Compromised immune system

[Weesielou]

Hello, sorry this is quite long but my horse has suffered with skin problems such as mud fever and cellulitis for the last few years since being at the yard we are at now, however we love the yard and are both very settled, I tried moving her to another yard where her skin did clear up a bit but she didn't cope at all and ended up moving her back but then suffered worse than ever in the last winter with her skin and could hardly go out. I now have the chance to move to another yard where the facilities are better suited to managing her winter routine if she needs to stay in for the winter if she is going to suffer this problem regardless of where she is. I don't really feel like I'm getting anywhere with my vet in terms of whether they think it could be because of something at the yard we are at or whether she will suffer wherever she is all they are saying is that she has a compromised immune system and to try and boost her with a multi vitamin but she is already on one. Has anyone else had a similar problem to this and did you find any treatments worked? Or have you been in a similar situation and found moving the horse from the current environment has helped? Thank you

 

[OrangeAndLemon]

I think I'd be trying another vet.

Maybe if you could say which area you're in someone might be able to recommend another vet.

Without knowing the cause of the illness it's hard to know if a move will be good or bad for her.

 

[fairhill]

What was different at the yard you moved to when her skin cleared up?

I moved mine last October after a series of issues with my sensitive mare. She went from herd turnout to her own field so that I could manage her grass intake myself.
I had to remove all feed, apart from grass and hay.
She lives out 24/7 now and her skin was fine all winter, first time I hadn’t got scabs and sores to deal with. Or abscesses or lymphangitis...

I gave her echinacea supplement for a while and aloe Vera juice, but to be honest they made very little difference.
She was too fat, and reacting to feed so once she’d been removed from the rich grazing, lost some weight and I stopped feeding she was loads better.
She is still reacting to things - I tried giving her carrots in the spring and she started with lumps and scurf again, even with half a carrot a day, so now she gets the occasional spring of mint as a treat.

 

[Weesielou]

I'm going to arrange another vet to come for a second opinion ☺ however I'm meant to moving yards on Saturday and having massive cold feet after the last time was so bad and in case it's not right for her. We're in the north and all of our land up here is high in iron however where I'm at now we're fields that we're open cast and I wonder if that contributes to the deep mud and the mineral imbalances.

Fairhill we also suffer with lymphangitis 😞 and then swollen legs in general from standing in all winter, however the vet said because my horse is part draft that they are just prone to these swellings and to bandage which I do, however my horse is also over weight as can't ride her for one thing after another which has basically been the same for last few years, we get going and start to fitten up then something else happens and she's off work again 😞 do you think the move helped your horse or is it more that she's out 24/7? Do you feed anything to boost her immune system?

 

[JillA]

Sounds to me as though the difference could be soil types and mineral imbalance, possibly vitamin E. Maybe have a chat to Sarah or one of her people at Forageplus, they may suggest something you could supplement with to rebalance (might need a soil sample to know what is deficient).
https://forageplus.co.uk/

 

[Gloi]

We had one with various skin problems and it was the result of Cushings. Might be worth a test.

 

[cundlegreen]

There is a lady on FB homeopathy for horses. Dorothy McCreadie. I've used her a couple of times for remedies which have worked very well. I've found mud fever is a constitutional thing. My eventer gets it at the start of an event season despite having black legs. The pills I got, although fiddly to give, made a difference very quickly.

 

[Weesielou]

She has been tested for cushings and it was negative. The mud where we are at currently is very deep and not just limited to the gateways so I wondered if that was contributing , even in the summer there are horses suffering with it/dermatitis so just not sure if it could be environmental in which case I would move to see if it improves or whether she will have regardless so wouldn't be worth moving and upsetting her. It's frustrating that the vet said she has compromised immune system but then isn't giving me any idea what could cause it I.e bad forage, something in the land, something that is I'm my horses genetics etc and I just don't know what to do for the best for her. Unfortunately she is very fussy when it comes to feed so finding it difficult to get any supplements in to help at current yard

 

[eggs]

Has she been tested for Lyme's disease?

My friend had a horse who looked to have a compromised immune system and it turned out to be Lymes.

 

[Weesielou]

No I didn't even know that could be a cause! Thank you, I will mention it to my vet and ask if they can test her , so I suppose if it was something like that it's probably not worth the move to a new place for her

 

[fairhill]

Fairhill we also suffer with lymphangitis �� and then swollen legs in general from standing in all winter, however the vet said because my horse is part draft that they are just prone to these swellings and to bandage which I do, however my horse is also over weight as can't ride her for one thing after another which has basically been the same for last few years, we get going and start to fitten up then something else happens and she's off work again �� do you think the move helped your horse or is it more that she's out 24/7? Do you feed anything to boost her immune system?

She was out 24/7 in the summer on previous yard, but they fertilised the fields and the grazing was very rich.

