Dealing with mud fever whilst knee deep in snow?

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now_loves_mares

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My horse has a bit of mud fever. They were coming in every night until about 3 days ago clarted in wet mud, so I was hosing it off. I know that it's not recommended, but figured that as the mud was already wet, washing it off was better than leaving it on (it's clay so takes all night to dry if you don't wash it off). She gets it every year but hadn't realised it had got such a hold.

Anyway, now we are over-run with the white stuff, up to the knees in it. On the plus side, her legs are immaculately clean! But I think the cold is a bit nippy on them. Scabs aren't quite ready to come off. Should I just plaster on zinc and castor oil day and night (they are out in the snow all day then in overnight). Or leave legs bare whilst out then cream on once they come in? Also have sudocreme at my disposal.

Have done a search and can't find advice on how to deal with snow-fever ;) Not sure if the cold will be keeping swelling down, or really nipping it. FWIW, she doesn't seem to have redness, just black scabs and a slightly irritated skin.
 
Don't hose the legs off in future when the mud is back, put something like Thermatex leg wraps on which will dry the legs off and you can use your hands to get it off in the morning. Or better still once the mud fever has gone liberally slar your horse with pig oil. The mud will literally slide off overnight and your horse will have clean legs in the morning.

With her having black scabs rather than redness is this definitely mud fever or could it be mites?

If it is mud fever then I would smother the legs with Sudocrem or similar, wrap the legs in cling film with bandage or wraps over the top and leave for a couple of hours or so. You will then be able to gently wipe the scabs away. Until the scabs go it will harbour the bacteria which causes mud fever so it is essential that you get rid of them but don't pick them off or it will make the skin bleed and potentially cause even more harm.

Then I would turn out but with something like Sudocrem or Aromaheel on to ensure there is a barrier between the snow, mud, wet and the legs. Once completely healed up then I would use pig oil as mentioned earlier. Hope this helps.
 
Thanks, I put the baby cream on today so will see how they are when she comes in tonight. It's def mud fever, she gets it every year and she is a thin-skinned un-feathered TB, so doubt it's mites.

I'm afraid though I'm of the "continue to hose" school (unless it's frosty!). I use cold water, not hot, but the muddy clay is thick and gritty by the time she comes in. She's been standing in it for 12 hours all day, I really don't think that running a wet hose over it is going to make it any worse (ie her legs are already filthy wet, think hippo). I'd rather they then dry cleanly so air can get at them. If I leave her to stand all night, she'll have a clay paste around her legs that would likely not be dry by morning. I've never tried the thermatex wraps but can't help but think that the hot humid conditions that would ensue would be even more conducive (sp?) to bacterial infection?

In any case, we have so much snow right now they won't be anywhere near mud. Hopefully it will stay all winter and then I don't have to worry :). Will get some Pig Oil supplies in just in case! But to be honest, I'd challenge anything to stop mud getting at them in my field, it's pretty bad :(
 
We are on clay and when my horses had to be stabled at night we never ever hosed their legs off, just to put the wraps on and their legs were dry the next morning. There were 23 horses at the yard, ours and one pony who lived in 24/7 because of a medical condition were the only ones not to ever have mud fever in the four years that we were there.

Hope all goes well. I can seriously also vouch for the pig oil being fabulous in muddy and boggy conditions, parts of our fields are awful when it is wet.

Can sympathise with the hippo horse, one of mine in particular manages to find wet mud even when the ground is baked rock hard in the summer!
 
We're on clay too, and suffer from mudfever too. Its easy to say "we've never had mud fever for ... years" it come with a horse that carries it - our hunter was getting it when we bought him, and now its in the ground, and the horses that I smugly boasted about not getting it for years get it too...

We have one that is a bit like you described. I've been able to get on top of it a bit this week, with the hard ground, but was worried that a foot of snow would wet it again. I put them out in derby house turnout socks today for two hours, and they came in with pretty dry legs, and some of the scabs came off with the socks -they seem to gently sweat them off..

