Rain scald, rain rot - whatever you like to call it

Enfys

Enfys

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Do you treat it as if it is contagious?

We have been having a really warm, wet Fall here and some of the youngsters and thinner coated horses have got a touch of rain rot. Owners are now Googling like crazy and have got themselves in a right pickle ith all the conflicting info...horses should be isolated, stabled, clipped, on a course of anti-biotics etc, etc.

Now, I know what I will advise to treat it, the same as I have done for 20 odd years, it has always cleared up and I haven't maimed or killed a horse doing it my way yet.

How I treat it is beside the point because it depends on the individual case, what I am interested in is it, as I said, generally treated as contagious?
 
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I have never treated it as such, an old treatment taught to me was to use liquid parafin topically on it. However haven't needed to do that in about 15years!

Oops I answered the treatment part anyway :p
 
I thought it was caused by the bacterium Dermatophilus congolensis which is widespread in soil - so don't see how isolating a horse would help :confused:
 
What rhino said. On the other hand, sharing a rug between a horse that has rainrot and one that doesn't is probably not a good idea. I'd personally avoid sharing grooming brushes too. It's not contagious like lice or ringworm is though.

Latterly I have treated it with tea tree oil - a single drop on top of the "paintbrush" lesion both softens the scabby part so it can be removed easily and without hurting the horse, and appears to disinfect the area very effectively.
 
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Yes, I class it with mud fever too. In fact is it mud fever in other areas of the body? I don't treat it as contagious but I don't swap brushes etc. anyway.
 
My old horse had a minor case of rain scald for the first time in the 12 years I haveowned him. At least I think thats what it was!

He has small greasy patches over the saddle area and rump. You could pull, pick or scrape them off, they were like little greasy clumps. They were not sore or pussy underneath, just skin.

I groome dhim several times, used a rubber curry comb to lift most of it off. Then I washed with a mild conditioning vets shampoo. Thats all, its gone.

Never heard of it being contagius, or horses havign to be segregated. None of the others (4 others, and 4 cows) have got it. I thinks it becuase hes the only tb, and it has been warm and wet.
 
cuppatea said:
not contagious.
not transferable by brushes/rugs etc.
i have proven it many times.
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For infection to take hold, not only would the bacteria have to be transferred (e.g. on a brush or rug), but the skin would also have to damaged by being damp and rubbed or scratched by mud particles.
 
PapaFrita said:
I'm very confused by this; depending on which website Google throws up, it will tell you rainscald is EITHER bacterial or fungal, or even behaving like BOTH;[/url]
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It's definitely a bacterium, but like some bacteria it has fungal-like properties (has a complex cell wall and grows filaments or hyphae).
 
I would think that fungus and other bacteria etc. may well take advantage as a secondary infection.

I have a horse prone to a small patch on her back in winter. She is no longer a bit flat backed after a strict diet so I'll be interested to see how she is over this coming winter. :)
 
fburton said:
It's definitely a bacterium, but like some bacteria it has fungal-like properties (has a complex cell wall and grows filaments or hyphae).
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*brain explodes* :p
Weeell, PF tends to get it when stressed. She's just recovering from a bout and I've been bathing her with a shampoo that contains clorhexidine and an antifungal ingredient (forget which)- hedging my bets ;) Interestingly, she's out with 8-10 other horses and one other is showing the same symptoms.
 
no i dont treat it as contagious.

I got a horse a while back that had the worst case Id ever seen, withers to dock was awful, horse went into quarantine as a matter of course before putting in with the others, but that was nothing to do with the rainscald, that was for anything contagious that might have been present, (and lice: needed treating for lice).
 
Maesfen said:
No, not contagious but it does mean their system is run down a bit, you don't see healthy horses with it very often except in the severest of weather so that it's weakened their immune system.
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...I know that :( There is only so much one can advise, or suggest to Owners though. :( If I blanket/feed/medicate horses off my own back and something goes wrong then I can be sued, vicious circle.
 
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Yes, see your point entirely, very difficult. I suppose the only thing you can do is lead by showing them what you do and they can see why your horses don't have rainscald but then again, would they really be so vindictive towards you if you offered them advice which would alleviate the suffering, very short sighted of them if they do?
 
Initially Rain Scald is Fungal but if not caught in time and the horse itches the rash or handler picks off the scabs it then runs the risk of being infected with bacteria.

Washing the horse thoroughly with Nizoral shampoo will generally stop it in its tracks. Nizoral contains Ketaconizol which is an antifungal. Dilute with hand hot water, lather up well and work well into the coat. I usually leave the Nizoral in the coat just scraping off the excess water after leaving it to soak for 10 mins.

This also works well for Mudefever and Greasy Heel. There is no need at all to pick off the scabs as they will fall away with the shampoo. Repeat in a few days if the skin is not yet free of the scabs.
 
Can I ask a rain scald question please? My horse went on loan as a companion one winter, and came back with really bad rain scald all over his hind quarters. I'd had him for years and he'd never had anything like that before. None of the other horses there had it, but were all wintered out unrugged. He was being rugged as he was a TB. I have always wondered how he came to have such bad rain scald. It cleared up quickly when I brought him home, and it never occurred again.
 
Bangagin said:
Can I ask a rain scald question please? My horse went on loan as a companion one winter, and came back with really bad rain scald all over his hind quarters. I'd had him for years and he'd never had anything like that before. None of the other horses there had it, but were all wintered out unrugged. He was being rugged as he was a TB. I have always wondered how he came to have such bad rain scald. It cleared up quickly when I brought him home, and it never occurred again.
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His rug possibly leaked and wasn't changed or allowed to dry properly before being put back on, or he may have sweated up heavily in it several times during humid weather.
 
The only time my TB got rainscald was when he was rugged. He had a pair of identical canvas NZ rugs which I swapped over from time to time. Unfortunately, in heavy rain (this is Scotland after all!), enough water must have come through the seams to cause rainscald. When I saw this, I went over every inch of his withers and back putting a drop of tea tree oil where I found scabby tufts. It was only then that I noticed the rainscald spots formed a perfect symmetrical pattern that exactly matched where seams of the rugs were.
 
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