Mud fever help..

teamsarazara

teamsarazara

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Attached is a picture of a ponys leg at work. She came in around 3 months ago with the worst mud fever I have ever seen. This is how it looks now and has looked for the past few weeks and doesn't seem to be improving. The vet gave me some flamazine but it makes it so much more red and hot. The picture doesn't really do it justice but it is hot and red atm. She is bandaged to go out in the field but otherwise it is left to open air. Has anyone seen something similar? Seem to have hit a brick wall in the healing.. It does just look like a scar but pretty sure it shouldn't be red, hot and weeping..
 
Honestly, I'd be keeping that pony in and unbandaged on a deep straw bed and on a course of injectable antibiotics with regular walks in hand to avoid cellulitis until that scabbed over, cleared up.

I speak from experience . . . Kal had a nasty dose of "mud fever" back in Sep/Oct which took months to shift and only really went when I kept him and stopped bandaging, slathering cream on.

Good luck.

P
 
She has just finished a course of antibiotics... She is unbandaged in stable. We used lots of cream to get her just to this stage but doesn't seem to be doing anything now.. I haven't actually but will try!
 
he looks like my lad the flesh just fell of his legs it was horrifying, i tried box rest and creams and hibiscrub washing for a couple of weeks and they jsut got worse so was a vet job he had 2weeks antibiotics cleaned and dried the legs with warm water and hibiscrub then left dry and on deep straw bed applying fuciderm gel twice a day every day he also had some liquid stuff in his feed for these 2 weeks, he still wasn't much better so vet but him on injectable steroids for 10days and continued with the fuciderm finall had some improvement but still werent done in all he had 6 weeks fo box rest walked out as often as i could usually 3 times a day was having to dash in my lunch break just to give him an extra 20min. onces the scabs were no longer nodular and wobbly but more flat to the skin i started using the equi chaps close contact boots and slowly turning him out for longer and longer then at night applying althletes foot cream to the reamining scabs to try get rid of them he still use the boots on wet days for turnout and the kerratex mud sheild powder on dryer days am 3months in now hair is growing back but he still has a few scabs that are slowly dissapearing. i think keeping them dry as possible is vital the boots and the kerratex are wonderful but would not ocnsider booting till legs have heald cosiderably as dont want to rub and make it worse while there still open. definetly will need antibiotics and steroids from your vet looking at those pics hes almost as bad as my lad was and none of the magic potions worked for such a severe case. i was at my wits end nothing seemed to work but we are finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel. i have also changed his diet to hopefully prevent it ever coming back and am feeding pro-balance for the copper and zinc / also for his hooves as he is barefoot and micronizerd linseed to help improve the quality of his skin to toughen it against a repeat attack.
 
teamsarazara said:
She has just finished a course of antibiotics... She is unbandaged in stable. We used lots of cream to get her just to this stage but doesn't seem to be doing anything now.. I haven't actually but will try!
Click to expand...

Oral or injectable antibiotics? We tried two rounds of oral before I insisted we give him something different/stronger to shift it . . .

Also, as stated before, I'd be keeping her in until this clears up as that's the only way you can keep that clean (or cleaner than if she's out). No washing, no cream, no bandaging . . . something to shift the systemic infection lurking and then good old fashioned fresh air to give that skin a chance to dry and heal.

P
 
If you can i would keep her in and allow it to dry out it might be the cream and bandageing keeping it moist therefore stopping healingyou may need some antibiotics. if you can't keep her in is there a sand school or something she can be turned out in ?


Good luck :)
 
Hi , I would def leave legs open to the air as much as poss . Ive used IV Horse ( Four Horse ) MFP which is brill . Its lanolin , liquid paraffin and tea tree ... excellent excellent excellent . Its natural so less likely to cause any problems. The lanolin and liquid paraffin keep the scabs soft and the skin supple and the tea tree helps with the bugs etc and its breathable . Do search it out and give it a go.
 
I swear by kerratex!! Great stuff but haven't heard of fucigerm.. To start she had oral but has just finished a course of injectable. Yes we have a sand school but it doesn't have fencing round it lol... She has a bit of a stiff knee so she is better to be out and moving, otherwise I'd keep her in. She is 24 so not young!
 
Feed for skin condition as well, my elderly cob has always suffered mud fever. Last summer he started on msm (main ingredient in mud warrior supplement)
For the first time in the 18 years I've had him he's come through winter without mud fever - & its the muddiest wettest winter ever.
 
