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The Horse |
Dermatophilus Congolensis - Rain Scald, Mud Fever, Cracked Heels |
            
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 Rain
Scald, Rain Rot, Mud Fever, Cracked Heels, scratches
dermatophilus is the bacteria in question and it loves damp humid
conditions but don't mistake it for a fungus. Just to make it even
more unwelcome there's almost as many names as there are places that this
annoying little bacteria can attack your horse and there are so many
remedies for this bug that its easy to be very confused about how to treat
it. The bacteria can remain dormant for quite long periods of time
on your horse, in its tack and in the ground. Once the infection is
treated, the skin will heal and hair will regrow provided the area is
protected from further infection or damage. If left untreated, a mud fever infection will spread up the legs. The legs will swell and be intensely sore. The horse may become lame. Infections in other areas will cause inflammation, soreness and hair loss, severe infections may abcess. Where can it affect your horse? Dermatophilus is a highly infectious bacteria that attacks areas of skin already weakened by damage, such as scratches and dampness. It can affect any area on your horse but tends to be given different names depending on where it infects. The back and pasterns are the two most common areas of infection.
Like any illness its not just one thing that will start a bout of mud fever or rain scald. Environmental factors such as cold and wet and health factors such as stress or a lowered immune system along with skin damage are all required to let the bacteria take a hold. However while winter is the ideal time for all of these factors to come together, rain scald is just as likely to attack during one of New Zealand's hot, steamy, rainy summers! Cover or halter rubs and weather damage can often set off rain scald attacks. A horse caught in a hail storm and covered by a rug when wet is a classic case of rain scald in the making, the hail having damaged the horse's skin and the rug providing a nice warm damp environment for the bacteria to thrive in. However, it doesn't have to be major damage to let the bacteria in. Be vigilant checking any rug rubs, particularly over the withers. Be aware that any time you put your horse back in a rug with damp skin\hair that these are good conditions for the bacteria to invade any small nicks or scratches. If your horse is in a canvas rug for long periods of rain, the back of your horse may be damp and rain scald will have the opportunity to attack. Checking your horse frequently and give him, and his rugs, time to dry out. Mud Fever is more difficult to prevent since a horse's legs are constantly being scratched and scraped. These minor scrapes would normally not even register but when combined with constant wet and mud, the bacteria has the opportunity to infect the legs and take a hold. Of course, without the bacteria present a horse may go through the winter up to its hocks in mud and never succumb to the infection. Many reference books and sites will talk extensively about the 'scabs' associated with this infection but this is not the first sign of infection for mud fever or cracked heels (we'll deal with rain scald in a moment). Heat, Itching, Tenderness. The infection will first cause heat and itching (to your horse) and possibly swelling. Check your horse for heat and swelling in the pasterns, fetlocks and hooves each time you check him. If you normally hose or brush off your horse's legs when you bring him in and he starts lifting them or objecting, check for heat or scabs.Anytime you feel heat in these areas you should suspect something wrong, infection, if you are sure that its not a hoof problem such as an abscess (which would also produce heat in the hoof wall) then you can suspect that dermatophilus is at work. Rain scald's first signs may be loss
of hair and you should first treat this with an anti-septic or
anti-bacterial product. A good squirt with iodine or for large
areas - vetadine washes. If the area seems to be spreading call
your vet, as oral anti-biotics may be required. Scabs. The scabs are formed over the infected area and will protect the bacteria from whatever treatment you attempt to apply if they are not softened and\or removed. If you only notice the infection at this stage, then the scabs may be oozing infection. If you have begun to disinfect at the first signs of heat, these will simply be little dry scabs that you can easily rub off - but the hair will come off too. At this stage the skin will be raw and tender, so take care not to hurt your horse with rough treatment. The bacteria can remain dormant for quite long periods of time. Prevention may seem like an odd topic since you are probably looking at this page because your horse has mud fever. However, you want to stop the infection going to new areas and you want to stop your horse getting it again (or at least minimise it).
Ideally, you would treat by removing all of the factors - wet, cold, stress and bacteria. Unfortunately, that's not always practical especially if your horse must live at grass and there's no good way of keeping his legs dry. So what do you do? There are a lot of treatments which are offered for mud fever\rain scald. Don't be confused, many of the products do the same thing. Think of treating the infection in 3 stages. You may combine all of these treatment stages at once, depending on what is happenning to your horse. 1. Kill the bacteria This means using an anti-bacterial agent. There are many available - napisan, seplon, iodine, vetadine, hibiscrub anything anti-bactierial. This stage should be used whenever heat is present in the area that indicates that an infection is present. In the case of rain scald (back, neck, head) heat may not be present - use an anti-bacterial product when you first discover the infection and ensure that any scabs are removed. For large areas vetadine washes are your easiest option - use the 'medicinal strength' noted on the bottle and wash the horse several days in a row. If the area looks clean and dry soothe and heal the wound and encourage hair regrowth. For large areas, you may need to ask you vet for a course of anti-biotics to help kill the bacteria . See notes on prevention, using anti-septics and chemicals has a down side. Although, you need to kill the bacteria you must also be aware that many of these product will irritate the skin, so only use as required. 2. Soothe and heal the wound.
3. Protect the legs from further damage Use the steps mentioned in prevention and apply a barrier cream when possible. Do not apply barrier creams if the legs are wet or this will trap moisture next to the skin again. Zinc & Castor oil ointment is an excellent thick barrier cream that also heals - if the legs are wet or damp, apply it to those skin patches where the hair has already come off and you want to make sure that your 'soothing and healing' agents stay on for a while. If you are in the 'recurrent' cycle of mud fever, (common if you have no way of getting your horse off the mud) you may be getting new little patches of infection and treating healing sections at the same time - don't panic, just look at what you need to do for each leg\day and deal with it appropriately. Some days you may need to disinfect to kill off a newly activated section, other days you will just be 'preventing'. Some infections are very brief and easy to deal with others seem to go on forever, this is largely due to the external (weather) conditions you have to deal with and the rate of infection from external sources. If the entire property has horses suffering from mud fever the rate of reinfection is going to be high, unless you can get them off the ground there's little you can do but fight it on a day-to-day basis. In the picture above you can see an example of this - on the back of the pasterns is a clean, healing section. The hair is beginning to regrow and the skin is calm and normal coloured. Here I apply some aloe and manuka as a soothing (and anti-bacterial) agent. However, lurking in the fetlock hair is a new set of scabs - this needs to be thoroughly cleaned, all scabs removed and allowed to dry out before applying any 'healers'. The horse would be exercised in this state. After exercise, both dry areas would have a barrier cream applied to help keep them clean. The fetlock area would have to be completely dry or else it would be left with only an aloe\manuka application on it so that the hair does not trap the moist\infection under the barrier cream.
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Be careful to ensure that whatever
products you use do not trap dirt or moisture on the area. Never put
creams over a wet or damp area.