Oh No! The vet gave us the wrong medicine! Or, she didn't really hear me at all?At least in my experience, you should treat a bacterial infection (rain rot/regenfauele) and a fungal infection (thrush/strahlfauele) differently.
Cuz they're different organisms.
I found a bottle of this on my doorstep tonight, from the pony's owner. I'm not sure if she used it on him, or expects me to. We are getting tired of their cancellations/lack of communication, it's not very German of them to always be 3-5 days late on what they schedule. And we're giving up on waiting at home for them all day long.
So I wanted to ask the blogging world if you'd ever heard of treating rain rot (Dermatophilosis) with an antifungal (Enilconazol). Cuz I know I'll treat thrush with an antibiotic+antifungal.....but vice versa? I thought rain rot required antibacterials+dryness, and in bad cases, even antibiotics.
BTW, the little bottle cost 31Euros (40 bucks), and I'm tempted to keep my mouth shut and just use it on Baasha's left rear heel which is harboring thrush, hehe. (Just kidding, the pony needs the right medicine. But I also know that if kept dry, Baasha will be well within a week with no treatment at all.)
So, how do we all treat fungal vs. bacterial infections with our horses?
***Update***
I can answer own question. Rainrot is normally caused by bacteria but can be caused by a fungus. The only way to tell is do to a lab test. We'll see what happens.
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11 comments:
Hmm, It may work on both.
I have never bought anything from the vet to treat rain rot. We have always used Betadine, iodine solution, or an iodine shampoo if you want to bath them. If they are not being ridden slathering the rain rot with Bag Balm works great too, just really greasy.
Oh and I use Shapleys MTG too. I lucked out, mine didnt have much of it this year, even with the prolonged wet Spring we had here.
Good Luck!
FWIW, "Rainrot" in my experience is a very american thing. I have heard of it only on US forums or blogs and am not convinced that it is that common here. Fungus on the other hand is VERY common.
I'm guessing you vet didn't really get what you were talking about or the owner of the pony didn't care. Imaverol is a classic cure against fungus. (Actually, I usually choose to vaccinate.)
You are right fungal or bacterial infections should be treated differently but I also think that many external scrubs and washes work for both.
Reddunappy, I am excited cuz my next bottle of Betadine is arriving next week with my guests from America, woo!
AmityBee, I searched so long in German forums for info on rainrot and finally found one forum entry - they called it Dermatophilose and it is exactly the same bacteria as the one that causes Mauke (scratches/mud fever). Strange to me that it is not common here, whereas Mauke is. From the dearth of mention of "regenfauele/winterezcem" I had assumed it is rare here. : ) You vaccinate against pilz? I'd seen that in the list of recommended vaccinations and I was very surprised - never heard of that!
Even though it doesn't make any sense to me (from a medical point of view) that a vaccination against fungus should work, it somehow does work. I have done it only once a couple of years ago when my mare developed fungus in the middle of winter one year while being blanketed.
It was just too much, washing horse and sheets and all again and again in the cold, so I decided to give the vaccine a shot. It worked. It had to be repeated after 6 weeks (?) and would give immunity for about a year. I think it's mostly used to treat a case of fungus (or to protect the rest of a group when one horse is infected) and not so much as a precaution.
I asked my vet was was in the vaccine. It seems to be some kind of mix against the most common strains of fungus.
As for the rainrot/mauke bacteria, maybe the strains here are less agressive or the climate is too different. Some things seem to be more common or worse (i.e. I think "Sommerekzem" is much more common around here) while others (like white line or rainrot) are mostly unknown.
Amity, I had never heard of Sommerekzem before Germany, and now I have to look out my Wohnzimmer window and watch a tiny Shetland suffer from it. She rolls constantly, and rubs her belly across the grass, and trots or gallops around, because her skin just bothers her. Her tail is always active, while the other horses in her herd are calm. I feel so bad for little Shiela! I wish I could buy her and try my best to solve it.
We call it "Sweet Itch" and it is semi-common, it is technically an allergic reaction to mosquito bites, or other insects. But the horses who suffer from Sweet Itch rub themselves raw every summer: (
It's interesting to me to compare ailments in horses across continents - they are different and yet somehow similar.
But a pilz shot, that's new!
Again, it is incomprehensible to me that Mauke is common, and rainrot nicht, cuz they're both the same exact evil bacteria.
Much to learn. I appreciate your input, as a local. (And I do not give my blog out to any German horse people, outside my immediate family. If you are German and found my blog, I'm surprised!)
There is a product I use and have used for skin irritations of all types, bacterial/fungal.
I have used it effectively on scratches, rainrot, ring worm and unidentified scurfy areas including rubbed tails. Its made by Eqyss and is called Micro-Tek Spray. http://www.eqyss.com/equine_products.asp
It is gentle and very very effective, it smells wonderful as well. I don't know the secret ingredient but I have used it for about 10 years, its slightly spendy but a large spraybottle lasts me over a year a little goes a long way. I selectively apply to to only the skin areas that are affected.
I believe both bacteria and fungus invade together to cause problems, Hoof care expert Pete Ramey recommends a combination of athletes foot cream(antifungal) and basic antibiotic ointment to treat hoof thrush.
http://www.hoofrehab.com/frogtrim.htm
Hope this information is helpful to you.
CR, if that was available in Germany, I'd buy it: )
I've used Pete's goo myself, it is the most effective thing against thrush, at least on my horse. But you cannot get triple antibiotic ointment in Germany, so I'm slowly running out.
lytha, I hope you don't mind that I comment on you blog. Blame it on google to spit out sites that might be interesing to a user. ;-)
I think you blog came up while I was browsing blogspots "next blog" option. It looked well kept and interesting so I subscribed to it.
Depending on the active ingredients many medications have multiple active ingredients that treat fungus and bacteria. Its mostly for convenience since most times you don't know for certain which your treating for, and fungal cultures take two weeks. So you can start treating while you wait, and in case it is a fungus you can get a head stay on it.
I usually treat with otomax which is usually used to treat dogs ears. My horse had gotten hives from mtg and the equis spray. Or ketochlor shampoo. Again usually used for dogs or cats.
Is it illegal for you to have those products shipped in? Is it possible for a US person to mail them to you?
I don't know anything about your customs requirements
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