# rain rot, scratches & fungus cure, inexpensive



## judibrownphoto (Jan 1, 2015)

I wish someone had told me this one a long time ago, so I would like to post to help those who may be looking for it. It can also be done as a prevention in the summer when these problems are prevalent.
Rinse horse with water only, no soap, unless they really need a bath,because the soap can remove helpful body oils, let dry and spray any generic listerine type product. Generic is cheaper and you can find a brand using the "Cruelty Cutter App" on your phone on the bar code so you know the one you buy wasn't lab tested on beagles and other helpless animals. Do this every day for a few days until you have it under control and then once a week to prevent. I have some very old horses I do not lock in the stalls, they come and go when they want and therefore will stand in the rain or lay in a wet bed of sand because they like it. Then add some warm sun and you have perfect growing for fungus. I battled it with many products and looked high and low spending hundreds until my farrier told me this old remedy.


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

Water and rain have nothing to do with why horses get rain rot and fungus. Older horses and horses with compromised immune systems are the ones most likely to get rain rot and other skin problems and they usually get these problems in the winter and spring when their Vitamin A stores are depleted and there is little or no Beta Carotene, the pre-cursor to Vitamin A, left in any feed grown the previous year.

The cure (or actually the complete prevention) to getting rid these problems in the winter is to get adequate Vitamin A levels into every horse that needs it. 

You can 'jump-start' a horse by giving it weekly doses of injectable Vitamin A. You just DO NOT inject it, but squirt it directly into the horse's mouth. Meanwhile, get a Vitamin Supplement like Farnam's 'Mare Plus'. It takes it about a month or 2 to get enough into a horse's system, so the oral doses get rid of the rain rot quickly (usually within 2 weeks) until the supplement can take effect. An average full sized horse can utilize 5cc orally once a week. You just go to a livestock supply or feed store or order it on line from a catalog merchant like Jeffords or Valley Vet. You use it just like an oral dewormer. 

It has been 100% effective in preventing and curing rain rot for us for over 40 years and has worked for everyone here on the Horse Forum since I started telling people about it 4 years ago. 

It does not hurry it up at all to treat it locally. And if you do not get supplemental Vitamin A into a horse, it will just keep coming back until the grass greens up and the horse starts getting enough Vitamin A from the grass.


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## Ryle (Jul 13, 2007)

You don't even have to give extra supplements of vitamin A so long as you are feeding an appropriate diet at the appropriate amount. If your horse is missing Vit. A, it's very possible that you are missing other vital vitamins/minerals.


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

> You don't even have to give extra supplements of vitamin A so long as you are feeding an appropriate diet at the appropriate amount. If your horse is missing Vit. A, it's very possible that you are missing other vital vitamins/minerals.


This is just simply NOT TRUE. Many horses do not absorb / process vitamin A well. On top of that, most recommended levels are far too low. Add to that the fact that Vitamin A available in cut hays and feeds (from natural sources) have all but disappeared by mid-winter of the year harvested. Many horses have such low levels by early to mid winter that they are extremely susceptible to skin, eye and reproductive problems. 

When a horse owner starts supplementing vitamin A as soon as the lush green grass is gone, they will NEVER see rain rot, lice, goopy, crusty eyes, flakey skin and will see far few reproductive problems like retained placenta. 

We have been doing this (and recommending this) for over 40 years and have not had one single person say that it was ineffective or did anything but improve their horses' health. 

Vitamin A is the very first (and often only) Vitamin that many horses have a problem with. If horses are kept mostly indoors or live in Northern climates, Vitamin D should also be supplemented. [Most injectable Vitamin A solutions and most feed supplements routinely contain A and D.] 

The other very common problem we see is a lack of Calcium (Ca) in the diets of horses eating a diet of grass and/or grass hay and a lack of Magnesium (Mg) in spring grass and lush grasses. 

We have worked with a lot of medium to large sized horse operations as management consultants and this is the very first thing we do. Without exception, they have all seen rain rot and seasonal other skin problems completely disappear. They have seen Vet calls for cleaning foaling mares completely disappear. And Almost all incidences of crooked and/or weak legs in newborn foals have disappeared. 

Many members here have tried this approach to rain rot and lice and all of the ones that have reported back have also said that it was completely effective.

I know some professionals do not make as much money preventing these problems, but it sure is better and more efficient for the horses and for the horse owners.


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## Ryle (Jul 13, 2007)

Cherie said:


> This is just simply NOT TRUE. Many horses do not absorb / process vitamin A well. On top of that, most recommended levels are far too low. Add to that the fact that Vitamin A available in cut hays and feeds (from natural sources) have all but disappeared by mid-winter of the year harvested. Many horses have such low levels by early to mid winter that they are extremely susceptible to skin, eye and reproductive problems.


Again, my comment was with an appropriate diet. If you are feeding the appropriate amounts of the necessary vitamins and minerals in the first place, you do not need to supplement with extra (in general). Feeding an appropriate diet means feeding one that meets the horse's needs, not just feeding whatever is available in the environment. Feeding an appropriate concentrate along with hay or pasture that is designed to compliment the forage that a horse is being fed and feeding it at the recommended level will typically negate the need for extra supplements. This type of supplemental feeding also ensures that you aren't just focusing on a single vitamin but that you are meeting ALL the nutritional needs and this is important because a single vitamin isn't all that is necessary to ensure skin health or overall health. It takes an appropriate amount of multiple nutrients and feeding them in the right combinations/ratios to allow a horse to maintain optimal health and reduce the risk of disease.

And I am not making any money from this recommendation.


