summer fever

courage_uk

courage_uk

New Member
Feb 25, 2007
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cardiff

hello every one, im quite new to this site,

after reading a few topics on the forums, i thought i may try and bring this *summer fever* up and see if any one has ever heard of it.

back in the summer last year my great big donkey sam (17.1 hh han X), came down what could only be described as mud fever, he had the scabs all over his lower legs, so as most people im sure do, would treat it by keeping it clean dry and putting suder cream in> (least its how iv always done it)
well after 3 weeks it didnt clear up, so i phoned the vet out, and she couldnt understand why it had not cleared up and kept suggesting to rub off the scabs.

after another 2 weeks his legs looked dredful so i called the vet again > she was on holiday and i had a vet who studied out in france for his training, and he diagosed it as summer fever and french race horses apparently suffer a lot from this, he said it was a chemical reaction in the grass and the sun, which caused the scabs and sores on his legs, and told me to bath his legs 2 a day with iodine 1:8 or 1:10 ratio (i cant remember) with water, and dry his legs afterwards. with in the month then his legs cleared up and it was magic.

i just wondered if any one else had heared of it before, it was the 1st time for me and i found it rather intresting.
i'd love to hear from any one else who may have suffered from this,

best wishes Jo :-)
 
i didnt think to take pic's. the scabs were dry and almost looked like horn it was soo thick and hard. underneath they were quite smelly and weepy with clear puss, it wasnt just under the fetlocks it went up the whole back leg to his hocks on the sides,
 
Welcome :D

2 of my horses got something similar to this over the last couple of years, first Bo got it, it started in about July and we treated it like MF, tried all the tricks but it was still there. It didn't go right up his legs but on his heels was so bad they bled as he moved :( it was only at the end of september when I started feeding them it cleared up (I was still doing the same treatment) - he was only getting chaff and garlic so I put it down to the garlic's anti-biotic properties :D Bo also had terrible sun burn that summer (worse than ever before) and got what looked like Rain scald on his head a bit later that winter, we think it was the same thing.

Jess then got it last summer, about the same time when it was really hot and dry, again we went through all the normal MF treatments, they would seem to help a bit but not clear it up completely. First vet said it was MF and to keep treating it. Later another vet took a look and she said it looked to her like Jess had eaten or come into contact with a plant that causes photosensitivity (we checked the fields but couldn't find anything obvious), she suggested a steriod cream to clear it up but said it would keep recurring if she kept eating it, luckily I was moving yards 3 weeks later so she said just to leave it completely alone and see how it went once we moved. 2 weeks after moving it had all but cleared up and we have had no recurrance.

Both horses have been out in all weathers (hot and cold, dry and wet) and in fields knee deep in mud and fields prone to mud fever but neither had ever had a problem before we went to this yard, I really think the vet was right about a plant causing the problem, so I would check your fields very carefully to make sure you don't have any :p

J x
 
Captain has always had it..and I have moved him 4 times.Many told me it was Mud Fever but nothing works. I now clip his legs and it keeps the grease build up away and seems to help loads. I remember Torny putting something on once about Photosensitivity. May be worth a try searching for that thread and having a look at people's ideas and advise. Lets face it, anything worth a try to get rid of it...;)
 
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aww thanks for your replys, i found this rather intresting,

in our feild out in wales its on 2 slops and there is a stream in the middle where to the hills make a vally, not noticed buttercups before, though i will keep an extra eye out this year, as its a farm type field, there are quite a lot of thistles and i noticed both my horses later on in august n september eating all the blackburrys before the pickers could, maybe it had something to do with that ?

any more ideas or experences let me know :-) im just so glad im not the only one!

thanks again jos' xx
 
Dermatophilus is the bacteria that lives in the skin. It loves there quite happily and then finds a way in e.g. wet skin and causes tproblems such as mudfever or rainscald. soemtimes it can get in if horses has sweated under rugs and the skin becomes soft and more likely to tear causing infection.

i guess its a bit like in humans when we have all these bugs living on us and which only cause harm when skin/immune system is compromised.

Hope I am making some sense in ramblings here. Bad day at work with badly behaving adults does serious damage to brain function. Sorry!!
 
aww we like rambling its always great to hear what other people have experienced, and for those naughty people @ work, send them over to me, i look after and keep 90 men under the thumb in work LOL (great being the only lady down where i am LOL) :p
 
thanks for that!!

not much to add i don't think, except what I have said I could have said better!! Only other thing is you can smell the infection something along lines of wet dog which had sat in a cupboard for a few days(not pleasant!!)

As for people at work- its supposed to be the kids with behavioural probs not staff!!!
 
oh dear, well i may not know too much about this summer fever mel-arkie, but i know hte cure for a stressful day in work, Go get a nice strong brew on :-) always helps xxx
 
i did, morning and night, iodine water (1:8) but i just geussed it by a water bucked 1/2 filled with a few glugs of the bottle, (wear gloves) and scrub it into the sores and scabbs, rinse off, then dry the legs and scabs completely and try and heep ya horse clean, sam's legs cleared up with in a few weeks then, give it ago, xxx
 
to get iodine, best bet is to get ya bum off to country wide or a farming type shop and ask for it there, boots also works but hte amount u need ya talking about 5-10 liters of the stuff :-) hope that helped
 
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