Mart R. Steffen

“ In choosing an iodine ointment for this use, the veterinarian should select a preparation in which the iodine exists free and uncombined with other agents, in a vehicle that is blandly penetrating and non-irritating. I can highly recommend Iodex, as fulfilling exactly these requirements. It can be applied freely and indefinitely, and, even when the course of treatment is exceptionally prolonged, the parts to which it is being applied show no sign of being irritated. With other preparations, it is often necessary to discontinue the applications for a time because of the local irritating effect. ”

“ While it is not possible to pick out every case in which iodine applications will give the desired result, it is not an exceptionally difficult matter to select the great majority. It is the opinion of most veterinary practitioners, who have the ethics of their profession at heart, that the treatment of certain well-known pathological conditions of the articulations, by means of the actual cautery, is one of the most disagreeable features of a veterinary practice. ”

“ Ointments of iodine—which, for me, mean Iodex—have, by far, the most extensive field of application, and the uses to which an iodine ointment may be put have already been quite clearly indicated. I will, however, remark some of the points to be considered in using Iodex in such cases as spavin lameness and similar affections of the articulations.
In choosing, for treatment with Iodex, a case of spavin lameness, the practitioner should select only those cases in [Pg 61] which the horse warms out of the lameness; these cases can positively be cured by Iodex applications. ”

“ Aside from this quite common use of this preparation, I have found tincture of iodine of great worth as an application to calk wounds in the coronary region of the equine foot. When the injured horn has been pared away under the wound in the coronary band, and the loose particles of flesh and hair cleaned away, the wound is freely painted with pure tincture of iodine. This painting is to be repeated several times daily, until recovery takes place. Severe infections rarely occur if the applications are begun within a few hours after the accident occurs. ”

“ In choosing preparations of iodine, for use in his practice, the veterinarian can easily deprive himself of much of the success that goes with correct iodine therapy, if he allows his choice of preparations to be influenced, to any great extent, by the cost of the article. ”

“ Iodine preparations of various forms are very commonly used topically as an adjunctive treatment to internal medication in the treatment of a number of acute pathological conditions in veterinary patients. The object in adding local iodine applications to the handling of such conditions is varied. In some cases, the object of the practitioner is to hasten the correction of certain well-marked local manifestations of the disease with which the patient is afflicted. ”

“ They permit their better judgment, in the selection of the preparations, to be influenced too markedly by price; the preparation that they select fails to give the expected results because it is an [Pg 52] inferior preparation, either in the strength or the quality of the iodine it is said to carry. Commonly, both strength and quality are inferior.
Well made and honestly prepared iodine preparations are cheaper than almost anything that the veterinarian uses, in a pharmaceutical way; a little of a good iodine preparation “goes a long way” ”

“ An application of iodine to the skin covering the region that is about to be invaded by the knife of the surgeon, has been found much more efficacious and much more reliable than has the washing and the scrubbing with antiseptic solutions, soaps and other agents. ”

“ Besides, it spares the patient in more ways than one, especially in the cold months of the year when, in a veterinary practice, operations frequently have to be performed in cold stables, or even in the open. ”