Mud fever?

[Toodlestoo]

The farrier's working on my new guy, Tubbs, and he has "mud fever" up his front legs. I know this has probably been answered many times but I didn't really pay attention since it didn't pertain to me :innocent: but what do you put on it to get rid of it? The farrier suggested MTG but before I run to Tractor Supply, I thought I'd check with all you experts out there!;)

[WashingtonBay]

I'll leave it to others on just the right potion, I've not treated it myself, but I think you want to clip the hair off too.

[Fork]

Definitely clip the hair and pull out the matted bits. :) I soak it down, pull off the scabs and wash off the area. Then I apply Betadine solution. Many board members suggest making a solution with betadine and water, to the colour of tea. Other members like to spray Listerine, but I haven't tried this myself.

[oursarge]

My horse is allergic to MTG. He fought with the problem for months, the Vet in Vt tried everything and nothing took it away. My vet said he found that sometimes it's caused by Mites so we treated him with Frontline spray and in 3 days it was gone. The next time the Frontline didn't work but I had ordered a salve from England, I think it's called Aromaheel, I used that and it took it right away, no shaving, no picking scabs nothing just slap it on once or twice a day and it was gone in no time and it smells nice too. I had tried other things and nothing else worked and as I said when he was at his other home they tried everything they could think of. I like all the products I have tried from the place in England all except the Tea Tree Oil, that didn't do anything I thought it would. Good luck it's a miserable thing to deal with.

[walkinthewalk]

I never dealt with scratches or rainrot until I moved to the Tennessee Valley five -1/2 years ago. Three of my four horses have been with me for 18-1/2 yrs, 16 yrs, 13 yrs & moved from PA to SoCal and now to Middle Tennessee.

While diet is important (healthy immune systems), I blame 98% of my issues on the environment --- especially since my vet says we live in "allergy purgatory" in our particular area.

I said all that to say that you may end up having to make a "Scratches" folder on your computer to put everyone's recipe's and suggestions in because we all have them - lol lol. What topical works on one horse may not work on another.

Four weeks ago, I found a couple scratches marks on my one Walker that gets scratches at the mere mention of it, so I cut off everyone's fetlock hair, hair down the backs of their legs if they had a lot. Since I was feeling really scissor-happy, I even trimmed the long hair around the coronet bands because the trimmer was coming and I wanted him to have a clear view of the hair/hoof line.

There are varying theories on to pull or not to pull scabs. For my part, if the horse flinches, I leave the scab alone because it is still firmly attached and pulling will cause bleeding, which could lead to infection from mud, fly bites, etc.

I was bathing legs in betadyine-type products until I discovered an all-natural shampoo that controls fleas, ticks, skin allergies on dogs and can most certainly be used on horses.

It is called MalAcetic and can only be bought with a prescription from a vet or if you have a kennel license. They also make wipes. This stuff is fantastic for clearing up ALL of my dogs skin allergies, and clearing up the fungal issues on my horses.

It cost me $92/gallon from the vet, but it only takes a tiny bit because you don't use enough to see it lather (it won't lather). When the scratches and rain rot hit full on during the heat/humidity of our Middle Tennessee summers, I wash legs, butts, tail docks & crest lines weekly if I have too. The Malacetic is very soothing and seems to almost put all my horses in a trance. Even my fidgeter puts his head down and zones out:sleep:

As far as topicals that I use --- they are many and all are OTC for people except for SWAT.

If anyone has any raw spots on them, during the week I will clean them off with some betadyne and make a mix of hemheroid cream (helps with itch & pain), diaper rash cream (zinc oxide + it repels water), and SWAT (repels water & flies, has medicinal properties to it.

I will check those open sores morning and night and repeat the above paragraph 2X/daily if needed --- mainly to keep the flies off the sores. Don't use fly spray and DON'T use MTG on open sores. That sulphur is caustic and can cause a bad reaction if the sores are really open and seeping.

Also a month ago, I have started feeding all four horses 1,000 I.U. people capsules of Vitamin E twice daily. I won't know if I've wasted my money until my scratches season hits full force; again mid-late summer, even though I see some issues now. Vit E is water soluble and dumps what isn't needed from the system, so I'm not worried about causing any harm to them.

