Mud Rash on TB living out - help!

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dancingkris

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Hi all

Wondered if anyone can offer some advice.....my retired TB gelding lives out all year round and has developed patches of mud rash/chapped skin on his two back legs - both of which are white.

He gets it in the same place every year and I'm treating it exactly the same as usual - cleaning with Hibiscrub, drying then Sudocreme and Vaseline to keep the water off. However this time it just doesn't seem to be healing anywhere near as quickly as usual. Bringing him inside is not an option and he's not knee deep in mud as such although the fields are wet and there is standing water in some parts. At the moment I'm cleaning it off every other day as I don't want to make it more sore - he's got no heat, swelling or lameness - it just looks awful!

Any advice would be appreciated - thanks!
 
I've just finished treating my boy (who lives out 24/7) for this. His was the worst anyone on livery yard had seen. I literally smothered it in sudo every evening and nothing else. Didn't dry it or anything, it took a good 3weeks to heal but it's now completely better.
 
Thanks Kirsty - did you wash the mud off first though? I'm worried that by not washing it first and putting more Sudocreme on it'll seal in the dirt and then end up infected?

Normally it goes away within a week or so but seems much more resiliant this year!
 
We have been treating our horse's mud fever with athletes foot spray to great effect. Our vet is completely on board with this treatment. Wash legs with an antibacterial wash, remove scabs,dry completely then spray. Don't put any other creams on. Our boys infection seemed to be fungal and no amount of sudocreme would have cleared it up. The benefit of the aerosol is that it penetrates under the hair follicle. Further treatment is just dry legs, brush off mud and respray. By not putting creams on the skin has been able to heal in the air and the skin is not damaged by constant washing.
Our horse's legs are now clear and I just spray the every few days to prevent any infections taking hold.

Sorry just realised have repeated myself on both posts , thought I had forgotten to press post reply button1
 
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My mare suffers with mud fever and the best product ive found is Keratex mud shield powder.
You apply it to legs and heels in an upward motion and it creates a waterproof barrier that keeps legs dry and protected.
I usually start applying it just before we get the wet boggy ground and last year she didnt get a patch of mud fever :)

another 1 that works is mycota foot powder (for atheletes foot lol) it does the same job and i think its cheaper.

Hope this helps
 
Wash legs with Nizeral shampoo - you can buy it from the chemist - it contains Ketaconisol which will kill the fungus that has set off the mud fever.

Dilute with hand hot water, lather up well with a face cloth working the shampoo well into the coat. Leave to dry. Repeat every couple of days until clear. Make sure you wash well around the outside of the affected area as fungus loves to spread outwards.

Before anyone jumps on me that mudfever is bacterial - it starts off fungal and develops into a bacterial condition when scabs are either forcibly removed by the handler or by the horse itching itself.

Nizeral works really well and fast, on Monday I washed my youngsters hind legs which were scabby all down the front of his socks - today the scabs have all gone and the skin is healthy and pink, no bleeding , no swelling and no lameness.
 
Evelyn said:
Before anyone jumps on me that mudfever is bacterial - it starts off fungal and develops into a bacterial condition when scabs are either forcibly removed by the handler or by the horse itching itself.
Click to expand...

While I am very intrigued by this theory, I'm not sure it is 100% true all the time, esp in the UK. It's not that simple IMO.
I do treat with Malaseb rather than hibiscrub, mainly because I find Hibi is very drying for the skin and so doesn't help skin health long term and as such I find the formulation of malaseb more soothing.

Subsequently to chats with Evelyn I realised that I am also treating both bacterial and fungal components. AFAIK fungal disease certainly happens in the UK, but is no where near as common as in other countries like the USA.

Some cases may have fungal components to them, but some don't seem to as they respond very well without fungicides.

More work really needs to be done before you theory can be stated as so black and white. I know you mentioned the research ongoing in Oz, but far as I recall it wasn't quite as successful as your own experiences was it?

Definitely worth more research and thought though.
Kind regards
Imogen
 
dancingkris said:
Hi all

Wondered if anyone can offer some advice.....my retired TB gelding lives out all year round and has developed patches of mud rash/chapped skin on his two back legs - both of which are white.