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## SueNH (Nov 7, 2011)

It does work. When I got my TWH mare she was covered in the worst rain rot I had ever seen. Her entire topline, chest, tail were near bald. The little scabs had run together and she had fist sized continuous patches of rain rot. She was also skeletal. It was Novemeber, too cold to bath here. Already spitting snow. I was trying to spot treat with betadine but really needed to soak the entire horse in it.
I saw one of Cherie's posts about vitamin A. Figured I had nothing to loose trying it. I couldn't find the cattle supplement in the feed stores here but I did see Farnam's Mare Plus and saw it was loaded with vitamin A. I hadn't worked the mare up to horsely amounts of feed yet but the little scoop of Mare Plus was no danger to a severely starved horse. It worked and fairly fast. Within 2 wks I could see peach fuzz sprouting on the bald spots. Some of the scabs were pretty deep and thick, they took longer but each day it looked better and better. The hair grew in faster than expected. Probably all that Biotin and folic acid in Mare Plus too. Great stuff and easy to find.

I used to occasionally see a little rain rot at the end of winter. Wasn't bad and I could clear it up using listerine or athletes foot powder, iodine. Would be just a few spots on one mare in particular who preferred to go into a stand of pines in a storm rather than the barn. Sometimes I'd find a few spots on the others but again it wasn't much.

I used Blue Seal's Trotter for ages. Had to change feeds because of one old fat pony. Went with a really low carb feed from Poulin, a regional mill. Rain rot has not reared it's head since the switch.

Poulin Carb Safe vitamin A Vitamin A (Min) 5,000 IU/LB
Blue Seal trotter 3,500 IU/LB

Two popular feeds
Purina Strategy 3,000 IU/LB
Nutrena SafeChoice Org. 3,000 IU/LB

Now look what the Merck Vet. Manual is recommending for vitamin A.

Nutritional Requirements of Horses: Nutrition: Horses: Merck Veterinary Manual

A 500 kg horse is a smidge over 1100 lbs, little big but still an average size.

The nutrition simply isn't there.

Vitamin A starts disappearing from hay the moment it's cut. By the end of the winter there isn't much there and what the horse has stored in liver and fat has been used up. In comes the rain rot.

I also feed a little magnesium and some alfalfa pellets for calcium because I know the river bottom land that my hay comes from like my pasture has nearly none. The plants can't absorb much if it isn't there to begin with.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

A lot of people rely on hay in the winter as their main feed source and Vitamin A is lost when grass is made into hay
My horses never get rain rot etc but I do feed a basic supplement that contains Vit A though only at the recommended dose
The bacteria and fungal diseases associated with rain rot do thrive in wet conditions


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## Phura (Dec 4, 2012)

I am battling scratches as we speak and from my research wet conditions do help the bacteria/fungus but I can see where the vitamin A could really help in the prevention. For those also battling scratches...I have found scratches formula made by a vet to be the best treatment for my horse. I have tried many things and I understand the response to treatment depends on your horse as many respond differently and can depend of the reason for scratches, type of bacteria, fungus etc.


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## Cherie (Dec 16, 2010)

Have you used Desitin or Preparation H? Both work very well for scratches as long as the horse is getting plenty of Vitamin A. Without the Vit A, nothing works very well. 

There is another consideration as well. 

If you have a mare and her scratches are only on her hind legs or are a lot worse on her hind legs, urine is contributing to the problem. Same is true for a stallion or gelding if they are worse on their front pasterns. Then urine is contributing to their problem.

If you horse is on a high protein diet like alfalfa hay and the problem is exacerbated by urine splash, then feed a lower protein diet. 

Horses have to get rid of most of the excess protein they DO NOT need by excreting it in the urine. This added Nitrogen in their urine is very irritating to their skin when it splashes on them. Even tiny bit of splash can be a problem as can wet bedding from a lot of urine.

It is no secret that horses drink and urinate a lot more when eating alfalfa and other high protein feeds. All of that extra Nitrogen is responsible for the Ammonia smell when you open barn doors in the morning. It is also responsible for a lot of cases of scratches.


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## jaydee (May 10, 2012)

Most mud fever and rain rot is caused by a bacteria called dermatophilus congolensis, its been found on horses at all times of the year but seems to be activated by wet conditions especially when its not particularly cold - above freezing. 
It also seems worse in the winter when a horses immune system is low probably because it is deficient in Vit A - and maybe Vit E too so adding those to the feed helps boost it
The bacteria behaves like a fungus which is why things like Listerine and hydrogen peroxide can help to prevent it from starting
Once the skin gets broken it 'burrows' into the layers and multiplies really fast
The best treatment once it gets that bad is to wash with an iodine based lotion or a surgical scrub and then keep it dry and keep the horse out of the muddy conditions until its healed. Any antibacterial cream will help as a healing barrier - but only if the area is clean first and kept clean


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

Listerine & many other things do work as a symptomatic treatment, at least short term to suppress it, but if horses are repeatedly getting fungal infections, diet & nutrition likely at fault
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## verona1016 (Jul 3, 2011)

SueNH said:


> Poulin Carb Safe vitamin A Vitamin A (Min) 5,000 IU/LB
> Blue Seal trotter 3,500 IU/LB
> 
> Two popular feeds
> ...


One of the reasons I love Triple Crown 30% Supplement

TC30: 36,000 IU/lb 
Empower Balance: 18,000 IU/lb
Enrich Plus: 18,000 IU/lb

Last winter my BO was amazed that my horse, who has 4 white legs, never came down with scratches when it seemed like a plague affecting all the other horses. I'm pretty sure she didn't believe me about the vitamin A, though...


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## loosie (Jun 19, 2008)

^Ah, Verona, you can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think! ;-)


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