Mud fever but no mud?

Jingleballs

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Casper has always had mud fever in the time I’ve owned him but the severity of it varies and it’s never really been that bad.

He only really gets it on his front legs and the left is always worse than the right.

I treat it with regular applications of pig oil and sulphur which seems to work although it never fully disappears and he always has a little bit just behind his knees.

With the really cold and snowy weather we’ve had, I hadn’t really applied any for a while – last time was about a month ago when I found quite a sore, raw bit of mud fever so I washed his legs with malaseb, applied flamazine to the affected area and put loads of oil and sulphur on - this seemed to clear it up. I’ve also been applying some of the Muddy Buddy powder into the feathers once a week or so.

I was giving his legs a good examine at the weekend and found a fairly sizeable line of scabs just above his ergot – it’s almost like a little fold in the skin. He doesn’t like it being touched but it’s not raw like before and is actually a solid line of dry, hard scabs.

I’m now wondering if this is mud fever – there’s no mud as all the ground is frozen and his legs are absolutely spotless?

It’s too cold to wash legs just now (minus 10 at night) so I applied a mix of sulphur, sudocreme and tea tree oil to the scabs and then applied a load of oil and sulphur to the legs and I’m hoping this will clear it up.

Anyone else having problems with mud fever just now despite there not being any mud?

Also, someone advised that any type of oil will work as it basically works as a barrier so I’ve been using vegetable oil rather than pig oil as the pig oil is getting so expensive and a 5 litre container barely lasts 2 applications (I have a heavily feathered cob) – does anyone else do this or does it really have to be pig oil?
 
thats alot of oil! i would be worried that maybe to much applications of the oil will soften his skin up to much??
As for having mud fever with no mud, its the bacteria as apposed to the mud. If the bacteria lays dormant and we have had alot of temperature change lately.
Another thought if he is heavily feathered that there is a might problem causing the redness and soreness.
 
This is the way I look at it... Mud fever is actually like human chapped lip - bacteria are secondary. This is why some horses can develop it and others not, when sharing the same field. The key is to keep the legs as dry as possible to prevent further chapping. If you have a secondary infection then this will be needed to be treated in some cases, but in most simply keeping the horse boxed and its legs completely dry for a week can be enough :) Use a nice absorbent, deep bed and any water will be wicked away.

If you do need to wash the mud off your horses legs, make sure they are towelled as dry as possible afterwards :)
 
ah ok - now - disclaimer as it may not work lol! but recently a friends horse has had a lot of trouble with reoccuring MF on her mare's legs - she'd tried everything - and her RI suggested neat hibiscrub diluted by half with baby oil and applied liberally.... and it worked incredibily well
might be worth a try = esp as you can't wash legs in this weather...
 
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