City of Houston police horses go barefoot.......click here to view the PDF


Mud Fever Recommendation

I have been asked about methods of dealing with Mud Fever. What I have verified from the veterinarians that I checked with back in Texas and in the UK , as well as other trainers with MF experience is as follows :Wash the area with a good antibacterial shampoo like hexocil, pevidine or hibiscrub etc. – then dry the wound and skin area completely before applying a good anti-bacterial mud fever ointment to the affected area. Mud Fever ointments can be purchased from your veterinary surgeon or saddlery shop. The horse must be kept out of any mud or wet conditions during the treatment and until the skin is healed completely. A good method of drying the wounds is to apply rubbing alcohol (I have learned that it is called surgical spirits in the UK and two chemists have told me that Ethanol is also effective and somewhat less of an irritant and has effective antibacterial properties and will dry out the wound and outer skin surface as needed). The main point, in addition to cleaning properly, is not to cover the wounds with ointments, etc. until the water is forced out as otherwise the bacteria could be provided with a good place to thrive beneath the ointments.If a horse develops scabs they should not be picked off but gently washed off. If the problem is persistent or the horse gets a high temperature or increased swelling then a Veterinarian must be consulted. The horse might even require antibiotics or hospitalization in extreme cases."

Alfalfa

Exercise caution from over-feeding with Alfalfa. It should be noted that Alfalfa varies in content, due to different harvesting times. Alfalfa is high in protein, is a source of calcium and has high amounts of magnesium. These are all helpful in many ways, so long as not overdone. Horses bodies and glands do not do well when overloaded with minerals. If overfed with Alfalfa it can affect the parathyroid gland. This gland controls the amount of calcium in the blood and it shuts down if an excessive amount of calcium is present. Then when the horse exercises, it can get into trouble if there is a sudden drop in calcium and the gland isn’t working “failing to detect the need for more calcium”. This can cause muscle cramping, soreness and syndrome called “thumps”. Thumps occur when nerves fire erratically and can show up as “hiccups” (or what appears to be hiccups). Kidney stones are another problem caused by excess calcium input. The magnesium content is high it contributes to the forming of “enteroliths” which can cause colic as they can grow to large sizes.