Mud fever and feathers...confused?

[chickflick1066]

I'm confused. In horrendously muddy fields is it correct to keep or remove horses with plenty of feather. Stumpy has a fair bit of feather but I'm worried she might get mud fever. Last winter she didn't get it but now we've moved to a yard with knee high mud in winter.

I've read and heard contradicting ideas. I've always been told to keep the feather on as it stops the mud from ever actually reaching the heels etc but then i read in H&R that the feather traps the mud and is a breeding ground for mudfever.

Is there any feed supplements which might work. Stumpy is currently fed NAF Mud Guard but does this actually help?

What should I do?

[Big Ears]

does she live out? if she comes in at night, I would leave the feather on, and use the leggings to dry the legs out overnight, and that should do the trick.

if she is out all the time, then it may be better to clip the legs and apply barrier cream, but she may not like them being clippped anyway, so may not be possible.

you can get barrier type leggings to wear int he field but they won't fit over feathrs.

[chickflick1066]

She's out 24/7. She's never been clipped but didnt even look when the feathers were tested near her so removing them shouldnt be too much of a hurdle.

[No_Angel]

mud fever I think, is caused by bacteria in the earth and the horse having a reaction to it.
I have a hw cob with feathers, and my old pony had feathers and they have never got mud feaver. when they lived out 24/7 i just made sure I brushed through the feathers regularly when they were dry to get rid of any mud.

[chickflick1066]

Ah thats what i was hoping to do No Angel :) I think she looks well cuter with her feather - best pic i could find of her feather. Please excuse the hideous rider :o

[MelanieD]

If out 24/7 I'd leave the feathers on and not wash them at all unless you really have to. Have a good rummage for scabs once a week or so. If you clip then the legs will get wet straight away and stay wet unless he's out of the mud to dry off, with feathers there's at least some chance of the mud not getting to the skin. If coming in at night I trim the feathers as I found last year that fatty's feathers weren't completely dry by the morning so trimmed them so they could dry off properly when she was in. I've done out 24/7 in deep mud before and it got so bad I ended up moving yard. If there's dry bits then some deep mud isn't a problem but I wouldn't put up with my horse being stood in deep mud all the time again, caused too many problems.

[Mehitabel]

I've read and heard contradicting ideas. I've always been told to keep the feather on as it stops the mud from ever actually reaching the heels etc but then i read in H&R that the feather traps the mud and is a breeding ground for mudfever.



my opinion is that to prevent mudfever, the first bit is right. ideally, the mud sticks to the outer bits of the feather, clumps it together and the mud doesn't reach the skin. if the mud *does* reach the skin, then the second bit is right. so once you have scabs, feather off and clean and get air to it, as the bacteria thrives in warm, damp and airless conditions.
but the feather should stop the skin getting wet in the first place, which is what opens the pores and lets the bacteria in. but obviously it's not foolproof, so if the feather does let any through, then it will make it worse once it's there, but it is good at preventing the majority from getting in.

if she were mine, i'd check through the feathers daily, poke around and check that the cm or so by the skin is clean and dry, and then leave them alone.
if the skin is wet and muddy, then wash and dry thoroughly - hairdryer or similar - before putting her back out.

[chickflick1066]

Cheers Mehitabel :)

[NoviceNic]

If Stumpy doesn't have Mud Fever and you are worried, then I would advise you to look into investing in some Sportabac turnout socks. Ideal prevention to Mud fever. But not to be used if your horse already has Mud fever.

[nicolaj]

I've found Keratex mud shield powder to be useful.

Have feathered horse and most barrier stuff you can get really don't seem to work (well for me anyway) on feathered horses. Can't get it close the skin where it needs to be just clogs in the hair and becomes a yukky mess!

Turnout socks I believe to be good as prevention, but you can only keep them on for up to 12 hours at a time, so if you bring your horse in at night then they can be taken off and put back on in the morning. Less practical if your horse lives out 24/7 like mine.

I'd be inclined to keep the feather on as it does protect the leg and just keep an eye on it.

[Alice25]

I logged on to start a thread about mud fever and found one was already here!! :D

I found this advice very useful, my cob lives out and has a lot of feather, and I didn't really want to trim them. I find if I do he looks like a very fat horse on thin legs :p

So, in summary, it's ok to keep the feathers are long as you check daily for scabs and brush off mud when dry?

[sidesaddlelady1]

I'm confused. In horrendously muddy fields is it correct to keep or remove horses with plenty of feather. Stumpy has a fair bit of feather but I'm worried she might get mud fever. Last winter she didn't get it but now we've moved to a yard with knee high mud in winter.

