Help! mud fever???

Ginger Thing

Ginger Thing

Active Member
Jul 10, 2003
2,781
0
36
Staffordshire
I've had my little ex-racer for a week and a half now, he's dark bay with 2 white hind feet and when he came he had some scabs on his heels which I removed. Since then it's been hot and dry, but overnight and today we have had torrential rain. Went to fetch him in about 3pm and both back fetlocks are swollen. Previous owner said it has happened before, he has no scabs now and he is stabled tonight with clean, dry, Keratex-powdered legs.

Should I exercise him to improve circulation/reduce swelling? Should I keep him in (the grass in his field is very long so will be a problem if wet)? And how long would you expect swelling to last before becoming worried about infection and calling vet in case AB's needed? Any advice welcome as our other 2 have never suffered with this so it's new to me :unsure:
 
My girl has 3 white socks :-( She has had mud fever twice since I got her, I called the vet second time as it was quite bad, he said not to keep her in but use a barrier cream on them after making sure dry.

He said to use hibiscrub nightly to bathe then dried with kitchen roll, applied flamazine from for a week. Once a bit better stopped the hibiscrub and flamazine and just made sure dry each night (more kitchen towels) and covered in sudocreme to act as barrier against moisture, its was about 2 1/2 to 3wks before scarlet stopped having cream of any sorts put on and she is now totally fine.

Hope your boy recovers quickly, if no improvement best to speak to vet
 
Are you sure the swelling is related to the scabs? I'd have him out during the day and in at night to dry the legs off and deal with the scabs. If they are swelling and hot I'd phone the vet and get antibiotics. Mud fever is a PITA to treat!
 
My ex racer suffered really badly with mud fever. The easiest thing I found to treat it and that actually worked was Camrosa. Plaster it on, DON'T pick off the scabs - the Camrosa lifts them off when they are ready to come off. Few days later, all scabs will be off and nice pink skin underneath. When hugely muddy I put Camrosa with kitchen towel on top, bandaged and topped off with plastic bags!!! Horse very happy out with his friends and fab for de-spooking legs!

Tried the hibiscrub, sudocrem ........ but no good at all. Prevention is brilliant in the form of pig oil and sulphur when scabs and sores gone.
 
Swelling was just as bad this afternoon as he's been in, but I didn't want him getting wet in the long grass as it was pouring this morning. However it's now sunny and the grass is dry, I walked him in hand for a bit then turned him out in the lunge pen and the swelling did reduce, so I've put Keratax Mud Shield powder on and turned him out again. Will go check him later to see if there's any difference.

I have read soooo many conflicting opinions on treatment of mud fever, loads of folk say don't bathe with Hibiscrub as it's best to keep legs dry and some say remove scabs, some say leave them :unsure: I bought some Sudocrem but have still gone with the Keratex powder, it's supposed to dry the legs out and has waterproofing properties. Years ago my old horse used to get scabs and we washed, dried and powdered his legs every night, but he never got any swelling. Maybe me pulling the scabs off when I got him didn't help.

At least now I know he's prone to it I can try to keep his legs as dry as possible, my old horse has some Thermatex leg wraps he doesn't use so will use them on Archi when he's wet.

Will see how he is later and if no improvement will get vet out tomorrow, thanks for all replies :smile:
 
Innocence said:
Once you have cleaned them up do pig oil and sulphur!
Click to expand...

People on my old yard use this and suggested it for Scarlet, I would do a patch test if using this, tried it once she had healed and all scabs gone, turns out Scarlet is uber sensitive and had a bad reaction to the sulphur.
 
My daughters pony had mud fever a few years ago, he also had some swelling.

At the time I was renting a small yard so I kept him out on the yard with access to an open stable.

I used udder cream twice a day, the scabs just softened up and fell off.
 
newrider.com
Top Bottom
Back