Preventing Mud Fever

[louderry]

Hello,

Can anyone give me any tips to help prevent my horse from getting mud fever??

IE. Should I be washing his feet every time he's brought in??? this is what I have been doing, but someone said to me the other day not to??

Help!

[ally]

Hi Ya !!
There are several options to hand.
1) Move some where dry . lol
2) Dont turn out,

Seriously there are a few preventitves you can use, if you need to hose legs daily then take the excess out of the hair on the legs by using a piece of baler twine as a sweat scraper then bandage over the wet legs with stable bandages or you could try those polly pad travelling boots !!.
A company called Gold Label sell a product that is silicon based which helps too , called Mud Guard.
If all this fails and your horse gets mud fever, your vet could possibly prescribe a steroid based anti biotic cream similar to stuff called Fuciderm.
Hope this was of some use !!!!!

:D
Love Ally

[Sharon H]

Has your horse had mud fever before? Do any of the other horses at the yard get it? If the answer to both of those is no, then I personally wouldn't bother washing his legs off. If you do wash them, make sure you dry them off with an old towel or something. I've always found the best way to prevent mud fever is to leave the legs well alone. I don't brush or wash Henry's legs at all during the winter. I was speaking to my farrier about mud fever last year when it was so wet, he said that out of all his customers, the ones who had the most problems were the ones who tried their hardest to prevent it!

[ros]

I used to get really annoyed that of all the people I knew it always seemed to be the ones who couldn't give a damn that never had any problems. But then I began to wonder if it was maybe more likely that their horses did have problems but they just didn't realise it!

[sweetbriar]

Ros, I agree with you totally!

I love and take care of my mare and have taken great pains to make sure she's healthy and well cared for. When I first got her she developed mud fever and I felt like the worst person on earth. All the others who seem to get away with not grooming, not exercising their horses too frequently and leaving them in for days on end get no comeback at all. Its a frequent topic of discussion between myself and my hacking partner.

I use liquid paraffin on my ponys legs every time I go out or turn her out. I have not had a days trouble since I started using it. The only problem is that it comes in small bottles from the chemist and you have to buy two or three at a time. I would highly recommend it. My pony is grey and has pink, sensitive skin.

[Sharon H]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Mud fever is caused by bacteria in the soil. Some fields have it and some fields don't.Some horses are more prone to it than others. If the skin on the horse's legs is broken, even with just a tiny scratch, the bacteria can then enter. I agree that if your horse is showing signs of having it then, obviously you need to treat it but I don't think it is necessary to wash the legs off every time they come in as a precaution, particulary if they are not dried off afterwards. Think how sore and chapped your hands would be if you kept running them under the tap and not drying them off properly in the winter? Washing the legs will also remove a lot of the oil and dirt from the skin which is a natural barrier to skin infection.

[heland]

The horses at our yard have'nt had mud fever.

My horse has one white sock and before I turn him out I put vaseline on, the others I just leave. I only wash his legs when it's absolutely necessary and then I towel dry them.

I have heard that if a horse gets mud fever sudacreme is very good:)

[ros]

I think a lot of it depends on what sort of horse you have and what conditions they're kept in (stabled/at grass/combination). If a horse has a fine coat and little feather you can probably get away with scraping off the worst of any mud and allowing them to dry naturally; if he has a lot of feather (as one of mine has) it's impossible for muddy, shaggy feathers to dry by themselves. I clip Frank's legs as soon as we get mud, and wash them and towel dry if he's plastered, otherwise leave them more or less alone.

I've also heard/read that the bacteria that cause mud fever aren't always present in the soil, which would explain why some horses don't seem to suffer however muddy they get!

My blacksmith went to a talk last winter, and the suggestion was that athletes foot powder (Boots own-brand, cheap & cheerful!) was as effective as anything. I don't like creams myself as a) they make for a lot of sticky dirt and b) I suspect they soften the skin, which allows even more bacteria through, but I'm sure a lot of people will swear by them so it's probably a question of personal choice.

[RoxR]

I have never suffered (nor my horses!) with mud fever, but I was talking to someone about it recently. I don't know much about the effect of bacteria, but apparently if you clip off a horse's feathers you are removing their natural protection - water on the legs automatically runs down the hair and drips off the feathers rather than come into contact with the skin. Also dry mud on the feathers forms its own protective barrier against further wet mud and prevents it coming into contact with the skin again. If you constantly wash their legs you are constantly making them more vulnerable. I check my horses' legs every day and they are both fine. They live out with a stable to go in as and when they choose, and living in Wales on a hilly farm, we have very muddy places!
Obviously if the horse is already suffering then it needs to be treated (if you look on horseweb-uk.com there is a thread on this with some good suggestions), but sometimes we can be overprotective and forget that horses are designed to live outside without help from humans, and some of the problems they suffer from are caused, not prevented, by well intentioned human intervention!!
:)

[ros]

Some subscribe to the theory that feathers give protection, some don't. Merly has some feathering, but not so much that his legs won't normally dry off by themselves overnight, so I don't clip his and I only wash them if they're really plastered; Frank, however, has very heavy feathering, and although the feathers do keep out the mud and wet for some time, there always comes a point where they get completely saturated and simply hold the mud and water against his skin. So I clip his legs out before we reach that point. As I said, it depends a lot on the type of horse, field conditions and so on.

[louderry]

Hi everyone,
Thanks for all your helpful comments, Hope you didn't think I was being rude not replying earlier but this is the first time I've got to a computer!!!!!!!!!!

Many thanks once again - roll on summer!!

byeeeeeeeee
Lou

[Mossy]

I'm no expert but I reckon to leave well alone, No hosing an definitely no brushing of wet mud. BUT give those legs and feet a chance to dry out naturally every so often. Moss was out all last winter in horrific conditions which I could do nothing about and suffered dreadfully. I felt awful and so did he. This year and a change of yard - stabled at night , not a hint of mud fever - touch wood! He is feathered up to his armpits and untrimmed, gets his feet picked out night and morning and the mud brushed of in the morning when it is dry. Conn gets the same regime which seems to work with her too.