Preparing for Mud Fever

Making sure the horses immune system is good helps - feed vitamin c and echinacea helps.

My best prevention for mud fever has been pig oil. before the mud sets in scrub horses legs, allow to dry off and slather in pig oil. I wouldn't wash legs more than once a week to prevent the skin cells deteriorating but would apply pig oil every second day or so.

If you do get a case of mud fever - scrubbing with hibiscrub ( or t-gel shampoo) allowing to dry and sudo cream !! Along with vaseline, sudo cream has been my savour with accident prone horses.

Just my experience with mud fever, hope it helps :)
 
http://www.equilibriumproducts.com/leg_protection/equi_chapsreg_close_contact_chaps/

Getting two pairs of those next week, she'll only be out in the day and she only gets it mildly and never near her coronary band more just under her fetlocks so I'm assured they'll be kept nice and dry and mud fever free. Then I'll use a barrier cream for when we go out hunting or in muddy conditions, it makes it easier that I'll be clipping her legs as well this year to get ride of those pesky feathers!

In addition I always leave mud to dry then brushing it off (trying not to use a hard bristle brush) as getting the legs wet will only soften the skin. I only wash the legs if absolutely necessary but hopefully these chaps will stop that :)
 
I make up a mixture of baby oil and sudocrem to prevent mud fever. If the legs need to be cleaned first, I wash them with hibiscrub. Once 100% totally dry, I mix up the baby oil and sudocrem into a lotion. Not too thick or thin. I rub this lotion well into the horses legs, getting right down to the skin rather than just on the surface of the hair, all the way from the hocks and knees right down to the coronary band. I've never had a horse/pony with mud fever, cracked heels or sore chapped skin for years since I started making my own barrier lotion this way :)
 
UK grazing appears to be low in zinc and copper. Added to that, it's higher in calcium, which competes with copper and zinc.

Added to all that is the insistence of feed companies adding alfalfa to EVERYTHING
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which is ALSO high in calcium.....further diluting what little copper and zinc we had in the first place
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It's no shock to me that horses can't handle grass (lack of copper), grow poor hooves and develop mud fever at the first hint of winter (lack of zinc).

It's pointless slapping on all sorts of funky lotions unless we give the horses a fighting chance.
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