As concerns over antibiotic resistance grow, equine veterinarians look for ways to treat wounds without reaching for these powerful drugs. | Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt/The Horse

Debridement

The best way to deal with bacteria is to get rid of them, said Hendrickson, a professor in the Clinical Sciences Department at Colorado State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital, in Fort Collins.

“We have a tendency in veterinary medicine to want to kill the bacteria in situ, but I’m going to encourage you to remove them and throw them away and don’t let the patient have to deal with them at all,” he advised the audience.

Veterinarians can remove bacteria through debridement (removing the affected tissue), of which there are several