[crazyfilly]

The new horse I am fostering is COVERED in rain rot. I have had him for a week now. I have given him two selsun blue medicated baths, and three regular baths (cuz he won't stop rolling lol). Twice I covered him in Fung-a-Way spray, and twice i've doused him with MTG. So my question is, is there anything else on the market that I can do to help him grow his hair back and keep the fungus away? And how long should I wait to start riding him? His hair is like tiny peach fuzz right now lol.

 

[Skyseternalangel]

What's his diet like? Cherie once advised me to give my horse Sky Vitamin A orally via a syringe (like wormer) and it cleared up within a week and a half.

So what I'm getting at is make sure he's not deficient in anything, especially Vitamin A.

 

[crazyfilly]

He's a foster so he has to eat the rescue's hay/grain.

They have a standard sweet feed that they give to all of the horses. I don't really like it so I added about 1 quart of senior to his am and pm feedings and 2 pounds of a rice bran supplement (Ultra Bloom) every day. I give him 3 quarts of the sweet feed 3 times a day and he gets grass and three to four flakes of T/A hay a day. I've been putting in a free choice loose mineral in his stall, but I don't put in more than 1 and a half cups a day because he licks the bucket clean of it.

 

[Tnavas]

Diet plays an important part in protecting the horses skin - apart from the Vitamin A a mineral block that hhas Copper and Zinc in it will help a great deal.

To treat it right now - buy a bottle of Nizoral shampoo - usually you can buy it from a pharmacy.

Dilute in hand hot water and wash the horse well with it. Work well in to the hair right down to the skin. You don't need to rinse either and you also don't pick at the scabs as this can lead to secondary bacterial infection.

Generally I find that the horse only needs on wash and it clears up well.

I also use it for itchy tails, mudfever and greasy heel.

 

[goingnowhere1]

Well, rain rot is caused by having water on a horse and not drying it so...i have a bath every other week. If you keep on wetting him it may get worse. Eqyss has a topical. I found that any of their stuff works really well. Remember that rain rot won't clear up in a month. It may take all summer! So keep up what you're doing and see if it works. Gradually is the key word!

 

[Tnavas]

Well, rain rot is caused by having water on a horse and not drying it so...i have a bath every other week. If you keep on wetting him it may get worse. Eqyss has a topical. I found that any of their stuff works really well. Remember that rain rot won't clear up in a month. It may take all summer! So keep up what you're doing and see if it works. Gradually is the key word!

Rain rot will clear up within days if the correct treatment is given - it is a fungus which will get worse if left or if the scabs are picked off - then you get a secondary infectioin of the cbacteria Dermatopholus.

Nizoral is a human anti dandruff shampoo that contains Ketaconisol an anti fungal agent.

It works - very well and very fast.

Once the fungus is killed then the rain rot will stop spreading - works just as well on mudfever and greasy heel. The hair regrowth will depend on the time of year - i've found that it grows back really quickly and with a full change of coat you don't see any marks.

Horses in the area I live in are very prone to all three - high rainfall and often humid conditions cause it to happen very easily. Nizoral has proved itself an awesome treatment - I even have th elocal equine vets suggesting it to their clients.

 

[Oldhorselady]

It can be tedius for sure. I used sponges with diluted betadine scrub while picking of the scabs with flea comb. You have to get air to the sores and scrub them out. If you stay on top of it, it will go away.

 

[crazyfilly]

He doesn't have any scabs, his hair is patchy and completely gone in spots and his back is tender. Is that not rainrot? I'll try and post pics later.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[Tnavas]

Oldhorselady - betadine doesn't work particularly well on rain rot though it contains iodine the amount is not very beneficial.

Please DO NOT pick off the scabs - they are not normal scabs but lymph that has exuded from the skin. When you force them off you pull out healthy hair breaking the skin and the wound then bleeds allowing bacteria in. Removing scabs is seriously painful and very old fashioned!

Niozoral will break down the scabs and they will fall off easily. Just be patient.

Yes crazyfilly what you are describing is rain rot - being a fungus it multiplies by throwing spores outwards (just like the fairy mushroom circles) - the initial spot then dies and the area goes bald - the new hair will then start to grow so long as its not reinfected by a new spore. Washing thoroughly with Nizoral and going beyond the affected area will stop the rainrot in its tracks

The most important thing is to kill the fungus. Once killed the skin will recover very fast.

 

[Oldhorselady]

The organism is anaerobic and needs the scabs opened up to oxygen. When the areas are lightly scrubbed with the sponge it makes the scabs soften and come off. I have used betadine scrub sponges like in the operating room and it cleared up wonderfully. Severe cases may need a call to the vet for antibiotics. I will keep that in mind Tnavas if I should move back to an area that is again humid....but this is what had worked for me in the past.

 

[Tnavas]

Oldhorselady - it may work but it is painful for the horse and by picking off the scabs you risk introducing bacteria.

The Nizerol works very fast because of the ketaconisol in it. I've been doing a lot of research into these conditions because it is a big problem here.

Traditional treatment leaves horses with mudfever lame with swollen legs and distressed with the treatment - those horses that are treated with Nizoral recover very fast with no lameness or swelling and do not require any antibiotic treatment.

Because we are in a humid area we get a lot of problems with rain rot, mudfever and greasy heel so get a lot of experience dealing with it.

I have been in toouch with vets in UK, NZ and Australia all these vets are now recommending Nizoral for the treatment.

My studies ahve been done on my own horses and on the race horses that I used to look after - we generally had more than 100 horse in training at any one time so got to study many.

 

[gothicangel69]

Flash had horrible rain rot when I got him. It literally covered his whole body. I spent hundreds of dollars on treatments over the span of 3 months and could not get rid of it. I ended up changing his feed to a high quality feed with added Vitamin A, and added flax seed to his diet and stopped all other treatments as they wern't working anyways. Within two days, it was starting to clear up, and in a week it was completely gone! I havn't had an issue since and have kept him on the feed and flaxseed. Most sweet feeds are pretty crummy foods- kind of like feeding a kid candy all the time. Could you possibly speak to the rescue about changing his feed? Feeds are not too pricey, and if you told them you would look after the price of feed, I can't see them turning you down. I personnaly love Blueseal, but there are all kinds of great brands out there that are much better than sweet feed.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[crazyfilly]

I think I'm gonna try. He's already improved since I started adding supplements, but I think he will change completely if I get him off that food. I'm wondering if I just cut him down to like a half a scoop of it and add a half a scoop of the pellet I have the other horses on. It's called Seminole Wellness Perform Safe. It has a rice bloom supplement in it and my other horses look great.

 

[Tnavas]

crazyfilly are you able to get a mineral block to leave with him 24/7 - you need one that also includes Copper and Zinc - bothe these minerals are important for healthy skin.

Recently I moved my filly to new grazing - I forgot to take her mineral block. I was then away for a week. While I was away the lady keeping an eye on her phoned to tell me that the filly had terrible scabs on her face. As soon as I got home I bought a block and left it in her paddock, within two days the scabs were dropping off and the skin healing underneath.

As a weanling she developed a scabby face when the block had been finished since then, there has always been a block in the paddock and everyone has been free of mudfever (3 horses x many white legs) rain scald and greasy heel.