What causes liniment to potentially burn the skin?

And why do some people want to wrap their horses legs after applying liniment?What causes liniment to potentially burn the skin?
I personally would never wrap legs after applying liniment, since the risk of burning and blistering is too high. Liniments produce inflammation which is beneficial as counter-irritation to pull products of inflammation away from deeper tissues like tendons by creating a superficial inflammatory response. But when you hold the heat in by wrapping, you risk burning the skin, and you also reduce the effectiveness of the counter-irritation. The practice of blistering to get horses to stay off of injured limbs is an old racehorse treatment which I never approved of, and still don't. I don't know why people are wrapping over liniments, unless the product is formulated for use that way. Liniments are not poultices. Read the label to find out what a given linament is used for, and how it should be used.What causes liniment to potentially burn the skin?
Liniment can burn the skin rarely- if too much is applied it is known to cause irritation, especially in horses with sensitive skin. If you are worried about burning you may want to try the milder forms of liniment such as, Vetroline, or Green Cool.





The horses legs are wrapped after just for that reason. Any heat that is created from the horses legs will stay in closely to the liniment so that it can be extracted, much like the job of poultice (but poultice keeps the tendons in nice and tight). Riders often apply liniment to their horses as part of a cool down routine after workouts, facilitating the reduction of swelling and soreness in muscles and legs. To prevent “stocked up” legs, liniment may be applied to the affected areas and wrapped lightly with a breathable material, such as cotton. If you are trying to just reduce heat from the legs, I suggest using poultice, it does an amazing job and doesn't burn or create irritation. However, if you are trying to sooth the tendons as well as extract heat then liniment is your best bet. Just be selective as to which one you use.





Good luck :)
linament is like biofreeze or hot cold thearapy... first it warms the internal temperature of the area where applied for relaxation of muscles and tendons, it then cools the area for soothing... when it warms the area it boosts the internal temperature of the site and if that area is wrapped tightly with bandages or polos that dont allow enough air circulation it can result in a temperature burn and can ultimately damage the organs where applied. (such as skin and muscles)





Though jockys often apply it and wrap it in an effort to warm up their horses legs if not done correctly under the right supervision it can have devestating affects.





hope i answered your question!
Some horses are more sensitive and it will burn them a week before the world show i had the vet give me some liniment for my mares sore back and it burned her so bad she has sores all over her back like burns and we where already entered in the world show and had a pretty good shot so we got it a little under control and showed like that and still got 4th in the world would have been 1st had the vet not given us stuff that burned her