The dreaded mudrash

[taffy's mum]

Hi All,

I have just found this wonderfull family and am looking forward to sharing my knowledge and benefiting from others.
My poor boy is on box rest at the moment to keep his legs mud free and dry as he has awful scabs on his legs at the moment.

I am hoping that by the weekend i will have managed to treat and remove all scabs and would love to get him back out in the fresh air. The fields are still awful, can anyone advise the best thing to put on his legs, i have on equidermis which seems to be making a difference.

:p

[nelle]

my pony had a mild case a couple of weeks ago, I used zinc and caster oil cream which cleared it up really quickly.

[HorseWhisp3r3r]

I fine Hibiscrub invaluable, wash the legs ( dilute it as advised) in it remove the scabs that are coming off and dry the legs after.

[Iron Maiden]

If you do a search for 'mud fever' you'll find about 10 million billion things to try...! (OK slight exagguration) For what it's worth, I've found feeding linseed or evening primrose oil helps prevent it. Once you've realised it's there, I always use tepid water for washing, I prefer betadine to hibiscrub for getting scabs off but maybe only because I prefer orange things to pink things:D

After washing, I find it really helpful to do the final rinse to get the betadine (or whatever) off with tepid water that's got an emollient in it (I use Oilatum), then pat dry the legs thoroughly with a clean towel and/or put leg wraps on. This is to try to stop the healthy skin chapping - if the skin's 'barrier' is broken, that will allow the mud fever bugs to get in & the infection will spread. I also smother the legs in nappy cream before turning out. This method works for me, but I think just about everyone has their favourite remedy - as far as I can tell there's no one 'right' way that works every time!

[Bebe]

After washing, I find it really helpful to do the final rinse to get the betadine (or whatever) off with tepid water that's got an emollient in it (I use Oilatum), then pat dry the legs thoroughly with a clean towel and/or put leg wraps on. This is to try to stop the healthy skin chapping - if the skin's 'barrier' is broken, that will allow the mud fever bugs to get in & the infection will spread. I also smother the legs in nappy cream before turning out. This method works for me, but I think just about everyone has their favourite remedy - as far as I can tell there's no one 'right' way that works every time!


I do pretty much the same thing, though at the minute I'm using Aqueous cream (nice and cheap and easy to put on and get off) with good results.

I've got a homeopathic remedy that works to get rid of any scabby bits once they appear but it doesn't seem to work as a preventative, hence the Aqueous cream.

It is a case of trial and error as to what works best for each horse though unfortunately. Part of this is due to the many different types of bacteria that can cause mud fever, each will respond to something different.

[coss]

i apply muddy marvels mud fever barrier cream once a fortnight and it sticks to the horse for ages (sometimes over two weeks depending on conditions) so i am with that. my mare had mudfever and i applied that over the top and it has really helped (its designed to breathe)

[taffy's mum]

I have him stables 24hours at the moment as was advised i have to get rid of all scabs before putting barrier cream on and putting him out. I tried betadine for the first week and it worked well to reduce the scabs but now i have stopped i am left with dry scabs that wont come of. I will wash his legs tonight again and try and remove some of them and then rinse them of with depid water. I did forget to say however that i broke my wrist 2 weeks ago (yes my right one which i need to do everything aparently) when i jumped a cross county fence and Taffy didnt so washing isnt easy........:rolleyes:

[coss]

I have him stables 24hours at the moment as was advised i have to get rid of all scabs before putting barrier cream on and putting him out. I tried betadine for the first week and it worked well to reduce the scabs but now i have stopped i am left with dry scabs that wont come of. I will wash his legs tonight again and try and remove some of them and then rinse them of with depid water. I did forget to say however that i broke my wrist 2 weeks ago (yes my right one which i need to do everything aparently) when i jumped a cross county fence and Taffy didnt so washing isnt easy........:rolleyes:

my vet told me not to worry about the scabs (i know it could and probably is different for your horse). i have the muddy marvels ***-infectant and had to wash the legs. let them dry (one night in with bandages on to prevent them getting dirty again and my mare kicks herself :rolleyes: ) then put the disinfectant on (it contains chloro-hexine), leave to dry and put the barrier cream on OVER THE SCABS!!! it has worked. the barrier cream prevented the scabs getting worse and the ***-infectant helped to get rid of the scabs. my mare was out 24/7 and came in every two weeks just to go through the process again...
Of course there are different methods, thats just what worked for me.

[thoroughlybred1]

an easy and less painful way to get rid of mud fever scabs i find is to oil the affected area (baby oil works just fine tho an anti bacterial cream is better) then wrap in cling film. This loosens the scabs no end, making it easy to access and treat the infected area without continually wetting/drying/picking/scrubbing and possibly spreading the bacteria.

we trialled this quite recently, subject A had quite a mild mud rash, which was stamped on immediately by hibiscrubbing, drying, then applying a mud fever cream. subject B had thick scabs with well established mud fever and was treated via the cling film method. Once the scabs had cleared, a mud fever cream was used to kill the bacteria

subject A's rash took longer to get rid of and spread to a wider area, as well as being far more time consuming to treat. subject B's cleared up far quicker, remained localised and cleared up significantly quicker, even though it was a more established condition.

Even more interesting was that subject A suffered a second bout of mud fever, and subject b didnt!

[taffy's mum]

Thanks everyone for your advise.

I ended up using Hibiscrub to wash his legs and then used bactikill over the top to dry into his skin. Mudrash has now gone completly and Taffy is now out playing with his friends once again.

A word of warning though i paid a rather large sum of money for long field boots to stop it happening again but the mud just goes up the inside and gets rubbed into the legs. He is now out with baby oil on his legs and all going well.

:o

[coss]

yey :)

pleased its sorted, and thanks for the warning, if anyone asks me if they should get them i'll say no :D