Rain scald :-(((((

L

lachlanandmarcus

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Never had it before..until today, a line of scabs down the back of her shoulder towards her tummy:-(((

Any treatment suggestions other than the dilute hibiscrub fallback.

NB is is a lami prone good doer who I have never tended to rug....and we are in the Cairngorms. she has always been in at night and so always had the chance to dry off completely every day :-(( free draining sand soil, no mud, and no mud fever.

And I just spent a number of thousands on a deluxe field shelter arriving next week which I <planned> to use to allow them to live out more.....hmmmm the fates are against me.
 
Leave it to dry out a bit & gently rub the scabs off & then use an anti-bacterial wash to remove more scabs & clean the skin.

Common enough & more so at this time of the year & autumn - usually when a rug has been put on a damp/sweaty fuzzy or perhaps fuzzy has got a bit warm when the sun comes out & rug doesnt vent enough.

Dont beat yourself up
 
I have Exmoors-they're prone to it due to the thickness of their coats and the Scottish weather! I use baby oil if its not bad-helps protect against it as well, they're never rugged.
 
:confused: have had quite a number of Exmoors over the years from the early 70's right through till last year & never had one with rainscald & never heard of it being prevalent in the breed.

OP, it ought to clear up in a few days, with a bit of attention to it :)
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
:confused: have had quite a number of Exmoors over the years from the early 70's right through till last year & never had one with rainscald & never heard of it being prevalent in the breed.

OP, it ought to clear up in a few days, with a bit of attention to it :)
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didn't mean to imply it was prevalent in the breed but certainly both of mine have had it slightly and I know of other natives such as Highlands and shetlands having it too. certainly knew of a fair few that had it last year when we had such a wet summer and winter.
 
I feel a bit better now, thankyou for the sympathy and the helpfulness, much appreciated!!

now I just have to work out why she's slightly lame (un lami type symptoms) and whether the little lumps on her inner thigh are developing sarcoids......, but I think I'll leave those til tomorrow when it might not be gales and snow outside :-)))))))))
 
Yes, Liesel. Have booked vet for Monday to see L, about a couple of things not just this (want Mr Horse vet rather than general one so would rather wait til then when he is free than have a random one today)?

In the meantime I've hibi'd and baby oiled and as the rain has stopped and none forecast she has gone out.

It might just be the extreme nature of the weather the last couple of days, disappointing tho when she's in more than out and thoroughly groomed and had really got down to summer coat so no thick sweaty one, and def not caused by rugging sweatiness.

Never mind....
 
bear in mind for the future that apparent "rainscald" and lami were the first symptoms my lad had of cushings. (along with a lot of what I now know are other cushings symptoms)

I struggled for years treating it as rain scald. Never worked of course.

Probably has no relevance to Leisel except Alf is her half brother. Looking back he had the start of cushings at 6.

pm me if you want more info.
 
paddy555 said:
bear in mind for the future that apparent "rainscald" and lami were the first symptoms my lad had of cushings. (along with a lot of what I now know are other cushings symptoms)

I struggled for years treating it as rain scald. Never worked of course.

Probably has no relevance to Leisel except Alf is her half brother. Looking back he had the start of cushings at 6.

pm me if you want more info.
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O Lordy....thankyou for that :-(( will mention it to vet. The lami was hopefully due more to excess weight now gone but I might get the cushings test done just to be sure, ESP if I can still get the free lab fees. No insurance implications as I self insure. Hopefully it's not that - how is Alf now, is he out of Laja or by Barrique?
 
lachlanandmarcus said:
O Lordy....thankyou for that :-(( will mention it to vet. The lami was hopefully due more to excess weight now gone but I might get the cushings test done just to be sure, ESP if I can still get the free lab fees. No insurance implications as I self insure. Hopefully it's not that - how is Alf now, is he out of Laja or by Barrique?
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by Alpine out of Laja.
he got lami at 6 for no reason. That was the start although I had no idea at the time and it is only with hindsight I have worked through it. He was tested at 14 twice and both tests were negative. I was not far from considering PTS on welfare grounds with the "rain scald". It was not rain scald of course it was the poor immune system part of the cushings problems.
After 2 negative cushings test vet didn't think it was cushings. It was the chiropractor who was adament this was an immune system problem and a neuro problem that convinced me to trial him on prascend. Fortunately vet was helpful. I basically diagnosed him on symptoms.

