Mud Fever - what worked for you when nothing else had ?

[maginn]

My horse developed a small patch of mud fever in very dry conditions in September. Despite my best efforts it has spread like mad, is very sore and nothing seems to be doing any good.

I have had the vet out twice and am due my third visit later today so that I can dope my mare so that I can fully clip the area and get all the scabs off. If vet agrees will prob get anibiotics as well. But what to put on it ?

I have tried the following:
Sudocream
Heel to hoof
Honey heel
Fungatrol
Flamazine
Fuciderm
Aromaheel (best so far)

Have kept washing to a min and used coatex shampoo which has a less drying effect than hibiscrub, but still anti bacterial and is esp for skin conditions so should not dry it out.

Although I can get most of the scabs off when I shampoo they reform around the edge of the area(s) overnight. The scab just seems to spread outwards. And where the scabs have cleared the skin is very pink and sore and does not seem to be recovering.

My horse does not tollerate this well and is mighty fed up of me messing about with it. Which is fair enough bless her. But it does make it very difficult to treat without getting my head kicked in...!

Has anyone had a really persistant case that they managed to clear up. If so what did you do/use ?

 

[alsxx]

I started feeding aloe vera juice and a week later it started healing. I'd spent about 2 months trying to get rid of it (in dry conditions as well), including having the vet out costing me £90!

 

[AmyMay]

Has your vet given you any topical lotion or cream for the MF??

Flamazine is brilliant, and worked really well for my horse when he developed it the first winter that I had it. Touch wood never had it since, but I am pretty dilligent now in ensuring his legs are greesed up before turning out.


.

 

[maginn]

Sorry forgot to mention am already feeding Aloe Vera juice. Been on it about a week. Was unsure how much to feed though, been giving 3 capfuls in eve feed. Got Holland & Barratt stuff.

 

[Rana]

QR

Looks like you've tried everything which has worked for me in the past

Are you applying the cream after shampooing? Or using the cream in the morning and shampooing in the evening (for example - don't know your routine!).

What worked for me this year, was to wash the area with diluted hibiscrub, leave to dry, then put cream on straight away. I did this twice a day, as she was living out at the time. It might seem like I was washing her legs too often, but the scabs would reappear in approx 10-12 hours, so twice a day actually worked well and did clear it up within 10 days.

Sudocrem worked this year, Heel to Hoof last year. Have also had E45 recommended to me - won't help with the scabs, but may help the skin. Also found Fuciderm to be pretty much useless. Bring back Dermobion - worked a treat!

 

[kick_On]

can i ask what management is your horse having - Where and your horse being turn out?? are you using bandages/boots all the time

As i've found in pass it's a combination of factors which can make mud fever go away -drugs plus enivirnoment

 

[alsxx]

I didn't see any difference for about a week and a few days and then all of a sudden it started reducing before my eyes. I used the holland and barrett stuff too. Could of course be a pure conincidence, but I'd tried everything and was having no luck.

 

[Officecat]

Ruggle-it which is an oil and shampoo (all natural - no chemicals) did the trick for my friend's horse. It is also very good for lots of other problems that horses can get. Website is www.karenruggles.co.uk

 

[Gillb]

I've been struggling with a small amount of persistent mudfever on my Welsh cob's heels. Like you I had tried so many things.
However we are now winning with pig oil and sulphur mix. I am bringing her in to a dry surface overnight (normally lives out) then applying the oil every morning when she goes out, without any further washing or brushing.

You can buy the ready mixed oil on Ebay in 5 ltre containers. Hope that helps.

 

[fatpiggy]

Keratex mud fever powder applied liberally and rubbed right to the roots of the fur, then loads of barrier cream (udder cream) slathered on top. Never fails me.

 

[RuthnMeg]

Manuka Honey
Get the strongest grade - works wonders. You can pick it up from health food shops. (Can be quite expensive, but worth every penny!)

 

[_HP_]

A change of field could help. The bacteria is in the soil so if you could turn your horse out in a different field/different soil you may be able to get on top of it

My pony get rainscald and a friends mare gets mudfever in a certain field but not in any others.

 

[ITPersonnage]

My chesnut mare had what we thought was mud fever but was treated with Prednisolone (steroid) tablets - our vet prescribed them - he thought it was a problem with her immune system (sorry can't remember the name of the condition). This worked like a treat and cleared it up completely. I will try t o look back at the insurance claim paperwork for the condition. She got it on her white leg (but I guess that's common in mud fever as well). You just add the tablets to her feed & the shampooing/hibiscrubbing eventually starts getting easier !!

I really hope this is what your horse has as it's so easy to treat, I remember going through the kick/wash cycle for what seems like forever...not pleasant for any party !

