amazing growth substrate
The short of it is calcium alginate is an amazing substrate of growth stimulants and nutrients that seems to make anything that is alive heal and or grow.<br /><br />I am a physician and this calcium alginate was always stocked in my clinic in a form that looked like a 4"x4" bandage. It was a gov't clnic and no-one seemed to ever use them. They had to be discarded when they expired so I would take them home.<br /><br />Ran out of bandages over time.<br /><br />Long story but my dog likes to keep me company in my workshop - I had taken the side off of my cabinet saw to clean it - I was cutting something and he jumped up in there to catch the sawdust coming out from under the blade. The blade hit him just at the border of the soft nose tissue cutting his nose and left lip leaving his nose and lip hanging by about 1/4" of nose tissue.<br /><br />After a nasty divorce I am not currently working and money is very tight. It was $2,500 just to get him in the door to the emergency vet and they always seem to get the bill even higher with anesthesia, observation, medications.<br /><br />-so-it killed me but we just could not afford to use the vet!<br /><br />We irrigated the wound thoroughly and I managed to throw just 4 sutures to hold the nose in place and stop most of the bleeding. Put the cone of shame on him but he still went straight outside and rubbed his nose in the dirt, contaminating the wound and dislodging one of the sutures.<br /><br />I put him on antibiotics (clindamycin) and was thrilled to find that I could buy this calcium alginate powder. We sprinkled it on his wound twice a day. It forms a clear jelly like substance. His nose healed within a weak to a pink scar - now after about 3 weeks all of the black pigment is back.<br /><br />Since that time I have experimented around with the powder. My wife was putting the cut bases of Roman Lettuce in water - something she saw on pinterest - it grows a few small leaves then dies. Just for kicks I dipped the bottom of one of the lettuce bases in the calcium alginate powder. That lettuce base grew roots and started to grow. If it were winter - here in Florida - I could have taken it outside and planted it.<br /><br />It was too hot outside to grow it and inside it bolted immediately while still in the water - but she has been doing this intermittently for years and I have never seen a single one take root.<br /><br />So my experience with calcium alginate is in wound healing. Years ago we had a Mare gallop square into a barbed wire fence. There was over a 12" gash across her chest. It was my sisters Arabian I was fostering - still am 9 years later. Again no vet, not even a suture, just a big slab of swollen skin hanging down her chest. Went through rolls and rolls of Coban trying to create a bandage but rarely stayed in place. Essentially all I could do was use the calcium alginate - this was the 4x4 bandage form of it but same stuff. It took some time, but the wound healed so well you cannot even see a scar.
Rating: 5 stars