Mudfever: take off feathers or not?

CinnamonChristmasCookie

CinnamonChristmasCookie

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The boy has proper cob feathers currently: he had bad mudfever which I've almost cracked with numerous applications of pig oil and keeping him in for over two weeks. It is difficult to get the oil directly onto the affected skin because the feather is thick and he is funny about his legs, no doubt he was sore.

So, now it won't be sore to clip, although he's still acting like I'm about to chop off the legs :rolleyes3:. I think it would be easier to treat without feather in the way and I'm not showing in the near future. Do I clip the legs (which will need proper sedation) or do I persevere with full feather?

Also in Vet.
 
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I have to clip my horse's legs as he suffers with this, although he gets itchy, dermatitis on his legs throughout the year - gets worse in winter due to being constantly wet and with him having thick leg hair. I also think it's got a lot to do with them being on hay and hard feed. I am never quite sure if mudfever is really a correct term as I think it's just aggravated by the damp mud, not actually caused by it.

I tend to clip mine horse's legs (but then he loves it as his are so itchy) and then hose his legs of each evening so they get chance to dry overnight and then I treat with sudocrem in the morning before he goes back out again. If I leave the mud on I have found it just means his legs stay too moist and he will scratch at his legs at night.

Does yours react really badly to the clippers or can you do it bit by bit?
 
Really bad with clippers, just on his legs. He nearly killed the vet who insisted on helping last time! Sweet of her, but he needs huge amounts of sedation to not react. He cow kicked when I first got him. I'm not ecstatic to sedate him, but I want to see what I'm dealing with and be able to treat it properly.
 
unfortunately i think you are going to have to clip his legs, the bacteria will be loving it all nice and warm in his feathers and you will never fully get rid of it if you cant get to the skin properly
 
Mine hasn't got a huge amount of feather but I did find clipping what he had very helpful in being able to clean, dry and treat the sore area. I was lazy and only did the effected leg!
 
when there is active mudfever there clipping may be you only option to get where you need to go to get it under control.
HOWEVER! if there is nothing active LEAVE feathers on. nothing keeps legs cleaner then feathers.
Our big boy has heavy heavy feathers. and on the one leg that is white, when you take the efforts (lots of it) to look underneath, the skin is lovely and pink. he lives outside in the mud!
 
I found feeding linseed meal [charnwood milling] made skin less itchy and never got mud fever after feeding this, [though no feathers], also Baby was officially named Silver Dancer, turned out she had mites!
 
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