 

[sheeniebee]

Best thing i have used is to thoroughly clean area with diluted hibiscrub and leave to dry in stable or use warm (not hot!) hairdrier (if horse laid back sort!) . Then smear on lots of flamazine rubbing it well in to flesh and round scabs. this is human burn cream with antibiotics and silver in it. Wrap in clingfilm then bandage. Keep out of mud for day or two - it works wonders!! Repeat if needed - depends on healing of horse but mine only needed it doing once or twice to heal completely. Best to avoid mud though or limit time in it. Good Luck!!

 

[DiamondSR]

I had a mare on loan a few years ago with terrible mud fever - couldn't bring her in as no stabling and the horses were up to their knees in mud most of the time.

Finally conquered it by keeping her legs clipped (she was a feathery type), shampooing with hibiscrub, drying off then applying zinc and castor oil cream which I found to be the best barrier cream.

 

[Lucy_Nottingham]

I know you have said you have tried to keep bathing to a minimum.
DON'T! The coatex is a drug treatment! It should be done everyday if possible. It just means you have to dry the legs afterwards before turning her out, or releasing her into her normal environment.
What would be ideal would be remove scabs, wash with coatex, dry, then apply an antibacteiral cream, or even just an antibiotic paste to the affected area.

MF is something you have to treat every day or else it will not go away. and everytime you are going to apply treatment (whether shampoo or paste or whatever) you HAVE TO HAVE TO HAVE TO pick the scabs off (and yes she will prob hate you whilst you do it! the fuciderm gel however is very good at softening scabs, or if you wet her legs first this will soften them as well to help pick them off, bot combs/knives are good at getting them off too, especially if like me you bite your nails and are therefore useless at picking scabs off!

hehe) )

Hope this helps some, sorry nothing seems to be working.
Once it is cleared up, barrier cream/udder cream and boots on her when turned out is gonna be the way forward

My mare is currently having probs with it, and is clearing up nicely, but it is a pain in the butt, so feeling your pain!

 

[sport horse]

Are you quite sure it is mud fever? We had several horses last year that were diagnosed by us and our vet as 'mud fever' and despite all our efforts failed to clear up and spread as you seem to say into a circle spreading outwards. One horse in particular it spread all over her white socks - it was very painful (more than normal for mud fever) and I felt when I tried to pick the scabs off that they were not quite like usual mud fever - there was no pussy bit underneath and they seemed to be hard and almost connected through the skin.
Without boring you with why and how we eventually heard that we might have a type of mite not mud fever - we are not talking about feathered cobs or shires but stabled sport horses and brood mares. My vet gave them all two doses of Dectomax, a cattle and sheep wormer not licensed in horses but she had heard about its use at a vet conference. Hey Presto all gone and so far none this year

 

[Bugly]

My horse got phytosensitis this summer which has mud fever like symptoms. As your horse has had the fever since September it might be worth investigating if its something like that rather than good old mud fever.

My vets are recommending the following treatment (they have stopped prescribing Flamazine as a mud fever treatment)...

* wash mud off with tepid water
* dry
* smother infected area in a simple cream such as Udder cream)
* wrap in cling film and leave over night
* next morning make up a hibi scrub solution in water which is really hot...not boiling but so you can just stand putting your hand in it.
* wash off the scabs
* treat area with a cream such as Aloe cream

It really worked well on my horse but if your horse is getting fed up with being prodded and poked it might not work so well.


Equilibirum turnout boots are also fabulous......so is pig oil and sulphur but patch test as some horses react and end up with hair loss. My mare had bare legs last Spring with it- very weird!

 

[lizziebell]

PM:
Bring in, clean with hibiscrub (get it really frothy and worked into the scabs), dry thoroughly with soft towel. Apply Keratex mud shield powder.

AM:
brush of any residue Keratex powder and apply absolutely shed loads of sudocrem. Turn out.

Repeat, repeat, repeat and if needs be keep stabled for a couple of days if the scabs are really bad, just to give the sudocrem/ keratex a head start in a dry environment.

Other alternative is to move!! Mud fever is cause by bacteria in the ground/ environment. Some areas are particularly bad for it. I kept my gelding in an area that was bad, and his mudfever was all year round. He never had it before moving to that area, and never had it ever again once we moved.

 

[milliepops]

Lots of responses! My mare got mud fever in the dry spell during early October, which persisted for about 6 weeks. In the end what has got rid of it is:
1. clip heels out very close so I could get at the scabs properly (I was reluctant to do this initially, but it was essential IMO). I also clipped her legs out with trimmers so that the hair wasn't so long. This has allowed me to get her legs dry much more quickly

2. Bring in overnight and wash legs thoroughly. I now use Carex soap to wash the barrier cream off first, then povidone-iodine wash as the hibiscrub was drying her skin and seemed to make it flare up more.

