28 August 2008 14:30
My 13-year-old cob mare gets a mud fever-type condition on her legs – all year round. She gets small sores that bleed and then scab over. Her fetlock area got very badly infected a few years ago. I’ve clipped her out, and wash her legs monthly with Hibiscrub and treat the sores with baby’s nappy cream, aloe vera and tea tree cream. She has had skin tests for mites, which came back negative, and the vet has run out of ideas.
Answer
By Your Horse
Vet Gayle Hallowell replies:
The options here are chronic mud fever that may or may not be complicated by chorioptic mange, often seen in horses of her type. This mange is caused by a mite called Chorioptes equi. When skin is as chronically infected as hers, skin scrapes may not detect the mites, as they are in the deeper layers of skin, I’ve treated horses with conditions similar to this and have had skin scrapes come up negative, but biopsies come up positive for chorioptic mange.
To manage this, keep her legs as clean and dry as possible. The condition is caused by bacteria that like warm, wet conditions. Food allergies can also manifest themselves as skin disease, but would usually affect the whole body and not the legs, so I wouldn’t change her diet.
To treat it, I would use the following drugs:
● An oral wormer containing ivermectin every eight weeks.
● A topical Frontline spray for mites every month.
● As she has not responded to previous topical treatments for mud fever, and you’ve clipped her out (a good idea), talk to your vet about giving her oral steroids when it’s bad to try to break the cycle. Remember steroids can cause laminitis in a small number of horses.Occasionally skin disease can be caused by liver disease, so it may be worth getting a blood test to look at her liver function and damage indicators.