Poopy legs

[windand rain]

Ancient cob who has had a hard life is plagued by scours. At this time of year should I wash his legs regularly either in warm or cold water, Scrape the worst off and avoid wetting him, or leave well alone until Spring. So far it has been tail washed and poop scraped off if it dries enough. Will add he gets mites so gets scabby legs when he bites them. Will have to clip and retreat his legs soon but have been avoiding that too

 

[twiggy2]

I would wash, dry and apply pig oil/baby oil so moving forward you can wipe it off each day or so and then reapply oil.

 

[albeg]

Agree with twiggy.

Is he rugged? If he is, get one of the plastic coated elastic tail cords. I've found they help somewhat with it, as the poop doesn't get caught on it the way it does on the webbing tail straps, so it doesn't get rubbed in at the top of the legs.

 

[Chappie]

My loan cob is very similar, windand rain. He's 18 next year and had this condition for years, apparently. Vets can't find what's causing it so he's just given a gut balancer & fed suitable hard feed by his owners. Helps a bit but still its a mess. (Hes generally well in himself but sluggish to ride, unsurprisingly). Its awful to see, I could cry when I see the mess his back end is in

I've cut back his feathers & use a lot of Nettex 7 day mud away & spray conditioner on his back legs and tail. This does help a bit. He often drys up a lot in summer, thankfully. He was previously very anxious to the point of completely dangerous about getting washed but I made a lot of improvement this year and could get up to just above his hocks washed. Otherwise I would be doing as twiggy2 has suggested, get it all washed & get baby or pig oil on. I did try spraying oil on but horrid black clumps formed on the longer hair and I was concerned these were going to rub his skin. I couldn't even get them cut or wiped off as hes so reactive.

I've just bought some Nettex feather mite powder as towards the end of the last 2 winters he did show signs of mites. He ended up getting Dectomax (apologies if the spelling is wrong there!) injections from the vet for that. Going to try this powder to see if it will deter them before they take hold.

I would have him clipped but apparently he's very frightened and had to be heavily sedated the one time the owners got it done. They're not the easiest to communicate with so I gave up trying and just do my best with scissors. If only he knew I was just trying to help him!

When the farrier is due I dry him up best I can using old towels & plait his tail & tie it up. He doesn't even like a towel touching his back end so its a struggle. I pick out his back feet every night and just wear an old coat & wash my hands straight after, obviously!

Other things I am trying are a small additional feed of Thunderbrooks Healthy Herbal chaff and Keyflow Pink Mash. Don't have concrete evidence this is helping yet. Additional net of hay at night definately has helped. Also keeping him well rugged when the temperature drops. But now he's gained too much weight so I have to cut back these things! It's a battle. I've mumbled on a bit I guess, just bothers me hugely that I can't find a solution to this.

 

[windand rain]

Thanks for the replies He isnt my horse hes a much loved (by me and oh) livery but he is treated as well as I can afford out of his livery. We feed keyflow Pink mash now, have been advised to try charcoal but not sure which I can feed him the cheapest is activated charcoal powder for the garden or filters but not sure if there is anything else in it so will have to check before I get it. To be honest I would rather clean him up than bung him up so trying alsorts of combinations very slowly. Cut all his summer feed out and all hay to try to firm him up and introduce the new feed. Started him on the pink mash two weeks later reintroduced the grass nuts he was on in summer without squitting and the linseed and grass chaff he is a little better in terms of his poo is now more like cowpats than green liquid. He needs to keep his weight on so cannot just leave him on grass, it always starts when we introduce hay.Tthis year I sourced some timothy meadow hay hoping it would help but no he's still doing it. We cant afford to subsidies him we make nothing for keeping him but not bothered as he is happy and apart from the poo is very healthy.

 

[Pinkvboots]

I would be careful putting any kind of baby or pig oil on him, someone smothered my horses legs in it when I was on holiday and his legs swelled up twice there size, he had a really bad reaction to it and was a nice £200 vet bill, vet told me it should be used on very small areas and never on hot days so I would patch test it.

 

[Red-1]

My grey lies on the poop every night, on her left side of her face and on her bottom. I just wash it every day. Use warm water and a horse shampoo, sluice off with warm water, scrape the fleshy bits at the top of her legs and turn out. No mud fever yet. Blasted horses are out in the rain, I think sometimes all the towelling and rubbing does not help.

I never rub the lower parts of the leg, it is mainly sluiced down from above, or I may do a downwards sluice with the sponge. Then drip dry.