Manuka Honey 1 - Mud Fever 0... now to wash or not to wash!!??

Hels_Bells

Hels_Bells

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Thanks so much to everyone who advised me on mud fever for my oldie the other day. I happened upon some manuka honey in our local supermarket and so thought I'd give it a go. It's been 2 days and 2 nights and it has helped loads. Looking so much better, MF has gone from fist sized clumps to just a few scabs still left.

However, I'm now in a dilemma... It's all a bit gunky and bedding and dust from the field etc have got all caught up in the honey and his feathers around it and I'm desperate to give his legs a wash, also then I can see so much better if anywhere else needs treating. But I don't want to upset the apple cart. Do you think if I washed it this evening before he came in then really dried it well, then put some more honey on it would be ok?

If so are there any good shampoos etc to use? I usually use either tee tree shampoo or fairy liquid, but am worried they are a bit strong for his skin which seems very delicate and pink atm. Also, any suggestions on how to build up his skin strength either through feeding or otherwise (problem I have is he has a bit of old age incontinence so I have to put barrier cream (udder cream or similar) on his back legs all the time).
 
Hello, just a note on honey, all honey is hygroscopic as it's an inverted sugar. That means it attracts moisture. That's why it's used on wounds it removes moisture without allowing the wound to dry. All honey has antibacterial properties, put there by the bees so they can store it in the combs without it spoiling. These two properties are exploited when used as a wound dressing. No particular type of honey has an advantage over another. Manuka, clover, oil seed rape makes no difference. Don't believe the hype with Manuka it's just marketing.

Back to your question. You should wash it off with warm water and dry thoroughly. Then remove the loose scabs then reapply honey or use Sudocrem once the honey has absorbed moisture (couple of days) it's useless and needs to be reapplied.


PS Trust me I'm a beekeeper ;)
 
Manuka honey is a complete miracle worker. I had been struggling with mud fever from July last year when the horse came to me. I tried Hibiscrub and Sudocrem and all that did was spread it until she was hopping lame. I got ABs from the vet and that cleared 90% of it but one patch just would not heal. Vet then gave me Flamazine which didn't do anything and then steroid cream which appeared to be working until the day her leg swelled up and was very hot. As a last desperate resort I got some Manuka honey, slapped it on, covered it with gamgee and then Vetwrapped. It took almost 3 weeks to clear it completely but I could see an improvement within a couple of days. I did use gamgee and Vetwrap each time I redressed it though as it would have got disgustingly dirty. I wish I'd used Manuka honey to start with, I could have saved myself over £200 in vet's bills!

Edited to say that I never washed her legs between dressings but in your case I'd use something like tea tree or baby shampoo to clean the legs up first.
 
Glad to hear its working, my wee lad still has some MF lurking on his back legs, will be off to the shops to buy some cheap (thanks for the info lazybee!) honey tonight :-)

When I first spotted the MF it had gotten quite bad, my vet said use Iodine but I never got round to buying any so I've been using Asdas own brand medicated shampoo for washing, worked a treat for softening off the scabs, seemed to help clear it up a bit and didn't irritate.
 
Faithkat said:
Manuka honey is a complete miracle worker. I had been struggling with mud fever from July last year when the horse came to me. I tried Hibiscrub and Sudocrem and all that did was spread it until she was hopping lame. I got ABs from the vet and that cleared 90% of it but one patch just would not heal. Vet then gave me Flamazine which didn't do anything and then steroid cream which appeared to be working until the day her leg swelled up and was very hot. As a last desperate resort I got some Manuka honey, slapped it on, covered it with gamgee and then Vetwrapped. It took almost 3 weeks to clear it completely but I could see an improvement within a couple of days. I did use gamgee and Vetwrap each time I redressed it though as it would have got disgustingly dirty. I wish I'd used Manuka honey to start with, I could have saved myself over £200 in vet's bills!

Edited to say that I never washed her legs between dressings but in your case I'd use something like tea tree or baby shampoo to clean the legs up first.
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If you removed the word manuka from your post I guarantee you would have had the same results. It's only a flower that produces fructose and glucose like all other flowers. The bees certainly treat it no different. The key word is honey not what plant it came from. I glad it worked though.
 
Thanks so much again everyone!!! Funnily enough I just went out to buy some more very local honey (I'm a complete convert now) to try on my headshaker. So instead of shelling out another £10 on manuka, I might just try this on my old boy too. Thanks so so much for the tip lazybee!!!

I washed off this morning and reapplied. It's cleared up a good couple of fist sized clumps down to just a few sporadic scabs now. Also some areas in his feathers that I didn't get to before to work on but it's amazing!! Am also about to put a post out to try to decide how much local honey I should feed to my headshaker in his dinner....
 
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