I had same problem with my mare on her one white sock, went almost up to her hock!

h-1_zps8df850c2.jpg


After spending hundreds of ££ on numerous vet visits, 3 different antibiotics, every type of steroid cream, mud fever cream etc nothing shifted it! Weeks of box rest was making her leg swell, eventually giving her cellulitis, was oozing all kinds of gunk!! So I lathered in sudocrem, tubigrib over the top, turnout boot and chucked out in the field, 24 hours later, huge improvement, repeated for 1 week leaving for up to 48 hours at a time and finally after 3 months was almost gone and all hair started growing back, unfortunatley had her put down due to Kissing spines but i had got ontop of her mud fever!!
 
I swear by a product i use. I'm actually now using it on my guinea pig successfully too (not thats its for that, but its working).

I always used aromaheel for years (good stuff). But then last year i had a massive issue with my gelding and couldnt shift the mud fever. It was gunky, weeping and sore. I spoke to the vet and tried various things from other people on the yard, as well as spending over £100 out my pocket on this and that.

This is what worked:

http://www.pioneerpersonalcare.com/Equine-Care-Mud-Scab-Balm(258651).htm

You also need to get

http://www.pioneerpersonalcare.com/Pioneer-Herbal-Liquid-Soap(2644329).htm

You basically use the soap first (instructions on the site). No picking of scabs required. This tackles fungal infections (which mud fever CAN be as well). The soap has many other uses so i always keep it in.

You then use the mud fever balm after. Get the runny one in the bottle, easier than using fingers to apply.

I know not why this works, but it did for me. I did it twice a day whilst it was bad and then once a day when it was looking better. I also left him out (dryish) because i couldnt really stable.
 
I'd really get that checked out to rule out Leukocytoclastic Vasculitus (UV Photosensitivity) on white legs if they are getting weepy scabs. I treated ours for mudfever for ages before it was diagnosed as LV and if it is LV then you would need to keep all UV light off which might be why your treatments are not working
 
Thanks I am going to have a big research tonight... Have a limited budget as my boss is stingey lol. I know this might make me sound like an idiot but is uv from the sun? As no offence but we don't see much of that lol!! And we don't really have lights on in the yard :s and legs are bandaged in field so sun can't really get to them?
 
Yes UV is from the sun even in cloudy conditions but the problem can be made worse by snow or yellow plants as the light reflects off (we had a massive flare up after riding her out in snow unbandaged pre diagnosis) . If you have been bandaging whilst outside then if it is LV then it would help but any exposure to sunlight can make it flare up. Weird but annoyingly true as I am fed up of washing boots and bandages as she has to be covered whenever outside.
 
P.s. artificial light is not an issue, only sunlight and vets think initial triggering of the condition is due to buttercups in her previous owners field which once triggered is made worse by any UV light as the immune system goes into overdrive hence the scabs, pink skin and swelling. It can also be a sign of liver damage.
 
There are so many mud fever threads!! And it is caused by the same fungus as rain scald - dermatophilus!! IMO there are a number of different strains which is why some treatments work and some don't!! I have found a 2 pronged attack works well - feeding extra copper and sulphur helps enormously and if fed before will prevent an attack....once the skin is compromised a 50/50 mixture of black wound powder and flowers of sulphur puffed on 2ce a day for 3 days, then 1ce a day for 3 days works. The dew/rain after that will soften and wash off the scabs....leaving nice clean new pink skin!! Mud fever especially can be very painful for the horse and puffing on the powder doesn't hurt them and they soon learn to accept it, unlike trying to remove scabs which are trying to protect the developing skin.....in the event of an infection (which is an added problem, not the same one!) the treatment should be internal abs....This information is from my experience, not from any experiments!!
 
There's a new treatment made by EquiMedAg Ltd. it's a bandage and also a boot impregnated with carbon and nano silver particals they seem to have done quite a lot of testing and trials on severe mud fever and the results look very promising. They advertised the product in the March/April BHS magazine. Might be worth a look?? Hope you get it sorted soon its an awful thing.
 
One of mine looked like this last autumn, and had antibiotics and every sort of regime from hibiscrub, flamizine (made it worse and very sore), Lincoln products, sudocrem, vet's own creams, etc. What finally worked was baby oil and flowers of sulphur, slathered on and reapplied every couple of days at first. Each new application massaged off some of the oil-softened scabs. The flowers of sulphur killed the bugs. It took a few weeks to clear completely, but it was easy, painless, and the initial improvement was very quick as the oil stops the scabs hardening and cracking and weeping, so much less painful for pony.

It's also very cheap - superdrug baby oil and a bag of flowers of sulphur from these people:

http://www.naturalhorsesupplies.co.uk/p/product/0803205361-Flowers+of+Sulphur+450g+%A3499/

Once you are on top of it, you only need reapply about once a week.
 
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