Rainy Weather Concerns: Thrush and Greasy Heel
Tuesday September 11, 2007
Waking to a very wet, cloudy morning and seeing puddles covering the front paddock has reminded me that rainy fall weather is on the way.
Fredina, who is not thrilled about the rain and the fact that I showed up with camera and cream rather than breakfast first thing.
Photo 2007 K. Blocksdorf I'm not ready for colder weather! And colder wet weather means a greater risk of greasy heel and thrush. I battled grease heel and thrush when I had my old Clyde cross mare. It required constant vigilance to keep both in check. Presently, my Thoroughbred mare Fredina, has a touch of grease heel.
Photo 2007 K. Blocksdorf
Greasy heel has several names: mud fever, grease heel or scratches. Whatever you call it, left unattended it can cause cracked skin in the pastern areas that can be difficult to heal since the area is always flexing as the horse walks. The pain from the inflamed skin can cause the horse to appear lame. Left untreated the skin can become deeply cracked, and infected.
If you clean out your horse's hooves and encounter a black, moist, foul smelling substance, usually deep in the frog you've found thrush thriving. At it's early stages thrush won't do anything but look and smell bad. But again, left untreated, it can erode the hoof to the point where the horse becomes permanently lame.
Comments
my last horse blaze came to me with very bad mud fever. he had 4 white socks and the mud fever was nearly up to his knees and hocks. it had not been treated just had a bit of nappy cream put on as a barrier before we arived to look at him. our vet gave him antibiotic jabs and creams and lotions, nothing helped. i bought very expensive turnout boots, he ate them, someone sugested wrapping the legs in plastic food wrap before turning out, never tried this after the boots but it is meant to help. the only thing that cleared his mud fever up and kept it away was a spray i found on ebay. it is great, you dont have to wash and dry the legs of remove scabs, just spray it on. i used this and within a week all the scabs were falling off and hair was growing back, after using it once a week for about a month it had gone completely. i dont own blaze anymore and i dont know if my mare roxy suffers from it but i will be keeping a bottle of mudfever spray handy. it also works on rain scald.
forgot to say in comment above. this spray can only be bought online and dont know if it is sold worldwide or just uk but this is the web site address, www.mudfever.net