This is my life at the moment…….
Like many of you, I am sick of the rain and mud. I am lucky to have somewhere where my horses can live out naturally as a herd and as a result they have stayed healthy but I know that others have had problems with hoof abcesses, mud fever , thrush and respiratory problems.
If you can turn horses out as much as possible and feed ad-lib meadow hay, they will do better than stabling…it does mean that you can’t be precious about them being clean but they will be healthier and happier. Another thing that you can do is offer sprigs of trees such as Scots pine and Ivy, these are both evergreen and really help with respiratory problems. They are pre-biotic and help the gut too (and free to forage).
For mud fever and thrush, I have found the best possible thing is Gentian Violet spray, I use Battles Gentian Violet which you can get from Viovet, PetDrugsOnline and Amazon etc. this is NOT Purple Spray which is a chemical. Gentian Violet is a really old-fashioned totally natural anti-bacterial spray (that is purple ) but used to be used on Impetigo in children. If you just spray it on the mud-fever or frogs everyday, it will sort out the bacteria. Again, you can’t be precious about having a horse with purple legs, but it works! Using anything with oil in it traps the bacteria/fungus in the skin and spreads it around risking infection. Constantly washing the area with antibacterials also compromises the skins integrity, allowing bacteria in. Gentian Violet can be sprayed on wet, muddy skin…so long as it can get onto the skin it will do its job!
I hope this all helps – look out for the March Knowledge Nugget!
