Mud fever in horses: causes, symptoms, treatment, and prevention

What to Do Against Mud Fever in Horses – Recognize and Eliminate the Causes

Mauke can have many causes and it is difficult to give a clear statement as to when the skin disease will inevitably occur. However, there are some known circumstances that can lead to the condition. For example, a generally rather weak constitution of the horse is unfortunately a contributing factor.

Moisture promotes bacterial accumulation

The main cause of bacteria, however, is persistent moisture on the pasterns of the horse. The culprits are often wet or muddy paddocks and pastures. Horses with longer feathering are frequently affected, as it retains the moisture. But beware: the hair on the pasterns channels the water, for example during a rain shower, quickly down to the ground. If it is trimmed or clipped for aesthetic reasons, the moisture remains longer on the pastern and can attack the skin. In addition to the genetic dispositions mentioned above, very light-colored hair on the legs is also a disadvantage for the animals. This is because the legs, or rather the skin there, are somewhat more sensitive than in other horses with darker coats – and especially darker pigmentation.

Inadequate Care and Unfavorable Housing Conditions

Lack of care and poor husbandry conditions can lead to disease. Therefore, check on your animals from time to time and improve their conditions if necessary.

Measures to minimize the risk of mud fever for your horse:

• regular and thorough coat care, especially of the fetlocks
• dry and as clean a stable as possible
• dry paddock, no permanently wet meadows, no mud
  • avoid standing moisture
  • quickly clean dirt from the fetlocks
  • wash off urine from the fetlocks as soon as possible
• coat inspection, especially for very white coats:
  • for light-colored animals, increased coat care with FEELE products is advisable
  • also applies to white cats, dogs, and other animals
• avoid feeding distillers’ grains – they are considered a possible trigger
• special caution with mite infestation – possible trigger or contributing factor
  • use FEELE mite protection for horses
• mud fever prevention with natural remedies

How does mud fever affect horses?

Mange can go through very different stages. The disease usually starts with redness, which quickly becomes noticeable due to forming scabs. Unfortunately, this scab does not heal like a normal wound but hardens into a crust and can spread further, for example as dry mange.

However, friction and movement can also lead to open wounds, which may develop into a heavily oozing eczema. Additional moisture, urine, or even road salt that comes into contact with the area worsens the problem. If an existing crust comes off, it is not only painful but, in advanced stages, reveals a bleeding, bright red growth, also called hedgehog foot.

If left untreated, mud fever in horses can spread from the fetlocks to the sides and down to the hocks, penetrating deeper into the skin layers. Further deterioration is unlikely, as treatment—especially through improved hygiene—is slow but effective.

Possible stages/types of mud fever in horses:

• Skin redness (Erythematous dermatitis)
• Crust formation (Dermatitis crustosa)
• Eczema, often oozing (Dermatitis madidans)
• Proliferation of the exposed papillary body (Dermatitis verrucosa), "hedgehog foot"
• If left untreated: risk of “fire mite”

Initially, the horse is only affected externally and moves around the paddock normally. If you treat the mud fever early, your animal will feel little besides itching and mild pain during treatment and dressing changes. Don’t worry, you can handle this! FEELE supports you with very good, well-tested products. How a treatment can proceed is explained in the next section.

Treating and preventing mud fever in horses with FEELE

To get the disease under control, you primarily need two things: time and patience. The key to reducing skin irritations is hygiene, and this is exactly where our natural products come in. They are suitable as a preventive measure or later on to gently yet effectively care for the areas affected by mud fever.

Removing the encrustation

Since a crust layer is often present, the first step in treatment is to gently remove it. To do this, wash the affected area with warm water and let it sit briefly. You may also use a very mild soap, but this is not strictly necessary. It is best to wear rubber gloves throughout the treatment to prevent further spread of bacteria. Use a soft towel or similar to remove the softened crust from the skin.

Caring for the affected skin areas

Then you can apply our „Colloidal Silver“. This is a spray made from pure mountain spring water infused with fine silver particles. This serves as a kind of pre-treatment – wait briefly until the moisture on the fetlock has evaporated. Ideally, follow with our „Fesselglück“. This paste contains, among other things, zeolite, olive oil, also colloidal silver, as well as honey, propolis extract, and frankincense powder.

Apply it daily at first to the affected skin areas following the procedure described above. As the mud fever subsides, it is sufficient to do this every two days. Please do not cover the area and simply apply the Fesselglück to the spots to be treated, without removing any crusts that may form during the course of treatment. The product works on its own.

Repair kit from FEELE

You can also make excellent use of our repair kit. Here too, do not cover the areas to be treated if possible, but leave them “in the open air.”

For this, use „Meine kleine Apotheke“, which is simply applied thinly as a powder. The main ingredient is finely ground, high-purity zeolite. Mixed with herbal tea or a little water, it creates an ideal paste if you also want to achieve a cooling effect.

Also included is the Repair Balm „Hautzauber“. It is fundamentally suitable for the care of stressed skin or rubbing spots in animals. If you know, for example, that your horse, but also your dog or cat, tends to have such issues in a particular area, apply the balm from time to time as a preventive measure.

The „Fesselglück“ is also perfectly suited to support care in cases of thrush in the horse’s hoof. For prevention and in cases of thrush, our product „Zauberlehrling“ provides optimal support.

One to two pumps from the practical bottle applied centrally to the frog are sufficient, and the mixture of alpine beekeeper propolis and juniper berry spreads everywhere it can support a strong and healthy frog. Complete your horse pharmacy at FEELE today!