Rain rot

liss1987

liss1987

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Hi there, my TB seems to be extremely prone to rain rot. He has been turned out 24/7 during our so called "summer" but has been rugged through all the rain that weve had but still manages to get rain rot everywhere!
It's usually random patches all over, the other horses in the field are completely free from it, it's just him that gets it.
Is there any way I can prevent him from getting it? Soon he will start being stabled during the night which may ease the rain rot, but it seems to be a constant battle with it and would like some pointers on how to prevent it/ease it.
Short of keeping him stabled all the time through our miserable weather, (which I wouldn't like to do as he much prefers to be out with his friends) I don't know what else to do?
 
I have been feeding micronised linseed meal to my boy and his skin and coat is better than before, it is part of his cereal free hi fibre plus mins and vits diet, I use Fast Fibre as a carrier feed.
Can you use a good shampoo to clear the rain scald, is it weeping and needs daily attention.
Is the rain sheet making him sweat?
 
Agree with adding micronised linseed.

You could also look at getting some more zinc in the diet - UK tends to be low in it and it helps with tissue creation and immunity (among other things).

High levels of sugar (and added molasses) can also cause poor quality skin (and hooves ;)).

Any issues with her liver at all?

When people turn their horses loose to live rough - they smother them in lard initially.....
 
Something is making this happen .
If he was mine I would be getting the vet with a view to doing some skins samples to see what it is
Treatment wise I would be washing in very dilute hibiscrub twice a week apart and applying some sort of salve I would probally use udder or e45 cream and working on getting all the scabs off and the skin looking healthy.
The vet might well give antibiotics for this also Malaseb shampoo I have had good results with that.
I agree with the advice above re the diet micronised linseed is great for this sort of horse.
Rugs in summer are a very mixed blessing if the horses gets a little hot and sweats a little you are just making the ideal enviroment for whatever's causing this to grow my bet would be its fungal if he's had it a while it will take a while to get on top of.
 
One of my previous horses used to suffer with what was initially diagnosed as rain scald. He would get it even when rugged - summer or winter. We had the vet do skin scrapings and end result was fungal not bacteriological. I would definitely get the vet to take samples to see exactly what you are dealing with.
 
The scabs are not sore or weeping, they come off quite easily. May be worth getting the vet out to check its not some sort of fungal infection. I have used an anti microbial shampoo on him, it does clear it away but then it just comes straight back again :( he's an old guy, he's 20, so maybe that's something to do with it too?
 
Oh and as far as unaware his liver is working fine, he seems in perfect health otherwise and some people just say he's a typical over sensitiveTB but he's a good doer other than the rain rot.
 
I've found rugged horses to frequently have worse rain rot than unrugged. In this weather, certainly around my area, it is still warm and muggy while rainin, anything with a sheet on sweats up.
 
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