I too hose the legs off very gently with cold water when they come in on wet days. I understand why you shouldn't wash the legs with hot water, as this opens the pores and can let the grit go into the pores, but I can't see how cold wet clean water is any worse for the legs than cold wet dirty mud with the mud rash bacteria in it.. Nobody has ever posted a scientific reason as to shy cold clean water would be worse. I then gently dry the legs with a towel and then blue roll (like kitchen roll). I'd like to bandage them, but don't like to bandage legs that will swell overnight, so I put deep straw beds to keep the legs warm. I'm thinking of getting some magnetic stable wraps for the nights.

I think that the only real thing to do with a horse that persistantly gets mudrash quite badly is to keep it in most of the time, with turnout for an hour or two in a menage or a turnout paddock (we have one that is grassed over hardcore, so doesn't get muddy). I don't like them being in so much, but two of ours will get lymphangitis if you ignore it. By doing this for the last two years, I've avoided the vets and antibiotics for the past 18 months (fingers crossed!).
 
Honey08 said:
We're on clay too, and suffer from mudfever too. Its easy to say "we've never had mud fever for ... years" it come with a horse that carries it - our hunter was getting it when we bought him, and now its in the ground, and the horses that I smugly boasted about not getting it for years get it too...

We have one that is a bit like you described. I've been able to get on top of it a bit this week, with the hard ground, but was worried that a foot of snow would wet it again. I put them out in derby house turnout socks today for two hours, and they came in with pretty dry legs, and some of the scabs came off with the socks -they seem to gently sweat them off..

I too hose the legs off very gently with cold water when they come in on wet days. I understand why you shouldn't wash the legs with hot water, as this opens the pores and can let the grit go into the pores, but I can't see how cold wet clean water is any worse for the legs than cold wet dirty mud with the mud rash bacteria in it.. Nobody has ever posted a scientific reason as to shy cold clean water would be worse. I then gently dry the legs with a towel and then blue roll (like kitchen roll). I'd like to bandage them, but don't like to bandage legs that will swell overnight, so I put deep straw beds to keep the legs warm. I'm thinking of getting some magnetic stable wraps for the nights.

I think that the only real thing to do with a horse that persistantly gets mudrash quite badly is to keep it in most of the time, with turnout for an hour or two in a menage or a turnout paddock (we have one that is grassed over hardcore, so doesn't get muddy). I don't like them being in so much, but two of ours will get lymphangitis if you ignore it. By doing this for the last two years, I've avoided the vets and antibiotics for the past 18 months (fingers crossed!).
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Thanks both. Yes Honey that's what I mean - don't see how using clean water is worse than the existing muddy water that's on her?

Re blue roll - if we're talking about the same thing, in our house it's known as "Elephant Bog Roll" :D

Just going out to take them back in, so will see what the cream has done to her sparkly white socks <dazzled by the whiteness, hopes the snow never goes away>
 
If it's not clearing up I'd keep her in until it does. even though her legs are not getting muddy, they will be getting wet which will be weakening the skin and slowing down the healing process.

Generally I leave mud on and brush off in the morning... I'm surprised it doesn't dried overnight?

If mus fever is a real problem though I would buy some turnout socks (although you can only put these on once it's cleared up) and turnout in them and see if that helps.

Putting wraps on the legs overnight will help them to dry faster. The longer you can keep the legs dry the quicker it will heal.

ETA Ketatex mud shield powder is good too. It's like a talcum powder and I've found it works well!
 
I think the reason it doesn't dry overnight is the sheer thickness of the mud :(. it can look dry on top, but then if you go to brush it, it's still a bit damp underneath. TBH I wouldn't bother faffing around with the hose otherwise. My default position with all things horse-care is "if in doubt, do nowt". Or something like that! In other words I try to interfere as little as possible.

Anyway the cream is still attached so I guess that means it has withstood the snow (in all honesty, wimpy pone probably stood in the shelter all day!). Head torch had died so couldn't see if any progress in scab-removal, but will replace batteries and check in an hour or so, when she's dried off.
 
Wash them with Nizerol (buy from chemist) and that should kill it off and it also helps remove the scabs. Once clear of scabs then protect with zinc ointment (Zinc & Castor Oil) or Nappy rash cream.
 
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