Mud rash - That time of year again.

CastlelackSportHorses

CastlelackSportHorses

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So my beautiful chestnut lady with her 4 white legs is super susceptible to mud rash/pastern dermatitis.
Monday we went to a local fun ride, and I normally boot her up but this day the boots slipped and I had a friend remove them as they weren't playing ball.
Pony must have scratched her lovely white, clipped legs on a briar or something and next morning POOF swollen, hot leg.
At first I thought she knocked herself, and I was cold hosing/icing away mad, but she wasnt lame just puffy and hot.

Last night bring her in to cold hose and a big scab falls off and bleeds.
Mud rash :(:(
So now i have her lathered with nappy cream, mud off spray and muddy buddy cream/powder.

Feel so bad for the poor lady, Its gotten so wet here in just 48hours so I fear they maybe coming into their all weather pens this weekend.

Just a lil rant as I was hoping for them to stay out a few more weeks. :(IMG_4724.jpeg
 
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smolmaus said:
Poor girly! These dry spells followed by absolutely torrential rain have been so brutal the last month. You've done well to keep them out this long! Ours have been in the all-weather for 2+ weeks now and even they are getting waterlogged at the bottom! 😭
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Yeah we are lucky, the fields they are in are on a slight hill so manage the water ok and they have hay bales out as theres no grass, but I think this is it now.
Mother nature is winning. :(
 
CastlelackSportHorses said:
I feel so guilty :(
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Don't - it isn't your fault, when they're that susceptible to something I tend to take the view that they'll inevitably get it, it's just a question of how often and how badly. It sounds like you're usually super on top of it and have just been unlucky. If she had a less careful, caring owner she'd probably be suffering more often and more severely.
 
Mud rash is such a pain! I’m lucky most of my horses aren’t too sensitive to it at the moment but I used to have a grey gelding with pink skin on his sock areas and it didn’t matter how careful I was he would get it. I did find a 1:1 ratio of baby oil to vinegar in a spray bottle sprayed on the legs ( no open wounds of course) did do an excellent job at getting rid of scabs and preventing it, much better than the expensive muddy buddy stuff but at times there’s only so much you can do.

Just keep her moving to keep the swelling out and if you have any bodies of flowing water like the sea or a river near you that is horse friendly I’d walk her through it. Some relief for her sore legs and would bring the swelling down.
 
I never clip the legs on a sport horse who is susceptible to it otherwise they have zero protection. To make legs look tidier I will clip down to knees/hocks and blend the hair around. Works better if you clip earlier in the autumn than too late when they are seriously hairy. It look pretty neat.
 
Flying_Form said:
Mud rash is such a pain! I’m lucky most of my horses aren’t too sensitive to it at the moment but I used to have a grey gelding with pink skin on his sock areas and it didn’t matter how careful I was he would get it. I did find a 1:1 ratio of baby oil to vinegar in a spray bottle sprayed on the legs ( no open wounds of course) did do an excellent job at getting rid of scabs and preventing it, much better than the expensive muddy buddy stuff but at times there’s only so much you can do.

Just keep her moving to keep the swelling out and if you have any bodies of flowing water like the sea or a river near you that is horse friendly I’d walk her through it. Some relief for her sore legs and would bring the swelling down.
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I am trying to keep the legs as dry as possible so cant take her to the river.
 
LEC said:
I never clip the legs on a sport horse who is susceptible to it otherwise they have zero protection. To make legs look tidier I will clip down to knees/hocks and blend the hair around. Works better if you clip earlier in the autumn than too late when they are seriously hairy. It look pretty neat.
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I normally clip them off later in the winter when their in all weather pens, but I clipped when she was stilll in field and really didnt think regarding the mud, she normally never gets in whilst in the winter pens. :(
 
Widgeon said:
Don't - it isn't your fault, when they're that susceptible to something I tend to take the view that they'll inevitably get it, it's just a question of how often and how badly. It sounds like you're usually super on top of it and have just been unlucky. If she had a less careful, caring owner she'd probably be suffering more often and more severely.
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Thank you. Just feel bad for the poor girl her legs are so swollen, but shes getting everything she needs to fight it so at least that.
 
Was back in contact with Vets this morning.
Ponys legs are filling a lot when stabled so Vet recommended she stay in pea gravel turnout full time and hack to keep her moving.
Also has prescribed Flamazine cream.
She has 2 more days of Norodine so hopefully it will hit it but Vet said she may need a different antibiotic if it doesn't start shifting it.

So I washed the legs Monday and have been applying liberal amounts of Bepanthen, will hot wash with Nizoral tonight and use my dog grooming dryer to dry legs.
I may leave them for an hour then before applying Flamazine to give skin time to breathe.

Christ. Its been 3 days and im exhausted already. And stressed. :(
 
I had this last year - I couldn't do final day at a 3 day as horses legs blew up and she was so sore. Caused by very pink skin and having over reach boots on for long format. It's crap for a few days to get on top of it. I just kept washing with antibacterial wash to get rid of any scabs and creaming up.
 
