Severe pastern dermatitis

[Dr_Horse]

Hi guys!
I'm a bit of a lurker rather than a poster but wondered if anyone had any experience with the above?

My mare has had a horrid 3 weeks. She has been intermittently lame. only ever 3/10ths at the most.

Everything was starting to look up, I turned her out sat morning and went away for the weekend (she is on FL)
When I got her back in Monday morning the leg had got much much worse. It was weeping pus and blood and she generally was not happy.

Still only 3/10ths lame.

Vet came few hours later (she had been standing in) and when he asked to trot her up she is about 8/10ths lame.

He sedated, clipped as much as he possibly could off , and gave it a really deep clean. He has then placed powdered antibi's onto a gel, on to a new hi tech drawing pad and bandaged her leg up!

Now my concerns.

It's REALLY rare for dark bay horses (with black skin all over) to get dermatitis. IS this going to be a re-occurring thing?

What is your daily routine once treatment has finished?

What are the best treatments?

Is she liable to be susceptible to it in other creases?

My photo's really do not do it justice. It is horrid! But camera didn't pick it up particularly well!
Will try and get another pic tomorrow when we change the dressing!


and her full leg bandage!

 

[5bs]

My horse had it really badly last year, it took me about three months to get on top of it, and lots of vet visits.

He firstly had two weeks of antibs, twice a day, with a steroid cream to apply twice a day.

I would soak the leg twice a week in a bucket of warm water, and wash it with sebolytic shampoo, towel dry very carefully and let the air get to it, but not the sun, so I would apply the steroid cream and then factor fifty sun block on top.

Mine is a cob, and I have had to let his feathers grow, as the sun can make it return, but touch wood we have been clear since August. The course of two weeks antibs is what got on top of it to enable me to then, sort him out.

He has only one leg that got it, my vet never suggested bandaging, I was told as much t/o as possible to keep him moving. His leg was red raw, and very hot to the touch, with lots of oozing scabs, but within 24hours of abs, it dried up and the cream helped it along.

Also make sure he has a good vit and min supplement, lots of forage etc, as what goes in affects what happens outside.

 

[JillA]

I had one that looked like mud fever but wasn't - it cleared up when I got some (very expensive) cream from the vet and it hasn't recurred. It happened in the wet sloppy mud at the beginning of winter - I suspect organisms got in to any tiny lesions in the skin and they didn't respond to any of the normal MF treatments. Did this happen in wet turn out or otherwise did your vet take any skin scrapings to see if there is something nasty in there? Mine did and there was nothing other than normal bacteria.

 

[MerrySherryRider]

My dark bay mare has white socks and is very prone to this in the summer.

2 years ago, I was away on holiday and came back to find it was very bad. Whole hind leg was swollen, so treated with antibiotics and steroids. Swelling went down quickly as she was left out to keep moving. It took ages to finally get on top of the scabs.
She was so good while I cleaned it and applied sudocrem. Initially I used diluted hibiscrub but then just used salt water and sudocrem, which acted as a sun block and softened the scabs enough to scratch off.

Last summer I managed to catch it before it took hold and this year I'm looking at trying Keratex mud shield powder for its disinfectant properties or a spray on sunblock.
It seems, with her, to be a photosensitive problem rather than due to muddy conditions.

 

[magicmoose]

I have tackled my thin-skinned TB's issues from the inside out this past winter, which seems to have worked better than purely topical treatments.

I have added a VERY good mineral balancer to his diet to make sure that he can grow well connected tissue to withstand attack. When he had a problem, I added echinacea to his feeds to help boost his immune system.

I also used Vetericyn religiously twice a day on any broken skin or scabs.

It could have been one of the above or a combination of all three, but in previous years he has had repeated severe mud fever, compared to a single minor bout in October/November. Once it healed, it has not recurred, despite living out in all weathers on a Scottish hillside.