mud fever advice

[pixiebee]

my pony has mud fever on his white sock, its not severe but does look sore. i have been taking the scabs off and keeping the area clean. he is in all the time at the moment (except when being excercised) as the fileds are quite wet. what is the best way to deal with this? last night i used pevidine to loosen the scabs which worked, but i didnt rinse it off as i wasnt sure if i was supposed to or not? do i still need to put vaseline to protect his legs when being ridden(our sandschool is quite waterlogged), i try to hack out as much as possible instead but due to other commitments i can only ride in the school if its dark. my routine normally is to clean with pevidine,dry thoroughly then apply loads of vaseline, ride then wash vaseline off and apply a antibiotic cream...i am worried that the amount of washing im doing is making it worse, but i dont want to ride him out with sores that are going to get muddy or wet and i dont want to leave vaseline on as im sure its trapping in the infection?????????? any idvice??

 

[sorona]

Is your horse turned out all the time or is he stabled at some point?
I wash my boys legs off with an antibacerial, anti fungal shampoo that i got fromt he vets, leave it on for a few mins before I rinse it off thorougly before drying and applying equine mud gaurd which is antibacterial and has tee tree oil in it. That softens the scabs and acts as a barrier. I only do that every 3 days unless i notice any problems and my boys are turned out 24/7. When one of my boys sustained an overeach injury that got mud fever, I did the same thing but kept him in a smaller, drier paddock on his own with shorter grass and it healed up quite quickly.

 

[AlexAndJess]

Wash and dry the leg, then use sudocrem !

 

[Quarrybank]

Wash (don't use anything too harsh or you'll strip the skin of all it's natural oils) & dry the legs and then use udder cream to soften scabs and protect the area thats not affected. Once cleared up use udder cream, but don't wash off. Brush mud off when dry.
I've just had to do that with my piebald. All cleared up nicely now (took about 10days) but I've invested in equichaps which keep the legs free of mud & thus prevent from re-occuring. (you can't use them until it's cleared up though) You can ride in them too if you're worried about hacking. I put my brushing boots over the top as he's a baby!!

 

[sorona]

The boots can only be worn for up to 12 hours though so unless stabled for the other 12, the wet would still be a problem in the field.
Glad to hear the boots work though, do you have the equilibrum ones?

 

[Quarrybank]

They are the equilibrium ones & work really well. I got them off e-bay, so quite a bit cheaper than the shops. My boy is out from about 9am until 5pm so they are perfect for him. He's piebald and has pink skin so very sensitive. I was worried that without them he'd just keep getting it. We're on Essex clay so the fields tend to get quite muddy, especially in the gateways.

 

[AmyMay]

vaseline, vaseline and then more vaseline

 

[igglepiggle]

Keratex Mud Shield powder is a good preventative. I hibiscrub any scabs and then put fungatrol (equine america) on the area afterwards.

 

[Evadiva1514]

Have a look on this website: www.mudfever.net.

I bought a bottle of this stuff a couple of weeks ago as my little yearling filly had a bad bout of mud fever on both of her hind legs. They were incredibly sore and scabby and causing her legs to fill. I gave her a few spritzes on each of her heels every other day for about 5 days and within the last week her scabs have come off with lovely white hair growth underneath and no inflammation. Marvellous stuff!!