Mud fever again? :( rant/what more can I do?

Yesterday I found one little chunky on one of Lacey's fetlocks (yay for shaving them early, I found it before it was everywhere!) so I figured I'd wash her legs super well today and re-shave all her legs, just to head anything off at the pass, right??

Well. I washed her legs, with anti-fungal shampoo, and as I shaved her, more and more little chunkies showed up. Thankfully they aren't on all 4 legs like last year, just 3 out of 4. It isn't terrible either, there are about 3 crusties per leg with crusties so hopefully it'll clear up rather quickly with treatment.
On top of that, one of her back legs has a really large, not deep, cut that was covered by her hair. It's about half healed but it explains why she's been resting that leg so much...

I'm really disappointed because I've been trying to do everything possible to make it so she'd stay mud fever free this year.
I've been double dosing her on Vitamin A for the last 3 months (her ration balancer has 19,000 AU and she's on a vitamin supplement with over 25,000 AU), I shaved her legs early to help them stay dry, I've been brushing any mud on her legs off on a bi-daily basis, she's getting 4oz of flax seed/day which is supposed to help with immune system stuff, AND I've been washing her legs every 2 or so weeks with anti-fungal shampoo.


Is there anything more I can be doing to help her?
I plan to start washing her legs every couple of days (I'm concerned about over-washing them otherwise I'd do it every day)...
Does she need MORE vitamin A?
This is very frustrating. Hmph.

Try using MTG....that is what we use for mud fever. Also what anti-fungal shampoo do you use? My mare has mud fever and all I use for it is MTG. But I thought Id start using a anti-fungus shampoo. Not sure what kind. I was thinking betadine or Mane and Tail Protect.

I'll give MTG a try. Lacey sometimes appears to be sensitive to stuff so I've been hesitant to use it, but if it works, I'm game to try. You just slather it on the affected areas and leave it?

The anti-fungal shampoo I've been using is Mane and Tail "Pro-tect". It seems to work ok, soothing-wise, and I have used it successfully to clear up rain rot on another horse so I think it works well, just I guess Lacey wants to be harder to "fix" than that. Haha
The other thing about it is that to really see results, even though the packaging says to leave the suds on for 10 mins, then rinse, I never had good results with that. To get fast results, you have to leave it on for at least 15+minutes. I liked to get them (I was in charge of caring for THREE other horses with rain rot/mud fever last year, it was ridiculous) set up with their legs/backs/whatever the problem area was sudsed up, then tie them and feed them half their breakfast hay. By the time they were done eating, the suds had been on long enough and I just rinsed them off and turned them back out.
It made for a very efficient rain rot/mud fever treating assembly line. Haha!
I'm actually finding it much harder to care for a single horse with it than a group!

How much Vit A is she actually getting per day? Horses get loads of it in fresh grass and most supplements are wayyy too low. Some horses appear to need more than others as well.

Check out Mare Plus by farnam....This is the way to go for a good vit A/ all around supp....It has 800,000 UI of vit A so way more than yours. Its a great supplement for any horse IME. I use it for any gender of horse as a generic supplement. I never have mud fever, rain rot, lice or any of those things since I started supplementing with the Mare Plus or injectable cattle Vit A fed over feed orally once a month for a big boost when im out of the mare plus.

Farnam - Your partner in horse care

Have you tried diaper rash cream? It acts as a barrier to the wet and mud. If you do decide to try it, you need to make sure that her legs are really dry before applying it or else you will seal the moisture in. I would keep on doing as you are already doing and try putting it on after you dry her legs off.

A copper supplement can also help.

For how much Vit A she's getting, (I just looked it up so these are the numbers from the manufacturers) from the vitamin supplement (Farnam's Vita-Plus) she gets 50,000 IU/serving and the Enrich 32 gives her 24,000 IU/serving. So she's getting about 74,000 IU per day from her hard feed.
The grass is also really starting to grow here and that probably makes up 1/3 her total daily intake of food.

I just looked that Mare Plus up on Smart Pak. It looks really good. However, the packaging advises against feeding it in addition to any other feed that has added selenium... The Mare Plus and the Vita Plus both have 20 mcg, per serving, of selenium... The Enrich 32 I'm feeding has 1.5ppm of selenium. Could that cause an overdose?
We do live in the PNW which is typically very low in natural selenium but I've never had anything tested so I don't know for sure that Lacey is deficient in these things or that her pasture is...

Also, on SmartPak, Mare Plus only has the whole declared ingredients thing per pound, no per ounce/serving...
If I do the math correctly, the Mare Plus appears to give 100,000 IU of vit A per serving while the Vita Plus is just 50,000 IU per serving.
Is 124,000 IU vit A per day going to cause Lacey to go all vitamin A overdose on me?

If you all think she'd be fine with that, I'm happy to get her the Mare Plus. I just don't want more issues. Haha
Here are the lunks to everything so you don't have to go searching:
Enrich 32: Purina Horse Feeds - NATURE'S ESSENTIALS
Mare Plus (note that the declared ingredients are only per lb): Mare Plus - Horse Multi-Vitamin Supplements from SmartPak Equine
Vita Plus: Vita Plus - Horse Multi-Vitamin Supplements from SmartPak Equine

Thanks HAMP (hahaha)! :) I will look into that. I'm not sure how dry I'd be able to get her legs, I towel dry them very thoroughly after washing but her legs are generally still a little damp after that and, since we're in the NW in the spring, it's going to be very difficult to get her legs bone dry.
But if a little dampness is acceptable, it sounds good to me!


DraftX, do you know how much copper is recommended per day? It looks like she's getting 185 ppm from her Enrich 32 (but I'm not sure if that's per bag or per serving) and 4 mg/serving from the vitamin supplement she's on (Vita-Plus).
I just did a Google search and it appears like copper is one of those super tricky things to supplement... That makes me nervous a little.


Thank you all for your help so far. I appreciate it. :)

I wouldnt give multiple vitamin supplements but rather pick and feed only one that seems best. Selenium is much more of a risk for OD than Vit A.

As for the math lol...Ill let someone else do it. ;D

I would start by talking with you local extension office, equine nutritionist, or some other knowledgeable person who can let you know if your area's soil is copper and/or sulfur deficient. Without knowing what your horses are getting by way of forage, it's tough to know how much, if any, you should add through supplementation.

On a similar note, you should also ask about the selenium. Selenium can be absorbed from the soil into the hay you're feeding (totally depends on where you're located and where your hay was grown) and can add additional selenium into your horse's diet in quite significant amounts, so you will want to know if and how much you're feeding that way in order to adequately assess whether your supplements are appropriate. I believe the total recommended daily intake for a horse of average size is somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 mg (note that's milligrams, not micrograms), but much of that may come from forage, depending on your area.