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You certainly see so many options of pet wound spray when you browse the aisles looking for a cure for your pet’s recent injury. But not each of these are created equally, and it’s important to check the ingredients when deciding which one to buy. Here’s why Fauna Care beats Vetericyn and why you should think twice before choosing this well-known brand:
- Fauna Care’s Variety and Specificity
- Sodium Hypochlorite
- Fauna Care’s Active Ingredients
- More than just wound care sprays
Variety & Specificity
Vetericyn sells several types of products: wound and skin care, eye, and ear care, and shampoo. Their wound and skin care match Fauna Care’s in its convenience, as you can just spray it on the wound. However, when it comes to its variety, it’s not quite up to par. First off, Vetericyn only offers one kind of spray for wounds: “wound and skin care.” On their website, they claim that it’s safe for:
- cuts and scrapes
- abrasions and scratches
- hot spots and skin rashes
- burns
- abscesses and sores
- post-surgical sites
However, how can one spray help all these very different kinds of wounds? Fauna Care offers several kinds of wound spray, each with a featured ingredient that combats a specific type of injury. For example, Fauna Care Zinc Spray features the ingredient zinc oxide, which has been shown to aid in wound healing. Fauna Care First Aid Spray, on the other hand, features bacitracin for an antibiotic treatment. Each of Fauna Care’s five wound care products are customized for specific issues:
- Silver Spray: for wound care, burns, cuts, hot spots, post-op, and dermatitis
- Anti-fungal Spray: for ringworm, animal fungal care, and control
- Protect & Condition: for skin care and protection
- First Aid Spray: for general care and first aid
- Zinc Spray: for scratches, cuts, abrasions, hot spots, skin irritations, wound care
Fauna Care also offers an equine line while Vetericyn Plus All Animal 3 oz. includes dogs, cats, and horses. Fauna Care’s equine line also offers more spray—4.5 oz.—so that it can more realistically accommodate the size of your horse.
Sodium Hypochlorite
Vetericyn Plus All Animal wound and skin care contain sodium hypochlorite, a chlorine compound often used as an oxidizing and bleaching agent. Fauna Care avoids this kind of harsh chemical, instead of using naturally based ingredients like zinc oxide and silver to combat wounds.
Fauna Care also avoids things like fragrance, parabens, and surfactants, which are often in cosmetic or hygiene products. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) notes that some fragrance chemicals can build up in human tissues or pollute the body if inhaled or absorbed through the skin.
On the other hand, preservatives like parabens were found in high concentrations in human breast tumors in a 2004 study by Dr. Philippa Darbre, likely from products applied on the skin. Parabens are harmful because they interact with estrogen, a key reproductive hormone in animals and humans.
Fauna Care’s products are surfactant-free since surfactants are endocrine disruptors and disrupt animals’ hormonal balance. Alcohols often irritate and dry out the skin, which can cause greater vulnerability to bacteria. By avoiding alcohol but still including wound-cleansing ingredients like zinc oxide, silver, and bacitracin, Fauna Care products heal your pets’ wounds without risking that alcohol will irritate them.
Fauna Care’s Active Ingredients
Here’s a rundown of the ingredients we do include in Fauna Care sprays that Vetericyn does not.
1) Zinc Oxide
Zinc oxide is the active ingredient in Fauna Care Zinc Spray. Zinc oxide reduces skin inflammation, prevents bacterial growth, and improves collagen synthesis so that connective tissue can grow more easily (which is especially important for the appearance during later stages of wound healing).
2) Silver
This metal is in Fauna Care Silver Spray. It heals wounds through its anti-microbial properties. As silver ions invade bacteria, bypassing the membranes, they bind to their DNA and prevent them from functioning. Silver has a long history of being used for wound care, from eye infections to wounds and burns and even for medical equipment like catheters.
3) Bacitracin
Bacitracin is the antibiotic in Fauna Care First Aid Spray. Bacitracin is also in Neosporin. This ingredient is especially important if there’s a chance that a virus could have infected your pet’s wound. Topical antibiotics have shown to decrease infection rates, which is ultimately what you’re after when looking for a wound product.
Other Products
Unlike Vetericyn, Fauna Care also offers Anti-fungal Spray for a case of ringworm and a Protect & Condition Spray to keep your pet’s wound moist when it is prone to flaking, or for dry spots, in general, to prevent the skin from cracking and getting infected. This kind of preventative measure for your pet’s well-being goes beyond healing wounds. We focus both on what we put in the bottle to ensure your pet’s fast recovery, but we also want to prevent a wound in the first place.
