Pig Oil and Sulphur for Mud Fever

J

JenHunt

Well-Known Member
Joined
14 November 2007
Messages
7,049
Location
Thirsk, North Yorkshire, UK
Visit site
My lad has developed mud fever in both back legs for the first time in the 4 years I have had him....

I know that there is someone on here who does a PM about pig oil and sulphur.... if you read this please can you send it to me?

Currently using hibi-scrub (then drying throroughly) and coating in NAF mud-guard, but only with limited success....

Poor lad is quite grumpy about it!
 
here`s all the info from teresa f.hope she doesn`t mind me putting this here.



until you can get some after xmas i would slather it in sudocream,it`s really good for this.

<font color="blue"> Ok sit down - this is a long one:

Itchy Manes

I have used pig and sulphur on Cairo's itchy mane (and tail), but have since found the equss products to be useful. They are more expensive but are less messy. I use their shampoo and then apply megatek to Cairo - he finally has a mane after years of being bald. You can get these from tailgator.co.uk. I used to use pig oil on tails in winter, but now use tailbags - once you have one you will never know how you lived without - especially if you have horses with thick tails like I do.

Pig oil and sulphur

This is based on my experience and what I have learnt over several years by talking to the old boys with their heavies. I have done long PM this as there was no real information easily found on how to put the stuff on and how to look after hairy horses legs.

If you want more info on skin conditions in hairy horses, this is an interesting article.

http://www.completerider.com/pasterndermatitis.htm

and so is this, though they do not mention using P&amp;S

http://www.englandsequestrian.co.uk/index.pl?cat_id=22&amp;issue_id=2&amp;art_id=919

Pig oil and sulphur - I get mine from Heavy Horse Supplies - http://www.heavyhorsesupplies.co.uk.

Last order I did was for 25l of oil and 10k of sulphur which was about £70 with postage but lasts ages even with my two very hairy lads. For me this is cheaper than a 30 mile trip to the nearest supplier. You can of course buy smaller amounts -I think 10l of oil and 3k of sulphur with postage is about £40. It is cheaper than pig oil on ebay.

Now to the dark art of applying

First remove any white gold - it will go black. You don't have to use gloves - actually you do get nice soft hands but you may find white gold still goes tarnished for a few days if there is P&amp;S left soaked in your skin. Yellow gold actually goes nice and shiney.

Next I like to have the legs dry and any mud combed out. I also inspect the legs for any lumps or scabs.

Then take a small container - old feed supplement pot will do. For one horse use about 1/2l of oil and then add sulphur until it looks like a thick milkshake - about 6 tablespoons is probably right - sorry I do it by eye. Mix well.

Then take paintbrush and paint legs from just under knee/hock to the floor (if your feathers go down that far). Rub well in, the feather should be oily but not dripping then apply a little more oil as a "top coat" in winter for hair protection.

Best done in the stable as oil can end up everywhere - little drips do come down. It soon soaks up in the bed or in rubber matting though. To be honest you can wash it away but my YO is a little fussy about keeping the yard spotless.

In winter I do this every 10 - 14 days and may top up with a little more oil between if the mud is really bad - but this is for show condition rather than prevention of mites.

The oil keeps mud from really sticking - leave the horse in overnight and most of the muds has dried and slid off come morning.

Another tip - unless you need white legs, ie showing, in winter do not wash out the legs. I do not wash out from mid September to April (unless doing a show) most I do is a little cold water and brush on the end of the feather if really clogged up with mud. Whatever you do, do not soak the hair/legs. Washing can cause more problems than it solves. Ignore the dirty oily top layer, pull back the hair and the underneath is clean, dry and white.

When you do wash out, hot water and grannies soap flakes (from Tescos) are a gentle and effective method. For the first wash out of the year after winter, I prefer fairy washing up liquid and then use the grannies mixed with a little equine blue which gets them snowy white.

The main thing to remember is to keep with the P&amp;S and to go over the legs regularly looking for anything brewing. Once a week is normally fine.

Summer is easy - every couple of weeks, wet the legs and rub a handful of sulphur into each one, again getting well into the hair and skin. That said I have gone back to adding oil as our field is more like a winter one again.

Do not worry about the yellow - it soon fades.

Finally if you do have some scabs, Cairo does occasionally - just in two places below the back of his knees - he is one who you can never totally get it banished, try mixing 1 tablespoon of sudocream, 1 teaspoon of sulphur, 5 drops of teatree oil together and then rubbing into the area. It makes an awful mess but ignore it. Do this daily for a week - do not wash.

At the end of the week then wash with warm water and hibiscrub. Gently rub the scabs do remove the top layer - do not pick. Then repeat process. Cairo is normally back to normal within two weeks.

I have done this for my three very hairy horses - Cairo and Jemima - after the initial frontline treatments never have had the problem return (apart from Cairo's two little patches) and Chancer never has had mites to date.

In the summer I also like to lightly spray the feather with megatek every other day - you can get this from tailgator.co.uk - they do some wonderful grooming products including tailbags and manebags which I developed with them. I mix the megatek 50-50 with water and spray feather, tail and mane lightly to encourage the hair to grow and keep strong. If you don't show then it is probably not worth the effort and expense, but I do.

Hope I have covered everything and sorry to go on - anything not clear, let me know.

Theresa the guru of P&amp;S.</font>
 
I'm mixing yellow sulphur powder (sourced off eBay) with zinc-and-castor oil cream and using that on mine's heels to prevent mud fever. Is working well as it's so water proof.
 
You may like to try lard and flowers of sulphur which is a powder available from good garden centres. You can get a green one or a yellow one, not sure what the difference is, think we used yellow years ago. Mix the two up and cover dried legs with it. The lard will repel water as well as giving relief to any dry skin or creases/cuts in the skin, and the sulphur powder is an antifungus type application. We used to apply our on our horses on the Sunday afternoon once we had ridden and take off on the saturday morning with copious amounts of fairy liquid or hand soap, neither of which did our horses any harm (horses seemed to be a lot tougher 12/13 years ago!! Either that or we were very naive!! It worked a treat.
 
My warmblood mare suffered with such serious mud fever last year, had an allergic reaction to hibiscrub and she had to be sedated to treat it and then spent three months on steroids recovering. Hence we were desperate for her not to get it this year. The solution has been udder cream, its a miracle. Not one horse on the yard has mud fever, 7 did last year, even my grey throroughbred who is severly prone. Put it on liberally and it will protect and prevent it. You can usually order it in 5kg tubs from farm shops, good luck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top