Mud Rash - I posted this on General but I think it should be in this section!

[Vik]

Hi,

I was at my yard this evening and my TB mare had been brought in and her legs had not been washed down. I tried my best to brush off the mud on her legs but it is pretty caked.

Background is that she had a bad skin wound on her back leg. It's taken 6 weeks to heal and the wound has healed over but there is still a sliver that doesnt have hair on it. I have been bathing it with Betidene (an antiseptic wash).

The only thing is - I washed her bad leg with warm water to get rid of the mud so I can apply the Betidene. Is this ok ? As surely leaving the mud caked over the wound isnt ideal.

I was told that washing can encourage MUD RASH. Please can someone explain....

Thank You !

Best Regards,


Vicki

[pandapotato]

Washing...

I've never heard that washing encourages mud rash!! ANd Betadine is the ideal soap to use, so props on that!

I would definitely continue to wash mud off of her legs with plenty of betadine scrub. Then make sure to leave it to the open air and not cover it with any thing. Same goes for any rain rot or such on backs! Its a fungus type thing so it needs to be clean and dry.

[MelanieD]

The idea with not washing is that the mud is usually on the outer layer of fur and doesn't get to the skin whereas squirting with a hose gets the skin wet. For a wound you wouldn't have the protection from the fur so better to wash.

[Bebe]

Better to wash if there's a wound. When Bebe cut her pastern badly it took ages to heal and I was paranoid about mud getting in to it. I used to slather nappy cream over the bad area and then put an overreach boot over it for turnout. It seemed to keep the worst of the mud out and that was the only leg she didn't get mudfever on that year.