Mud Fever, it's final hours......

Mud Fever Special:
(or as we call it, 'the evil affliction).

 

 

Henry, what do you think about mudfever? BORING

 

 

 

It's rained since October and my land is at saturation point, and still it rains.  Tom & Henry are in at night because of the wet mud in their turnout.  They have grass, the grass is growing, because although we may not like all the rain, it does keep the temperatures on the mild side for January.

 

 

As you will know if you're a regular of TCJ, I battle with mild mudfever here at WW.  When the boys get even a small patch, I panic, because I have learned the hard way, even the smallest patches can turn into a big painful problem. So this year I trialled a new strategy by using a barrier: udder cream.

 

Yes it's pink, yes it's gloopy, and yes, I have a cream-phobia myself, but nothing is going to stop me keeping my boys fit and healthy - even a mild panic attack.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, it's January, and mudfever is absent completely.  Here's how I do it:

 

1) Let them out to eat breakfast after being in all night, brush their fetlocks, pasterns and coronet band gently with a hairbrush from Boots. The mud is dry and comes off easily.  be sure to get around the bulbs of the heel too. The whole are must be super clean before the cream is applied - otherwise you're just trapping dirt against their skin, which causes irritation.

 

 

2)  Smother the clean 'feet' with your fingers with udder cream, get into the hair, around the heel and right up to the fetlock.

3)  Then apply a few times a week, a hoof dressing specially designed for surviving winter - I have used this one from Effol - you can get it, along with the udder cream, at Amazon UK.  It smells wonderful too, so putting it on isn't a chore.

 

 

 

 

4)  Let them out into the wet mud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Too wet for Lemmy

 

It's not quick, but once added to my morning routine, it just becomes a part of the tasks to complete before work.

 

 
 

I have been doing this since the beginning of November, I'm on my 5th large tub of pink cream, and there's not a single trace of scabs or mudfever.

 

BUT:  just in case....I saw a product in a monthly horse magazine from Equimed AG, which claims to help mudfever sufferers.  It's for after they get it, so I haven't tried it yet.  I have bandages for dressing the area, and a special easy to use boot for in the stable, that claims to speed the healing process and kill the bacteria that causes it in the first place. WOW, I'll of course rave about it if it works, but I'm hoping they will be an unused part of my First Aid cabinet.  The testimonials on their website are encouraging too, so give it a go.  At £80 a pair, cheaper than a vet visit and repeat prescription of Fuciderm cream! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here modelled by Tom and Henry are the boots, you can get them for just the heels, right up to a full boot to the knee.  I opted for a heel and fetlock boot all-in-one, since that's where mine get it.  Quick and easy to put on, the idea is the feet get washed and dried and these boots are worn in the stable at night, couldn't be easier.

 

 

 

 

 ...here's hoping these small things will help you fight mudfever once and for all.

 

...Xmas is coming ...

...Tom & Henry, and how a few inches of 
mud makes them so happy......

...and that my friends, is a visual diary of how Tom and Henry fund mud very entertaining xx

                                              ....will try another post especially for Xmas, happy holidays everyone, safe riding xx

...this time, it's personal...

MUD FEVER: you're not setting up camp here...

...it's muddy and wet...

Let's take a deep breath and make a plan to stop this horrible affliction once and for all for our horses.  Mud fever, it's not nice.  Anyone whose horse has had it will tell you, its a long drawn out process to get rid of. Painful. Awkward. Nasty and time-consuming.  Often needing veterinary help to clear. and even the most patient and calm horse might hate you afterward,  and that in itself is heartbreaking.

So, lets try and keep it away with some preventative measures...and I mean UDDER CREAM! Also good for your hands in this weather, mine are soft after use: key beauty message, just because it comes in a small tube with a £Million advertising budget, doesn't mean its better than udder cream....suspect the name (and colour), puts people off!

We all want our horses fit, sound and well, to see them charging about like this is a sure sign they feel good in themselves.

 ...so, when the boys were having their breakfasts yesterday morning, I took this as an opportunity, their dry feet was a sign.  I brushed all around their pasterns, bulbs, fetlocks, clearing away all dirt and dust to the skin.  Rubbing with my fingers to feel if there were any little cuts or scrapes, that could potentially let infection in, and satisfied there weren't, I continued my plan.

