Rebuilding skin strength in fragile/pink skin - supplements? creams etc?

[Hels_Bells]

My oldie has been suffering from mud fever brought on by a waterworks problem which is basically here to stay and means that his legs are wet a lot of the time - though I have been applying barrier creams etc to waterproof him and padding him up overnight to waterproof etc.

I am praying now that we have the mud fever on the hop but the result is that his skin is terribly pink and fragile and I'm wondering if there is anything I can give him in his feed or apply to the skin to help make it a bit more robust. It is very pink indeed.

Also in Stable Yard.

 

[Tnavas]

Wash them with Nizerol - you can get it from the chemist. Protect with zinc ointment.

Feed supplements with zinc & copper in them - check the levels of the different supplements and get the one with the highest zinc & copper %.

 

[Hels_Bells]

Wonderful thanks Evelyn - I will give those a try!!

 

[Maesfen]

You could try brewers yeast which is a very good skin conditioner for most horses. To get healthy skin the horse needs to be healthy from the inside out so check the diet helps this.

 

[Hels_Bells]

Thanks Maesfen, it's quite difficult re the diet as he's on a hay replacement diet via an independent equine nutritionist (he's 33 so not many teeth left) he is generally really well considering his age but obv the waterworks problem isn't something that diet can fix and this is what's caused the MF and then the sensitive skin. I will certainly get some brewers yeast though, that's a good tip!!

 

[Honey08]

I have a chestnut with white legs who gets mud rash worse than anything that I have ever met, and his legs often end up like this (actually didn't do too bad this year as stayed in most of winter..). Anyway, I find that once the mud dries up at this time of year, the skin sorts itself out very quickly - especially with the vitamin D they get from this sunlight, so don't cover it in lotion unless you really have to. The only thing to watch out for is sunburn if its really hot...

 

[Hels_Bells]

Unfortunately, because of the constant urine I have to have his legs covered in something all the time otherwise the urine would burn.