I have changed the grain part of my four horses diets three times since we moved here in 2003. I can say that none of that has helped fight off scratches:( I've gone from a "dry" oat/corn based grain to Purina Senior, back to a dry oat/corn based grain and finally to a pelleted rice bran with a pelleted vit/min supplement added. I did that because of my metabolic horse and feeding everyone the same base helps keep things simpler. None of those changes did a thing to improve or worsen my scratches issues.

I'm not sure I've been much help, I tried to color-code the paragraphs so things wouldn't seem to run together.

Scratches can be a big and a bad issue if left unattended on some horses. My friend's horse in WPA ended up getting cellulitis from un-attended scratches and it cost her a huge vet bill and daily hosing him down with cold water. Wasn't her fault, she was on vacation, her adult & very horse experienced niece was the caregiver but didn't look the horse over too well when she came to feed him every day (he ran in/out 24/7). That horse, by the way, only lived half mile from where I used to live but her property is lower and holds more moisture than our did - evidently why I never had any issues.

[Toodlestoo]

Thank you all for responding--especially you Walkinthewalk! That's some great information. I did go out and buy the MTG and rubbed it on him earlier. We've only had him since March 4th and I'm hoping with the good hay, grass and grain we'll have better luck in the future once I get him cleared up. We have nice high dry pastures so mud shouldn't be a problem.

By the way, he's a walker too!

I'm going to bookmark all this info in case the MTG doesn't work.

[FredRock]

Wait, is mud fever the same thing as scratches? If it is then let me know, I used a relatively cheap mixture of products twice a day and it went away. (I would have to look it up, so let me know!)

[Toodlestoo]

Yep, I think it's also called scratches too!

[lovesfortune]

Trying to learn here. Anyone have a picture?

[WashingtonBay]

Scabby, red or rashy looking sores on the lower legs of horses.

http://equiderma.com/images/pastern.jpg

In severe cases the lower leg can also be quite swollen.

[walkinthewalk]

Scabby, red or rashy looking sores on the lower legs of horses.

In severe cases the lower leg can also be quite swollen.

It can also travel all the way up a horse's legs. The sweet face in my Sig is the one that will get scratches, a/k/a Mud fever, all the way up his hind legs.

That is what happened to my friend's horse that had the cellulitis because the scratches were left unattended for a couple weeks while the horse was under her niece's watch:(

[Toodlestoo]

When we got him, he had a big scab on his leg but I thought he got kicked or scratched himself on something. Now, it looks like little bumps up and down his left front mostly but a couple on his right front too. He also has girth gall and I think it's all related. So, I put the MTG on both front legs as well as his belly. Hopefully, this will work. If not, I try the other remedies that were mentioned above.

I'll try to get pictures tomorrow.

[Peggy Sue]

Def clip the hair off... oxygen kills this bacteria!!! I clip the hair bathe with betadine shampoo mist with peroxide on the light based horses .. then apply betadine spray or tto :) I also use MTG on the ones I can

[Toodlestoo]

Is this contagious? I think I'll wash all my brushes, combs, etc. again. I had already cleaned them a month ago. Will Clorox work? To me, Clorox kills everything:)

[Peggy Sue]

Yes it is ... I bleach all stuff used on the infected horse.... it is also something that ALL horses carry on thier skin but we only "see" when two things happen... weaken immune system for some reason and scratch or cut to allow it access

[Toodlestoo]

Peggy Sue--is it a sign of some kind of vitamin, diet or mineral deficiency? Like I said before, we just got him. He seems to be in great shape otherwise. The vet is not scheduled to come out until May for his shots. Is there something I can be giving him in the meantime?

[oursarge]

When I got Rompy and he had it he also had rain rot and was way under weight. I was told his immune system needed to be built up. In Vermont they gave him immune booster shots. I have him on a suppliment. I don't know if all of that is true but that's what I was told that they can't fight it if their immune system isn't strong. Rompy had a rough go of it for awhile and his immune system wasn't great, last winter he lost most of his hair. That was a nightmare. I know it won't help now but you might want to try the stuff from England to have on hand, I couldn't believe how fast that worked, having said that next time I need it then it probably won't work but it took it right away first time and there is no scab pulling or shaving or anything. Rompy has to be sedated to have the scabs pulled so I was looking for something that didn't require that. The Frontline really worked the first time, I guess it depends on what causes it.

