Yes, this is pretty bad rain rot

The other side too!

I hope this post will help everyone who has had to deal with rain rot. Freya came with a small case of rain rot that quickly blossomed into a more serious infection. Rain rot is caused by a bacterium known as Dermatophilus congolensis. It’s a bacteria that lives on their skin all the time, but given wet conditions, it can spread and cause lesions on the horse’s back.

Belgians are more prone to rain rot because of their thick coat. In talking with Renee Krider, Freya’s previous owner, she may have picked up the rain rot while training. In preparation for training under saddle, Renee desensitized her to a saddle blanket, which may have passed on more of the bacteria to her. On the evening Freya came to live at WSS, she stood outside all night long in the rain. Within a week, she had broken out all over with sores.

Because its winter, giving her a bath with medicated shampoo was not an option. But we had to act -fast! She cannot afford to lose her coat in the middle of winter. We called the vet and got a good ol’ fashion cowboy trick to handle rain rot. And here’s the how:

  • Make up a solution of 1:3 bleach to distilled water in a spray bottle.
  • With gloves on, pull off the scabs of the lesions to get underneath. This does irritate/hurt the horse so have something to help and soothe the horse as well. I used little bits of oats to reward her for standing. Do not drop the scabs onto the floor, but dispose of in the trash so you don’t spread the infection to other horses.
  • Spray liberally each lesion with the solution and rub in with your gloved hand or a rag
  • Continue for 3-4 days until the white residue of the infection ceases
  • After the lesions change color from pink to gray, begin to treat with MTG oil to help ward of further infection and to regrow hair
  • Brushing hair up to get sunshine on the skin also helps, but realize those brushes are now contaminated. Wash the brushes with antibacterial soap.
  • Try to keep them as dry as possible (seems obvious, but sometimes the weather is not your friend.)

Using this method, we have successfully stopped the infection. I praise God for a vet who knew their stuff that answered my call at the right time.

God bless and thanks for reading  WSS Freya’s blog!

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