Horse has mud fever!! Help!

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Mlini

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I recentley bought a horse, he had sore heels from where overreach boots have rubbed..

Within the 6 days I have had him this has developed into mud fever! :( He has four white legs!!

It is very sore and scabby on both back legs (one is worse than the other)
The worst affected leg has swollen just above the fetlock! And he is slightly lame on it...

Do I just carry on treating this myself or is it best to call a vet? (I have NEVER dealt with mud fever before, so slightly stressed about it)

And in everyone elses experience; what is best to treat it?
 
It is probably infected and may need anti biotics to get rid of it ,I would get the vet as wouldnt want to have it going into the winter when it can only get worse.
 
Vet!

If it started from a rub it could be going systemic and turning into cellulitis.

Re mud fever - there are many remedies. Cutting out molasess helps and then it is a case of softening the scabs with a cream and cling film overnight, then massaging them off (the bacteria hides behind the scabs) and then putting more cream on to disinfect.

My personal choice is coconut oil rubbed on - it's something i have around the house (for dry skin, cooking oil, health supplement etc) and it's anti bacterial, anti viral and anti fungal so it kills any bugs without damaging the skin.
 
My horse is so thin skinned he gets mud fever from anything, he has it atm from sun burn!! I use Antiseptic Acriflex (the one in the red box, NOT the blue) It's a burns cream that you can buy from a chemist (I get mine from Asda), it's about £3.something for a 30g tube, okay it does make white socks a little bit yellow but it got rid of Red's in about 2 weeks. It may be worth getting your vet out, I know a lot of people ask their vets for Flamazine cream, apparently this works really well but I don't fancy paying £60 for a tube just as big!

Acriflex is just designed to heal infected cracked skin which is exactly what mud fever is! I don't even bother washing his legs, just let them dry if they're wet, then just rub a little bit of acriflex onto the scab, picking the loose bits off. He stopped stamping his feet immediately as it stopped the itching and it's never been easier to control :) good luck with it!! x
 
one of the liveries on my yard has what looks like mud fever, even though we dont have any mud, think its photosenitivity :-/ any way my old TB used to suffer terribly with it, it used to get really sore and nothing seemed to work except camrosa, i know allot of people dont like it but i swear by it, but you must read and follow instructions, if it is infected, probably best not to use it untill its cleared up.
After using it on his legs twice a day for about 7/10 day it cleared up and never came back. :-)
 
I'm pretty sure it's mud fever :( He's a very thin skinned TB with white legs..

I'll get the vet out today and let you know what happens!! Thanks for all the advice everyone :)
 
The very best thing for mud fever is Nizoral shampoo - you can buy it from the chemist.

Dilute with hand hot water and lather up well working well into the skin of the affected area and also well beyond too so that it doesn't spread around the leg.

There is no need to poultice, wrap with cling film and all the other intensive treatments. Nizoral works so well that it often only needs to be used once.

There is no need to rinse it just allow it to dry.

It's also important to prevent it by improving copper and zinc levels in the horse by feeding a supplement that contains these trace elements.
 
after years of trying this idea or that idea. i have found the best thing to help is a mixture of udder cream and sulphur. you just add enough to make the cream go slightly off yellow as in very pale. if i have a flair up i wash once with iodine solution (surgical scrub not with alcholol) i then rub this cream into the infected area. it will go within a week, to keep it at bay i rub a bit in 2-3 times a week.

do not wash the legs too much as this can agrivate it. during the winter i use a barrier cream for mud, i brush the dry mud off and only wash the hoofs if they need it.
 
Our little Welshie has mudfever at the moment. He has 4 white legs and had it pretty badly on both fronts. I had been treating it with sudocrem but it wasn't clearing so called the vet out last Thursday. He gave us a tub of cream that they made up themselves, like aqueous cream with antibiotic and steroid in it. It cost about £60 but it was well worth it, within 2 days it had softened the scabs enough to remove them all and the mudfever was so much better, he was clearly much more comfy and by Tuesday was able to go off to PC camp with no probs. I'm still applying the cream but the mudfever is nearly all gone and there's tons left in the pot so will be able to keep it to use again if her gets in in the winter.
 
I rang the vet and he advised to hibiscrub and then thoroughly dry it; and turn him out in a field with short grass (his normal one has lots of long grass) during the day to keep the swelling down by moving about. I was told not to put any creams on so that the skin can breathe.

I have been washing it twice a day and thankfully it is getting better already! The swelling has gone down so hopefully in a couple of days he will be all fixed!! :D

Thanks for all your advice!
 
I hope he is better soon! I had amazing success with activon medical grade manuka honey which is quite cheap on eBay! Prior to that I'd also had great results from sulphur powder and udder cream. Good luck I hope it clears up v soon!
 
Could be sunburn,particulary pink skin under white hair is suseptible, you could try bandaging the area and keeping it out of the sun and see if it makes a difference, I would try the vet though. Beware my horse suffered with sunburn the first year we had her which was first diagnosed by vet as mudfever! She suffered needlessly for a few days due to misdiagnosis so think for your horse too, you know them better than anyone else. Gd luck
 
ticobay831 said:
one of the liveries on my yard has what looks like mud fever, even though we dont have any mud, think its photosenitivity :-/ any way my old TB used to suffer terribly with it, it used to get really sore and nothing seemed to work except camrosa, i know allot of people dont like it but i swear by it, but you must read and follow instructions, if it is infected, probably best not to use it untill its cleared up.
After using it on his legs twice a day for about 7/10 day it cleared up and never came back. :-)
Click to expand...

You're right!! At the weekend he got it on his nose too.. I thought it was sunburn to start with but then read an article in a magazine about Photosensitivity!!

The field he was originally in had a lot of clover in - apparantly this can cause photosensitivity! (along with being in the sun and having sensitive skin) I have moved him into a field with no clover and there is a field shelter in there too so he can get out of the sun.

Since I have been washing it with hibiscrub the swelling has gone down and he isn't lame anymore but still has scabby heels!

Should I keep washing the scabs off or leave them to fall off when they are ready?? There is no infection anymore - just scabs!
 
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