This is the website for the stuff from England: http://www.aromesse.com/pages/aromaheel.htm

[Peggy Sue]

The best thing you can do is feed a wellbalancer nutritionally complete diet that covers all the bases...anytime there are def or excesses it effects overall health and immunity.. there are things you can buy to "boost" the immune system but I can't say which work and which ones don't

[Joey A]

Is this contagious? I think I'll wash all my brushes, combs, etc. again. I had already cleaned them a month ago. Will Clorox work? To me, Clorox kills everything:)

Never bleach the skin! I sometimes use bleach on aggressive whiteline cases or thrush, but you must be careful not to get it on the skin. It really does kill everything.... including hair follicles and skin cells.

Remove the scabs, then treat with Blu-Kote. That's my treatment. Corona ointment will soften the scabs overnight and they will pretty much just wipe off. If they're bleeding you need to be more aggressive. Then I'll Wonderdust, and after they stop bleeding, I go back to Blu-Kote.

[Toodlestoo]

Never bleach the skin! I sometimes use bleach on aggressive whiteline cases or thrush, but you must be careful not to get it on the skin. It really does kill everything.... including hair follicles and skin cells.

Remove the scabs, then treat with Blu-Kote. That's my treatment. Corona ointment will soften the scabs overnight and they will pretty much just wipe off. If they're bleeding you need to be more aggressive. Then I'll Wonderdust, and after they stop bleeding, I go back to Blu-Kote.


I meant I was going to Clorox all the brushes, etc. A few scabs fell off this morning and a couple did bleed a tiny bit. I have Blu-Kote so I'll put that on too. What does the Wonderdust do--stop bleeding?

Oursarge--I'm going to order the stuff you got from England. That way I'll be prepared for the next break out if necessary.

[oursarge]

I just checked the site, the price went up but it is worth it if it works. I use their salve and other products and really like them, all but the tea trea oil I wouldn't buy that again. It really helps with hair growth on certain things like bite marks. Rompy is always getting hurt, I sometimes tell him he looks like a walking bottle of salve!

[KittySawrus]

We use that stuff at both my yards :) loads of the liveries got mud fever this year on account of it being so horrendously wet, I think. Unfortuantely many were on box rest for several weeks. So long as you keep it clean and dry and disinfected, that seems to keep it at bay - minor cases, anyhoo. That's what we deal with year in/year out.

[Remali]

I've used Desitin, or Betadine. Both worked good for me. Kara would get it once in a while on her hind pasterns.

[Lynn_70]

I've tried many tx for this also. The best I have found is

1) Vasaline the area, wrap with saran wrap, then vet wrap and leave on overnight. Remove the next am and scabs will be gone or easily slough off. Then apply your topical-- MTG, TTO, Betadine, etc. daily until gone. If the scabs return you have to repeat the 1st step to remove them.
DON"T try to pick them off dry, it's very painful and will make your horse sore and resentful of his legs being handled.

2) when the above didn't work for a severe case, I got a mix of DMSO and Gentamicin from the vet. Apply 4 times daily for 7 days and it worked great.

[Toodlestoo]

Thanks everyone. His legs actually look a lot better today already! Much less bumpy and some scabs fell off. He doesn't seem to be allergic to MTG so I'll stick with it for now.:)

[Lynn_70]

Be careful with using MTG in sunlight. It does cause sun sensitivity quite often- which is why some horses have a reaction to it. It can cause the skin to burn- like applying baby oil to your own skin in the sun. I always apply it in the evening.

[Toodlestoo]

Be careful with using MTG in sunlight. It does cause sun sensitivity quite often- which is why some horses have a reaction to it. It can cause the skin to burn- like applying baby oil to your own skin in the sun. I always apply it in the evening.


Oh, I didn't know this Lynn. I've been putting it on him in the morning and then turning him out. I'll switch to the evening. Thanks for the advice.:)