Udderly soothing animal ointment a hit with humans

By Reuven Fenton

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - When Barbara Peacock applied a veterinary ointment called Bag Balm to her horse, she always rubbed the excess into her hands.

After noticing that little cuts on her hands started disappearing, she now uses the balm for everything from dry feet to diaper rashes.

Bag Balm, long used by farmers for chaffed cow udders, has become a mainstay health and beauty product for humans. It's been praised by country singer Shania Twain, featured in movies and recommended by dermatologists, cyclists and tattoo artists.

"It works incredibly well," said Peacock, 61, of Castaic, California. "I love it."

Dairy Association Co. Inc. in Lyndonville, Vermont, is manufacturing more than 2 million cans of the balm a year.

"We even had a lady call in and say she used it on squeaky bed springs," said Barbara Allen, 56, president of the company.

Bag Balm, which costs $6.79 online for a 10-ounce can, isn't the first veterinary product that has found its way to medicine cabinets. Mane 'n Tail shampoo, made for horses, was voted best moisturizing shampoo by Cosmo Girl in 2003.

Udderly Smooth udder cream has a line of body lotions, and Hoof Lacquer, a horse hoof polish manufactured by Gena Laboratories, now comes in half-ounce bottles for fingernails.

CAUTIONARY WARNINGS

With animal concoctions so easily available at traditional and online retailers, some cautions apply.

A 1997 article in the monthly journal U.S. Pharmacist cited a case in which an 8-month-old girl started growing breasts. When tests failed to explain the problem, the girl's mother mentioned she used a horse product for the baby's diaper rash.

A physician hypothesized that beeswax in the ointment, which contains estrogen, caused the premature development.

The author of the article, Steven Pray, a pharmacy professor at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, discourages people from using Bag Balm because it is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for animal use only.

"I've heard people say, 'If it's good enough for a cow, it's good enough for me,'" he said. "But we are different physiologically than animals."

That doesn't stop Alan Rockoff, a dermatologist in Brookline, Massachusetts, from recommending Bag Balm for minor conditions such as flaky skin and rashes.