He was unrideable by that stage anyway so I had to do something.

He is now 15 and the difference of 7 months on prascend has been remarkable. The chiro is still repairing the damage and he is ridden daily for a couple of hours in walk to build him up again. Whatever the tests showed he was without doubt cushings.
He didn't have eye swellings or coat problems.
It was a gradual descent into cushings between 6 and 14 when he basically crashed.
The final stages were severe muscle wastage and finally lethargy when he came to a full stop.
Strangely after having to boot him for years as his feet were never up to it he is now bombing around over gravel quite happily. This is the first time since he was about 4.
There is a lot on early cushings in the EMS and PPID section on phoenix. I would reckon your cushings test will come back as negative and vet will be unable to diagnose it. Liesel must be around 9 by now?

I struggled with the "rain scald" problem. Was it the rug, was he too hot, fungal infection etc etc. Only thing I could put it down to was wormer. Was he allergic to it. What had really happened was that I wormed him when his immune system was poor and probably when ACTH levels were high and his immune system couldn't cope.

I hope you can get it sorted on Monday, that it is something else and this is just something to keep at the back of your mind for the future.

I treated the "rainscald" in every way possible but at the end of the day found it best just to leave it alone. The only thing that worked at all was sudocrem. It got to the stage that I was cleaning all the rainscald one day and treating it with sudocrem and by the next day another half dozen areas had appeared. Just leaving it didn't do any harm. This started happening year after year and got worse with each year.
Hopefully L's problem really will be rainscald and the vet will have an answer.
 
OP - wish you'd said about the other ailments in conjunction with the (what looks like to you) rainscald.
Vet will prob be needing to take bloods as may be a reaction, or perhaps a symptom of something else (as mentioned by another ^)

Its always difficult to help without a full picture & what could be good advice for one singular problem may well be incorrect if other observations had been mentioned.

Hope you manage to get it sorted soon :)
 
Fuzzyfurry was just asking about topical treatments for rainscald so fairly natural i only talked about that though i did mention the lami prone i think as well. Never heard before of RS being linked to anything else.

Paddy many thanks vv much for the extra info !! And Thanks all suggestions for topical treatments. Yes she is 9 now.

Will update after expert horse vet has been on Monday....
 
Update......the vet has been (I waited so Mr Horse expert vet came) and he says he is sure it isn't rain scald hurrah, just greasy spots). So I will be washing the numnah after every ride in gentle type stuff!

And....she hasn't got any laminitis come back either, she looks as if she knocked her rear hind and she is now sound, definitely not lami.

I am so relieved!

So he said she can be ridden, the more the better.

He was also very complimentary about her svelte shape and general appearance compared with when he came and diagnosed mild lami 18 months ago, he said he was very impressed :-))))))))

The only fly in the ointment now is a Very tiny nodule on inner thigh which could become a sarcoid in time if it changes and spreads, but ATM no sign of it doing that, just watch and wait
job.

Thankyou everyone for your great help when I was panicking! and I will def bear in mind the info about Alf, for future reference in case there is a genetic aspect and it crops up.
 
I have not had any rain scald or mud fever with my ponies since I started feeding them extra minerals.......started with Pat Coleby mix and now I use a mixture that I can buy from the feed merchant!! I used to find rugging them made them worse (nice warm damp space for the bugs!!).....the best topical treatment was black wound powder and flowers of sulphur mixed half and half and puffed on 2ce a day for 3 days, then 1ce a day for 3 days......
 
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