Greasy heel???

[Box_Of_Frogs]

My YO spotted this on my horse today as he was standing with his bum to us and trying to scratch his heels. In the past, when I've seen him doing this, I assumed it was feather mites and he's had the double dectomax injection. I've just been googling greasy heel and all sources seem to say it's the same as mud fever. But when I had a good look at Sunny, it's nothing like the cracked and scabby sore skin that you get with mud fever. The skin and hair round his heels is covered in what looks like tiny white lumps. They are crumbly and when you pick them off the skin or tease them out of the hair, there doesn't seem to be any sore or bleeding skin underneath. YO advises taking a very fine toothed comb to his heels and combing it all out, then hibiscrub and apply a barrier cream. Anyone know what this is and if I'm treating it right?

 

[Skilgariff]

It does sound as if he has mites though if he is scratching. As far as greasy heel goes my mare gets it behind her knee. I brush as much out as possible and then apply pig oil into her skin and this keeps skin soft and stops the build up of the grease which is the white crumbly bits i think. Pig oil is great for the feathers and acts as a good barrier for mud. Someone recently told me that a vet said it can burn the skin. Nothing like that ahs happenend to any of the people I know that have used it but maybe do a patch test first.If you search for pig oil onthis forum you will find other entries for it.

 

[hairycob]

Anothervote for pig ol & sulphur. The hairy one gets this & had a nasty bout of pastern dermatitis that put him out of work for a few weeks in the spring Since then I have religiously being using the PO & S & it's keeping it at bay. Also it's much easier to get burrs out of feathers if you have been using PO as I discovered yesterday!

 

[brucea]

Just a tip for mud fever - the Keratex Mud Guard applied to clean, dry legs is pretty good. Problems with the oils and creams/ointments is that they attract grit and dirt and get claggy - the dry waxy Keratex mud guard is pretty good.

 

[Theresa_F]

Though (touch wood) none of mine have had problems with mites since I have been a dedicated user of P&S, Cairo used to get what you describe in a two places on the back of his legs which flared up from time to time no matter what I did. He had a compromised immune system and I think this may have been why he was the only one I had to be ultra careful with.

They were greasy lumps which crumbled away and left little white lumps in the hair and as long as I was quick to treat, did not turn into sore bleeding areas. The lumps in the hair are not a problem, just comb them out but if you dont' get them all, don't worry.

What I did when they flared up was to mix a tablespoon of sudocream with a teaspoon of sulphur and 5 drops of teatree oil together and apply to the greasy/scabby area and leave to soak. Did the same each day and gently rubbed the area to remove the lumps. At the end of the week rinsed with hibiscrub and warm water to remove all the built up goo. Don't pick too hard or they will go sore and bleed.

Began process again after cleaning them up - normally gone within two weeks.

If it was not too bad, I simply soaked the area with plenty of P&S to soften the crust and rub them.

In summer months, every couple of weeks, I wet down legs and them rub a few handsfuls of sulphur into the skin, taking particular care with heels and backs of the leg - this kills off any critters and also helps prevent greasy heel. When it turns wet, I then use pig oil and sulphur and don't wash out unless I am going showing until the field is dry again in spring.

If you want the very long PM I do about hairy horses and using P&S, let me know and I will send it to you.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Theresa, that's marvellous! Thankyou! I was struggling to match the lack of sore/crusty skin with the link to mud fever or mites. I'll PM you coz not sure where I get sulphur from x