3. Muddy Marvel de-scab works well to loosen the scabs. You dollop it on and leave for 5 min, then go back and ease them off. Have to get them all off each day otherwise the bacteria just hide underneath them. Clipping the affected area also means there is less hair for scabs to cling to and makes them easy to remove

4. dry legs carefully. I use a towel on the upper leg and cotton wool on the heels, that is a good way to dry them really well. Important step!

5. Flamazine on the areas that had been scabby, then leave overnight

6. Good covering of barrier cream (I use the Nettex Muddy Marvel as it's more gloopy than sudocrem) in the morning to be turned out. Make sure you rub it in well so that it gets down to the skin rather than just covering the hair.

This has worked for me - my mare had it on 3 legs, one was pretty bad and sore. All that is left now are 2 areas of pink skin on one hind foot which the hair is now growing back over - I'm continuing with this routine now but only do the healed legs every 2-3 days as the barrier cream sticks on pretty well to keep the grot out.

Best of luck - it's horrible having to keep going at it.

 

[Hectorhoon1980]

My horse used to get it really bad, being a shire x with nice feathers! I now clip off his feathers and apply keratex mud fever powder as soon as it starts looking just abit wet/ muddy in the fields and that seems to keep it at bay. I never wash his legs off but if i have to, i dry them with a towel or hairdryer and reapply the powder.
When he had bad scabs a few years ago i covered his legs in udder cream, wrapped them in clingfilm and bandaged them over night. It loosened all the scabs so they just fell off and then i washed with hibiscrub and dried. Good luck with it x

 

[monstermunch]

I had exactly the same issue with my boy and tried everything to get it to heal. Hibiscrub, picking the scabs, not picking the scabs, sudocream, washing it, keeping it dry, anti bacterial powder and mud guard from the vets. Although it improved it never cleared and it was really sore. In the end after 2 months I put him on 10 days of antibiotics and continued spraying the mud guard on (anti bacterial). it completely cleared in those 10 days and hasn't come back. Mine to appeared in the drier months.
If you haven't tried anti biotics yet and he has had it for several months I would really try it to give his system a helping hand. Good luck

 

[TheFarrier]

Have you tried polticing the infected area with warm (not hot like you would on feet) animalintex as this pulls all the yuck out of the leg overnight without any sore scab picking and scrubing.

As for the prevention etc it will be easier once you get it cleared up... A few of my old clients up north used this method with great results and mentioned it to me one day.

 

[Rebels]

As someone who has tried every treatment known to man and vet alike (flamazine, muddy marvel, sudocrem, aromaheel, udder cream, Msm ointment, aloe vera etc) and 4 courses of noradine antibiotics only to have it flare up again almost 2 wks to the day after each 10 day antibiotic course i now have a horse in for 3 wks being given a daily, stronger anitbiotic by injection, dermisol cream to remove scabs, washed with seleen shampoo daily as the chlorhexidine in hibi scrub and malo seb makes the skin more sore, sudocrem cling film wraps every 3 days plus a sulphur dressing when the scabs go. the vet said that the sudocrem wont work unless under a cling film wrap as it dries and doesnt loosen scabs so well. If anyone could cure it with one cream they would be a very rich person as i despair (and hate giving jabs!)

 

[only_me]

cant believe no one has mentioned camrosa

Camrosa is the best for mud fever imo

Ever seen the ads in HH for it? it works wonders

 

[soloequestrian]

A really cheap thing to try would be baby oil and vinegar mix. I doubt if it would help such a persistant problem but it would be pennies to try! Wear gloves though or you will smell like a chip shop for hours.

 

[cmartin1980]

Personally I swear by Camrosa. Its all natural and it really helped with my boy after I'd being battling with Mud Fever for months

 

[ITPersonnage]

Looked up vet's diagnosis if anyone's interested, was "Dermatitis- immune medicated vasculitis", this was successfully treated with Prednisolone.

 

[maginn]

Thanks so much for all your replies.

Vet has been again and clipped the whole leg out. gave her a steroid injection to take the swelling down and given me some antibiotic & steriod cream. Also recommended a new nappy cream called Metanium, which I am trying. Been only a couple of days but seems to be improving already.

Fingers crossed !
He has also said if does not work he will take a skin scrapping.

 

[teabagtoyota]

Sounds like my horse all over again! I found this to work and kept at it and it did clear up within a week after he had been suffering for 3 months, everynight he came in I towel dried affected area with towel which took off all the cream and scabs, ABSOLUTELY NO water was used, I then re-applied cream, smothered it on left him over night and repeated process next morning again before he went out again absolutely no water was used so in effect the affected area was never getting wet, the cream I used for this was Sudocrem which I had used before to no avail but found that not allowing it to get wet was the answer! Hope this helps?!