LEC said:
I had this last year - I couldn't do final day at a 3 day as horses legs blew up and she was so sore. Caused by very pink skin and having over reach boots on for long format. It's crap for a few days to get on top of it. I just kept washing with antibacterial wash to get rid of any scabs and creaming up.
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Im one that wont give up for sure but its exhausting.
I just don't want to over wash, but then I get a build up of cream, and if she rolls in the pen she gets bits of grit stuck to the cream. :eek:
I may try Manuka honey on one leg once washed and dried and Flamazine on other 3 to see how they work.
 
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Ponys legs today. I washed with warm water and Nizorol shampoo, dried thoroughly with hair drier, left to breathe for an hour and applied Flamazine cream last night.
This morning I popped some manuka honey ontop of the leaky parts.
She was swollen, but they went right down after a lead hack off my other horse.

Just wondering if I should wash and dry and repeat this evening as the cream wont stick to the oozy patches. 🤷‍♀️
 
Silver Whinnies socks….. Honestly, couldn’t manage my boy without those when his legs got like that. Not needed for a couple of years because I use Filtabac at the first hint of a scab.
Flamazine has never worked for mine, and I limit washing to once every 3 days or so. I also never remove the scabs.
 
TheMule said:
Silver Whinnies socks….. Honestly, couldn’t manage my boy without those when his legs got like that. Not needed for a couple of years because I use Filtabac at the first hint of a scab.
Flamazine has never worked for mine, and I limit washing to once every 3 days or so. I also never remove the scabs.
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I don't want to wash but I can't get any creams to stick over the oozing?
 
TheMule said:
The oozing means it needs to dry out, that’s where the socks are so helpful as they keep it covered really effectively ( especially as the sun is as harmful as the mud)
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Id have to order those socks from the states, and by the time they get here lol.
I spot washed the oozy areas again this morning and dried and applied cream.
They are looking much much better, one hind still swollen, other gone totally down!!
I also am using barrier powder around pasterns/fetlocks to keep any wet rising up.
I think Im winning :D
 
Honestly? They look photosensitive, keep them covered with the socks or equivalent or keep her out of the sun. I know that sounds crazy in the winter, but my boy is the same, it is the peril of white socks!
And quit every type of cream except steroids. No more barriers, no nothing. Once the pinkness has gone and the inflammation reduced, then you go back to a really effective barrier like the Filtabac

Mine looks like below when his get bad, so I do know what you're going through! This was 2 years ago and they haven’t got anywhere near this point since as I know now what to do!


IMG_2574.jpeg
 
One of mine got really bad mud rash after going hunting last year. The vet had me make up a paste of Bimadene powder, iodone and (I think) castor oil? He basically gave me all the ingredients and I mixed them up into a paste with the blender. I'd wash his legs with iodine solution in the morning, leave them to dry (he was kept in) then in the evening cover them with the paste and wrap with clingfilm and leave overnight. This was the only thing that worked, after anti-inflammatories and anti-biotics had failed! I think i had to do it for about a week.
 
TheMule said:
Honestly? They look photosensitive, keep them covered with the socks or equivalent or keep her out of the sun. I know that sounds crazy in the winter, but my boy is the same, it is the peril of white socks!
And quit every type of cream except steroids. No more barriers, no nothing. Once the pinkness has gone and the inflammation reduced, then you go back to a really effective barrier like the Filtabac

Mine looks like below when his get bad, so I do know what you're going through! This was 2 years ago and they haven’t got anywhere near this point since as I know now what to do!


View attachment 169155
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Did your lads crust and ooze like my ladies? I dunno how it would be photosensitivity as we get zero sun here in ireland and it literally only came on when we got serious rain a week and half ago and she was in deep mud.
I am going to stop washing and drying them(the video above was after washing and blow drying) and I was just going to use Botanica cream.

I am throwing everything at her the poor girl.
 
CastlelackSportHorses said:
Did your lads crust and ooze like my ladies? I dunno how it would be photosensitivity as we get zero sun here in ireland and it literally only came on when we got serious rain a week and half ago and she was in deep mud.
I am going to stop washing and drying them(the video above was after washing and blow drying) and I was just going to use Botanica cream.

I am throwing everything at her the poor girl.
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Oh yes! And that’s where you do need the antibiotics, but they don’t help to heal the damaged skin.
The problem is that the wet weakens the skin (actually, my boy normally manages to scrape himself or similar to cause the initial damage), the bacteria move in, damage it further and then it becomes photosensitive because you have raw patches of skin not protected by hair so it burns very easily and damages it again and so on and so on
 
TheMule said:
Oh yes! And that’s where you do need the antibiotics, but they don’t help to heal the damaged skin.
The problem is that the wet weakens the skin (actually, my boy normally manages to scrape himself or similar to cause the initial damage), the bacteria move in, damage it further and then it becomes photosensitive because you have raw patches of skin not protected by hair so it burns very easily and damages it again and so on and so on
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Yes, so initially I think the damage was done at a fun ride over 2 weeks ago and started on off front, then I was taking her to the river and cold hosing to bring down swelling( silly me) and obviously the continuous wetting just made it worse.
The antibiotics are definitely helping the oozing, which has all but dried up.
I had a look for Filtabac and cant find it in ireland, can order of Amazon but €85 delivery :(
I have Pink Hoof Clay ordered which I find very good for any scabs she gets in the summer.
 
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