greasy heel

[jac]

Any cures out there for the big prob a few Clydes and Shires seem to have with greasy heel or grease as we call it over here. It rears its head with us now and again. cheers
John

[Andy Carson]

I had a Belgian a couple years ago that used to get this in the spring when it got wet and muddy. She would get several lesions about the size of a quarter. I tried lots of different soaks, salves and other medications. They were alot of work and helped onyl slightly. In the end, I clipped off her feather and wow that was wonderful!! ALL the lesions were gone in about a week, and NEVER came back. My new horse doesn’t have much feather, and I have never seen any lesions, but I wouldn’t hesitate to clip again at the first sign of trouble.

[jac]

Hey Countrymouse.. I did think of that but up till now have tried to cure without resorting to the clippers.:( I think your right though and I may have to clip. Has to be said that the feather is a real pain.. great for Budweiser hitches but not so great in a muddy west of Scotland field. If I was starting out without Granpa’s influence I’d prob use those Belgians to. .cheers
John

[simon lenihan]

clip the feather and it will grow back coarser and make it worse, treat once a week with pig oil and sulphur.
simon lenihan

[Andy Carson]

Hmmm… I never noticed the hair growing back coarser, but I would not have been likely to notice, as I kept the feather clipped the rest of the time I had this horse. I reclipped when it got about a half inch long or when it seemed like it wasn’t drying well. Clipping is pretty fast and cut my daily grooming time in half. There is no question that for this horse, this was an absolute cure. In fact, at first I only clipped the worst leg (although all legs had a couple lesions). The clipped leg was dry and healing fast within a couple days and the other legs were unchanged. After I saw that, I clipped all the legs and within a week all the lesions were gone and I never saw any sign again. Granted, this is only one horse and is far from a scientific study. I am glad that we can have this clipping/no clipping discussion, this is exactly what I was looking for when I was trying to figure out what to do a couple years ago. As I said, I tried many topical treatments and although they helped a little, they never really got rid of the problem. Maybe other horses respond better to these treatments, I have only had one with moderate feather. FYI, there is more discussion about this topic on rural heritage’s virtual vet messageboard
-search for “scratches”
http://www.ruralheritage.com/messageboard/virtualvet/index1.htm

[jac]

Hi Countymouse.. Thank you for that contact. Its a great site and seems like a good magazine to..A lot of info on there and some of it contradictory to what I’ve been trying … So I took the plunge and clipped:( I thought if I can cut my own hair and it sure as heck doesnt grow back coarser then surely a Clydes wont either:) The boys going to look odd for a while but hey.. if it works then great. cheers
John

[jac]

An update on the greasy heel prob I had.. Took countymouse advice and clipped.. that feather can hide a lot:( washed and carefully dried his legs. An old vet told me to use zinc oxide powder. dried it up great but a week after we started with the zinc, we wormed them with an Ivomec based wormer, Now I believe this drug combats the mite that can get blamed on this condition. So we now dont realy know if the zinc is working on its own or if the Ivomec helped too ?? Another lesson learned… dont mix treatments. I should have held off the wormer for a week or so. Can only wait now. If it stays clear we will use the sulpher and pig oil again as simon mentioned. We had been using it but I think once it gets a hold you need some stronger ammo…
John

[Andy Carson]

Hi John,
Glad to hear it’s getting better. The clipping alone worked for me, but from the sounds of it, I don’t think my problem was as bad as yours. I just had lesions about the size of a quarter (or a couple of cm, if you prefer). I think alot of people would have let them go, but cronic infections like these bug me. I have never been to the UK, but it seems like it could get get pretty muddy there… It has always been interesting to me that Clydes and Shires both were bred in a relatively muddy place. Maybe if most horses legs are muddy, than ones with long clean white feather would really stand out and demonstrate the quality of the horse as well as the quality of the care it receives? Just a guess. Just for record, I still think feather is pretty. Best of luck,
-Andy

[jac]

Hey Andy… Yes its mud here a lot.. we only get 2 seasons here winter and June…. but that feather hides a lot and I recon if most of the show horses over here were clipped out there would be some signs on most.. the old Clyde men blame the Shire for giving it to the Clyde thru the cross breeding that went on years ago:D who knows…just have to persevere with it. Cheers..
John

[jac]

Was talking with a couple of old horsemen and they mentioned that sugar could play a part in the greasy heel problem. We did feed mollassed beet pulp with chopped hay and a sprinkle of faked maize. Free access to rock salt and a pinch of minerals in every feed. Any thoughts on the sugar thing.. Cheers…
John

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