Tom & Henry have never had such clean feet!



...you're not putting any of that pink stuff on me!

Then I got my giant tub of Udder Cream out, it's bubblegum pink and not at all a shade that boys should be wearing! With my fingers, rubbed it all around the areas of their 'ankles': from coronet up to the fetlock, getting it right down to the skin, any areas that are likely to get wet.

...me either! I'm watching you

If you do this, you MUST be certain your horses skin is completely dry and clean, otherwise you'll just be trapping nasties next to their body.

...what's she got there in that giant tub Henry?
 Don't know, but it's bloody pink!

So with pink feet, out they went, and every time I capture them with dry feet, whilst the land is so muddy and wet, I'll repeat this process.  Not only will it perform a barrier between horse and bacteria carrying mud, but will afford me the intimate knowledge of my horses 'ankles' so I'll know if there's a break in the skin which could let infection in, and deal with it!

Remember snow is how Henry got Mud fever last winter, the abrasive nature of what looks like innocuously soft snow to us, actually has a sandpaper effect.  So rub udder cream on before turn out, because you have to let horses play in the snow!!

I'm trying to be cool Henz, but my bloody feet are pink!
I feel you Tombiz, lets just eat hay and hope no girls see us!

...good luck everyone xx

TCJp26 Riding

Henry

TODAY WE WENT FOR A RIDE: 
...and we loved it!




Today was cold and sunny, a little breezy, but quiet.  Somewhere in the distance the Hunt was offloading their horseboxes and the boys were very alert!

As always I ride Henry first, he is what I lovingly call 'special needs', meaning he is very slightly mental.  I was worried I wouldn't be able to do up their girths (see TCJp25 for that story), but that paled into insignificance with what happened next.

So, picture this, I have boys loose in the yard, I'm trying to brush them (they were covered in mud, rightly so this time of year), I'm following Tom to his haybar and he just stands there whilst I get him presentable (and we never leave the yard looking scruffy - their Mums would not approve). Next Henry.....

He trots around the yard, diving in the stables, one after the other.  Turning on his back legs in a rear-spin...squealing as he goes, and pelts back out.  He repeats this several times, he is just so excited - perhaps he knows he'll be leaving the estate to have a wander around the village?  then, he rolls, squeals, jumps, stops.  

I'm standing there with a hairbrush in my hand (one from Boots I use to get the mud off- works brilliantly, fully recommend it), waiting for Henry to calm down.  

Boots hairbrush

John says, 'you're not going near that horse are you?', he's swinging his neck from side to side squeals and gallops back out and stops dead, with his head high in the air obviously listening to something.

I decided that, yes, I would go near that horse, he cant help being excited, and it shouldn't mean he misses out on getting out and about. 

Tom, just glances over, munching his HorseHage, looking disapproving.

Tom goes out, Henry stays in the yard, gates to the field closed.  He goes mental again, trotting round the yard.  I was starting to wonder if John was right.  But I got him tacked up, it took me ages because he just wouldn't stand still.  If I had been in a hurry I might have tied him up, but this would be a last resort, I like them to be able to express their feeling, and today Henry was saying, hurry up!! I want to go!!

And go we did.  We had a lovely ride, lots of walk/trot transitions to ask Henry to listen to me, this works very well with him, because there's always something interesting to listen to or look at.  We did some short spurts of some very slow bouncy trots and power walking.  Then we came back and went out on Tom.

Tom was very big today.  He was bouncy and held himself tall.  His tail was swishing, and I managed to sit a beautiful floaty trot.  His neck was arched (nothing to do with me, I ride more-or-less on the buckle), his head was concentrating, his back legs were under and engaged, it felt like nothing I could describe here...amazing.

Tom

They were both happy to get back to each other, calling once in earshot.

They went straight out and rolled in all the mud!!!

That hairbrush will be coming out again tomorrow.  I'm riding with my neighbour....hope we have good weather, and maybe, just maybe, the boys will have lost just a few more pounds?

UPDATE: 

They both went down a notch at measuring time, and our ride of walking with short bursts of slow trot was an attempt to begin a fitness regime.  more about that in a separate post.