She started improving before I moved once i’d figured out some of the triggers (alfalfa and soya were the 2 biggies). I gave her all sorts of skin supplements, vitamins, herbs etc. And it was only when I stopped everything (including linseed) that she really started to get better.

I had her on simple system Timothy chop and grass nuts last winter, but this winter she won’t be getting anything as she has done too well over summer, even with the drought.

She had damaged both ddft in front feet so I moved to somewhere cheaper with less facilities as I thought she wouldn’t be ridden again. The farmer keeps offering to fertilise the field but i am resisting! She has come sound again so we potter out occasionally.

She is barefoot, had no thrush or abscesses in the last year, got a shiner coat again and is happy in herself. She had a sarcoid under her armpit that has cleared up. Legs are not swollen at all, but that is because she has the choice to move more. She still mostly stands, but that’s her choice.

I was in a similar cycle, she would be lame so I stopped riding and giving her a feed, she’d come sound, I’d feed, she’d go lame etc. Took me 2 long years to figure it all out... vet suggested testing for cushings but agreed there was little point as she’d probably react to the prascend. I was very close to pts last year, and she probably would have been if a place hadn’t come available on my current yard.

 

[Weesielou]

She was out 24/7 in the summer on previous yard, but they fertilised the fields and the grazing was very rich.

She started improving before I moved once i’d figured out some of the triggers (alfalfa and soya were the 2 biggies). I gave her all sorts of skin supplements, vitamins, herbs etc. And it was only when I stopped everything (including linseed) that she really started to get better.

I had her on simple system Timothy chop and grass nuts last winter, but this winter she won’t be getting anything as she has done too well over summer, even with the drought.

She had damaged both ddft in front feet so I moved to somewhere cheaper with less facilities as I thought she wouldn’t be ridden again. The farmer keeps offering to fertilise the field but i am resisting! She has come sound again so we potter out occasionally.

She is barefoot, had no thrush or abscesses in the last year, got a shiner coat again and is happy in herself. She had a sarcoid under her armpit that has cleared up. Legs are not swollen at all, but that is because she has the choice to move more. She still mostly stands, but that’s her choice.

I was in a similar cycle, she would be lame so I stopped riding and giving her a feed, she’d come sound, I’d feed, she’d go lame etc. Took me 2 long years to figure it all out... vet suggested testing for cushings but agreed there was little point as she’d probably react to the prascend. I was very close to pts last year, and she probably would have been if a place hadn’t come available on my current yard.

I feel like I'm in the same boat as you!! Although not quite as bad as PTS is a long way off for me thank god as she is only 8, but we are no where near as bad as your mare but cycle is the same with the coming right then lame then right then infected somewhere and now funnily enough my vet has said he thinks she has a Sarcoid now as well as the other skin issues. I struggle getting her to eat supplements so now she just has a cup of low cal balancer, Thunderbrooks muesli , turmeric, fennel and salt but no change yet but I think it will take a while to notice any changes but then if I move yards and she copes better then I would do but I suppose it's the not knowing and not knowing if we will both settle and it's more expensive so that's a worry but would do it if it's right for her.

 

[fairhill]

i would honestly try stopping all feeds for at least 3 weeks and see how she is. Lo-cal balancer made my mares heels scab and bleed....
Good luck!

 

[Weesielou]

Sounds to me as though the difference could be soil types and mineral imbalance, possibly vitamin E. Maybe have a chat to Sarah or one of her people at Forageplus, they may suggest something you could supplement with to rebalance (might need a soil sample to know what is deficient).
https://forageplus.co.uk/

Yeah we're thinking along those lines as all the horses seem to be suffering with problems such as poor feet, ulcers and quite a few get mud fever but none to the extent of my mare 😞 the problem I also have is getting my mare to eat any supplements to balance out any imbalance which is why I'm considering a move to another yard as they aren't on mining land so perhaps their land isn't so out of balance as ours but then again perhaps it's my horse and this will happen anywhere but it never happened before we moved to our current yard but she is older now and wondered whether that has any affect on whether they can become more sensitive etc

 

[JillA]

Yeah we're thinking along those lines as all the horses seem to be suffering with problems such as poor feet, ulcers and quite a few get mud fever but none to the extent of my mare �� the problem I also have is getting my mare to eat any supplements to balance out any imbalance which is why I'm considering a move to another yard as they aren't on mining land so perhaps their land isn't so out of balance as ours but then again perhaps it's my horse and this will happen anywhere but it never happened before we moved to our current yard but she is older now and wondered whether that has any affect on whether they can become more sensitive etc

Some horses are more affected by deficiencies than others - mine was a nightmare due to magnesium deficiency but none of the others on my land were affected. And bran is a good carrier for supplements - most horses love it and you can damp it to stop the supplements dropping out