He gets it in the same place every year and I'm treating it exactly the same as usual - cleaning with Hibiscrub, drying then Sudocreme and Vaseline to keep the water off. However this time it just doesn't seem to be healing anywhere near as quickly as usual. Bringing him inside is not an option and he's not knee deep in mud as such although the fields are wet and there is standing water in some parts. At the moment I'm cleaning it off every other day as I don't want to make it more sore - he's got no heat, swelling or lameness - it just looks awful!

Any advice would be appreciated - thanks!
Click to expand...

In the olden days (well in the early/mid nineties anyway) we used to use flowers of sulphur (available from the garden centre) mixed with old fashioned lard. The FOS acted as a antibacterial powder and the lard acted as a waterproof barrier. The idea was that you mixed the FOS and the lard really well into this thick yellow (or green) paste and applied to the legs which had been hibiscrubed and THOROUGHLY dried. The paste stayed on for up to a week and then you would take it all off and repeat the process. It was very effective. I am sure in this day and age of 'elf and safety' and modern ointments this would be seriously frowned upon :eek: but it was incredibly effective. I can't remember which was the best colour FOS to use as there was a green one and a yellow one - I think the yellow colour was better.:confused:

The best piece of advice for mud fever (and this is where it is crucial in treating it sucessfully) is allowing the area treated to be completely dry before adding topical applications of any kind. If the area is still wet/damp this will allow the bacteria to continue to breed. We used to use towels, followed by massive amounts of kitchen roll and sometimes even hair dryers (use a power break plug just in case)! :)

Also, my horse who as you can see in my siggy has four white socks gets very little mud fever, maybe one little scab every two years. I am convinced this is because when he is brought in by the yard staff whilst I am at work I opt not to have his legs washed/feet picked out - not only because it costs an extra 50p per day to have this service , but also because his legs can dry naturally so by the time I get there after work they are more or less dry and any mud can be brushed off. It really doesn't help the situation to be continually wetting the fetlock area.
 
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Imogen - from my experience with mud fever and being made to forcibly remove the scabs with washing up liquid and a hacksaw blade - racing stables - Result would be a very sore horse, swollen legs and often lameness. I've been through all the different treatments and Nizoral has been the only consistent one.

Discovering Nizoral was as a result of having a similar condition to mudfever in my own hair. Skin very tender and then yellow scabs forming - clumping hair together and itch like crazy. I went to the chemist who had a look and suggested washing my hair with Nizoral. Within hours of using it the itching stopped, my scalp was no longer sore and within the week all the scabs had gone. One of the reasons I believe Mudfever is fungal is its habit of spreading outwards from the original site. You can clean up one spot and then you find the area beyond it breaks out. A very fungal way of reproducing - spores being ejected outwards - like 'fairy circles' made by mushrooms.

That's when I tried it on the next racehorse that came in from spelling with mudfever - within days the legs were completely clean, no swelling or lameness and no forcibly removing the scabs. Kept using it after that with each horse responding the same.

What I have found though is that if scabs have been forcibly removed by the handler then often there is secondary infection, swelling, bleeding and fissures in the skin which is often the point where the vet is called in. Skin scrapings then show the bacterial infection. If washed with Nizoral immediately the condition is spotted it seems to stop it in its tracks.
I've asked people to contact me if they have used Nizoral but I guess they either don't give it a try or forget to get back to me. I've had a couple of people who have got back and been raving about how great it is. My own vet was quite intrigued when she saw me washing my youngsters legs with it and was going to give it a try, must catch up with her and find out how she got on with it. My youngster gets mudfever every year - I wash them one day with Nizoral and within a week it's all gone.

I contacted the Australian researchers with my findings and they felt that the reduced success of their research into fungal treatment was the fact that they were working on very advanced cases where bacteria had seriously invaded. My feeling is that Nizoral needs to be used at the earliest time possible to prevent it spreading.

Applecart14 - Sulphur is also Antifungal.
 
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Hi Evelyn,

I don't dispute your experiences and thoughts - we had this conversation several weeks ago and I was fascinated. I am certainly going to try more primary fungal treatments...the problem is I guess I often see the ongoing problematic secondarily infected legs by the time they are presented to me!!:(

I just wanted to provide a balanced view that I think we are all still unsure as to whether it is primary fungal/ primary bacterial / or both in combination. I don't have the answers - wish i did!!!

Kind regards
imogen
 
I too have found malaseb or vet universal medicated shampoo to be better than hibiscrub. Hibi strips the coat and skin and often I find makes the legs more sore than there were to start with.
 
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