise. Practical Horseman warns that petroleum ointments can slow healing and that caustic products can do harm over time. Have your horse's last tetanus date ready.

Is my horse covered for tetanus?

Check today, whatever the size of the wound. Tetanus is often fatal, its spores persist in soil for years, and the AAEP says wound severity does not predict the risk. Even superficial wounds have caused it. For a vaccinated horse, the AAEP advises a booster at the time of injury if the last one was six months or more ago. If your horse's history is unknown, or it was never vaccinated, tell your vet at once, because the plan is different.

What will the vet do?

First your vet finds out how deep the wound goes. They will clip the hair, clean the skin and flush the wound. If a joint or tendon sheath may be involved, they can inject sterile fluid away from the wound and see if it leaks out. If it does, your horse may need referral to a surgical hospital, because infection in these spaces is serious.

Fresh, clean wounds can sometimes be stitched. Contaminated wounds, or those with a lot of tissue loss, are often left to fill in from below under a bandage. Your vet will also consider pain relief, antibiotics and tetanus cover. Merck advises rechecking over the next 3 to 5 days for more lameness, heat or swelling.

Why do leg wounds grow proud flesh?

Proud flesh is healing tissue that does not know when to stop. It is pink and bumpy, and it rises above the skin, which stops new skin from growing across. Horses are prone to it, especially below the knee or hock, where movement and tension keep the wound inflamed.

Treatment is simple in outline but needs a vet. Your vet checks for infection or anything left in the wound. Then they trim the tissue back to skin level, which bleeds but does not hurt because it has no nerve endings, and may use a steroid cream and a bandage. Large wounds may need a skin graft. Avoid buying a caustic product to burn it back. Our wounds page has the basics.

What is known about GHK-Cu and TB-500 for wounds?

Very little, and none of it from treating horses. GHK-Cu is studied mostly for skin and wound repair, and TB-500 is based on part of a protein studied for wound and tissue repair. Lab interest is why they appear on sales pages. Neither is officially tested in horses, and neither is FDA-approved for animals. No clinical trial of either in horses appears in PubMed, and we found no published study of GHK-Cu used on horses at all.

So nobody can say whether either one helps a horse's wound, makes proud flesh better or worse, or is safe to use. That last point matters on a leg wound, where the worry is already too much tissue growth. Anything put on or near a wound also needs to be clean, and a product labelled for research gives you no assurance of that.

If your horse competes, stop there. TB-500 is banned by the FEI. GHK-Cu is not named, but not named does not mean allowed. Our safety guide covers the wider risks.

Questions to ask your vet about a wound

Slow wounds are worth a second look, because something is usually holding them back. Ask:

• Could this involve a joint, tendon sheath or bone?
• Is my horse covered for tetanus?
• How should I bandage it, and how often should it be checked?
• What are the early signs of proud flesh or infection?
• What should I keep off this wound?