I've read and heard contradicting ideas. I've always been told to keep the feather on as it stops the mud from ever actually reaching the heels etc but then i read in H&R that the feather traps the mud and is a breeding ground for mudfever.

Is there any feed supplements which might work. Stumpy is currently fed NAF Mud Guard but does this actually help?

What should I do?

The WH has only thin ID-type feathers and last winter his hunting lady took them off for the first time ever - horrendous mud rash ensued! Antibiotics and the vet were only averted by our discovery of the sulphur and liq.parrafin cure. He'd never had his feathers off before and had never had MR before. By the time he was better they had grown again, we didn't clip his legs and he didn't get it again so we won't be clipping this year.

There is a very good little book on MR which came out last year - not much more than a pamphlet really but I would recommend it.

My own opinion is that it's better not to wash off the legs as it is difficult to dry them properly and the skin gets soggy and more suseptible to MR. I was always taught to bandage them to dry the mud and then brush it off.

[claire hodgson]

on the other hand - I once knew a horse, huge heavyweight draught horse with loads of feathers, hadn't been clipped off etc; was found to have horrendous mud fever under the feather and took the owner a heck of a job to get rid of it.

And my old mare Queenie (TB) never had mud fever until I moved her to a yard where, it transpired, the field turned into a sea of knee deep mud in the winter. very bad case, she got, and got moved sharpish to somehwere unmuddy. That was despite being liberally covered with IV Horse MFP, which I generally find works particularly well.

I think, a lot of it is to do with wether the relevant bacteria is in the soil in the field. If a place isn't known to get mud fever, as I understand it, then horses should be fine unless the bacteria is brought on (say by a new horse, or if a competition is run and there are a load of strange horses on the place for a day ...). At least, that's what I was told at my first yard many years ago, when we suddenly started having mud fever cases when we hadn't previously (but had run some competitions over the summer ...)

[laura kevin]

Feathers actually protect the heel from mud fever as it stops the mud ever making contact with the skin. As the others said, remember to brush the mud off when dry. hope that helps. :)

[monty_special43]

My horse has had mud fever for the last 5 years. When he 1st got it he has feathers, a decent amount. We didn't know anything was wrong as when looking you could not see, it was only 1 day when tiding for a show we washed his legs and could see them. We were advised to clip them off and use protocon ointment, this was applied morning and night.

We did this every year till April 07 and he still had some and its wouldn't go away, we called the vet again and the vet did some tests and informed us the reason it wouldn't go away was the horse had leukemia. Since then its been a battle to get me horse as back to normal as possiable and lots of vet bills.

Now is is starting to get the signs of mud fever back, the vet has told me not to put creams on as it will clog the pours and cause more problems ( my horse has 100's of open cuts all over his body before and balls of puss) and not to use turnout boots ( like sportac and equlibriam) as theses will increase the bateria.

Any ideas of what i could try, in the feed wise, id like things to work and views on them

[horseymum2]

After my horse had mud fever for the first time, I tried loads of different potions to prevent it happening again, but the best one for my horse turned out to be Leg Guard from Robinsons. It was a lot cheaper than most of the others and really easy to put on.

[showjumper-zoe]

Did anyone see in the newest H&R the letter about mud fever treatment.

Here it is:
http://i105.photobucket.com/albums/m222/showjumper-2k6/mudfever.jpg

[acw295]

As far as I can tell mudfever seems to be one of those things, like Lammi - where everyone has conflicting opinions and there's not a great understanding of why some get it and others don't.

It does seem though that once you've had it, you're more likely have it again. I ride a big cob who gets it, but not terribly. He has feathers on, but trimmed if needed for treatment. He is out 24/7 but has the odd few hours stood in so he can dry out a bit. His owner believes that it is 'foreign' mud that causes it, not mud from his field - so she avoids hacking in the woods in winter and on very muddy tracks. Anyone else ever heard this?

I'm inclined to the 'nature knows best' approach, in that feather does more good than bad. It certainly seems to be the case with Arthur - when his white legs are covered in mud if you part the feather the skin underneath is perfectly clean and dry, I wouldn't want to take it off unless absolutely necessary :)

[countrybumpkin]

check out www.brinicombe-equine.co.uk they have a new product for mud fever and it is on special offer! I have just started feeding it to my horse and she is eating it fine - it smells quite nice (not like the Global product!!)
They have some useful info on there too.
:)

[Hero]

have u heard of equi chaps?http://www.kandkhorseware.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=469



xxx