Only Isis would get rain rot confined in a stall. Go figure! Since the colic surgery, she has been off of grain and therefore also off of her supplement. It is now painfully obvious to me just how much her supplement helps her. When I first started her on Joint Combo Hoof and Coat, she was nearly bald from rain rot. After about two weeks on it, she started fighting off the rain rot by herself. That was two years ago. She hasn’t had a bad episode of rain rot or the nasty crud on her legs since then.
Until now. I was leading her out yesterday evening and noticed that she had dark spots on her socks. Not a good sign. Dark spots and raised areas that feel like dime-size lumps. I felt one and knew immediately what it was. It peeled off in a dark skin with a yellow, pussy underside and angry red skin underneath. Yup. Same nasty stuff called “scratches,” a nasty bacterial problem that normally just effects horses on their heels. It’s also called dew poisoning because the horse can get it from going out in moist grass (i.e. dew). Normally horses just get it on their white socks.
The worst case of this she ever had was several years ago. The dew poisoning coated all four of her legs from where the hoof joins the leg (coronary band) to her hocks on her back legs and half-way up to her knees on her front legs. Her back legs were s bad that she was lame from it. Her legs were so swollen that her tendons were not visible. I fought it for a month before having the vet out for some advice. It took a course of antibiotics and several different types of topical creams before the dew poisoning finally receded. In all, it took three months.
And here it is coming up again. She has the small spots and then larger dime-size spots of it. I’ve been treating it daily with stuff. We will see how it goes… I wasn’t expecting to have this come back so quickly. She isn’t in the wet. Her stall is cleaned twice per day. There really isn’t any reason that I can see that she should be getting this — unless just walking around in the grass is enough. Sheesh.
I can’t wait until she is allowed back on her supplement in 20 days.
