Quicksilver: 0, Poop stain: 4

[Jaideux]

Hi, all

I'm at a bit of an impatient loss. My horse has a ginormous yellow stain on his hindquarters and front legs from laying in his poop (he's a pig in his stall), and I have practically soaked him in Quicksilver, but with minimal improvment. Here's what I've been doing/the circumstances, and if anyone has any other ideas, I'm so willing to try anything at this point.

- Big yellow stains, built up from the (long) winter when I couldn't wash him and I was also battling stuff internally/externally, which made it hard for be to stay on top of it with grooming because I was only out there once a week, maybe a little more.
- Grey (and getting greyer) horse
- Big guy, lives in a fairly large stall that he poops a generous amount in before mixing it up, likes to lie down to sleep.
- Is turned out from dawn 'til dusk year round, unless crappy weather, so he's in his stall a minimum of time.
- I liberally apply the Quicksilver, and let it stand the full recommended "colorsafe" minutes. I've even let it sit a bit longer, as I'd rather have a purple splotch than a yellow one.
- I've washed him 4 times now, and have noticed minimal improvement.
- I spray Show Sheen on his "trouble spots" every time I go to the barn (most days a week) to help prevent more buildup of, well, crap.

Is there anything else I can do?

I know the Quicksilver is okay because it worked on his tail (well, most of it... the ends are still giving me yellow trouble!), AND I went out and bought a brand new bottle, "just in case" the active ingredients in the one I had were no longer good.

I discovered a leave in shampoo that I'm going to stock up on when winter rolls this way again so I can be more proactive about this. I've never had to battle this in the past becaues I've always been out at the barn and on top of this stuff! He's still shedding his winter coat, and I'm hopefull the yellow will go away with that, but I'm also aware that every. single. night. he lies in his poop, and I feel like it's a losing battle... :( Unfortunately, putting a sheet on wouldn't be helpful, because it's that spot JUST below the edge of the blankets/a few inches up under there where the flap isn't flush against him.

I just want to get even with this spot! Now that it's finally warm enough to get my horses wet, I can spot wash as needed, but I feel like I'm still doing the uphill part. I'm not showing him anytime soon, but I do want look neat and like I take good care of my pony!

Suggestions? :)

[Simkie]

Well...you could clip him. When I had a little tobiano horse with white hocks, the ONLY way I could get her hocks white was to clip them.

If you don't want to clip, how about a paste made from oxyclean?

[tikihorse2]

I have a grey horse who's turning lighter and lighter who also likes to lie in poop/pee. He's had three baths already this year, and this is Wisconsin, so that's telling you something.

This last time I used Ivory dish soap on a shower poof from the dollar store. Really scrubbed it in, let it stand a while, then rinsed it out thoroughly. It seemed to work as well as any of the fancy stuff, and it was a lot cheaper. Then I sprayed him with Vetrolin Shine. He stayed clean for a few days, anyhow...

Kim

[alittlegray]

http://www.horse.com/Cowboy-Magic-Spot-Remover-BKL13.html

Cowboy Magic green spot remover. I have a gray that likes to poop on himself the MINUTE I get him ringside. I keep a bottle handy.

[lauriep]

If it is a really set-in stain, you may have to clip it and get new hair to grow in. The shampoos are good for dirt, but stains are, well, stains, and tough to deal with.Before you clip, try one more thing. Wash the stain any way you like, then mix up a solution of laundry blueing (Mrs. Stewarts, available in some groc.stores or from Dover) and rinse well with that. Use a white bucket, fill 1/2 full with water and squeeze enough blueing in to make it almost navy in color. Sponge on (the hair should have a faint blue tinge) and leave to dry. If that doesn't work, clip.

[Rayman421]

as the owner of a pinto pony who is 80% white and I swear LOOKS for the dirtiest stuff to roll in.......

I can second the Cowboy Magic Green Spot Remover

And I just tried Oxyclean in a bucket to soap his tail - which was yellow - and it did a great job! Sponge it on, let it sit, and scrub and rinse well. Follow up with a good conditioner.

Clipping is the only other way I know of to remove yellow stains.

[tikihorse2]

Doesn't Oxyclean get warm/hot when you apply it? Is this something you should do a spot test with first, to see if your horse is sensitive? With my luck, my horse would break out in hives or something godawful like that...

Kim

[atr]

The problem I find is that once you start messing with it, you can set it, like a dye. My spotty guy's first show pictures show this gleamingly beautiful horse white and black horse with a gleamingly beautiful 3ft x 1ft yellowish stain, glittering away down one side...

If you can get into a situation where he isn't laying in pee/poop, it will go away in about 3 weeks. Pee is the biggest problem.

For me, this involves obsessively picking the stall at least twice a day, and either getting rid of the rubber mats so the pee can drain fully (got any stall with dirt floors?) or putting a vast amount of bedding in, so there's no chance of coming in contact with the pee spot or turning the horse out 24/7.

TMI, I know...

[Ambrey]

Or a sheet.

I am also in search of the perfect whitener, but for my guy's tail (his body spots never set in). Check out the thread for some great ideas :)

http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=201236&highlight=white

[nightsong]

Beware of using dish soap or other drying agents on horses. They dry out the skin, making the horse incredibly itchy. What do itchy horses do to try to relieve it? Roll, and grind their skin in the dirt. I would think that Oxyclean or other laundry soap would be much WORSE, as dish soap has to be entle on hands. Bathing horses causes problems anyway, as it removes the natural oils that keep them warm and waterproof.

[Jaideux]

Thanks for the tips!

Sadly, I board about 30 minutes away from my house, and I work full time and go to school full time year round, so making it out to the barn to clean his stall after he's brought in at night is not gonna happen :( Plus, the barn has set hours, and typically he's only in his stall for an hour or two before closing time. It also means that I have significantly less ability to bed his stall super deep, all the stalls have rubber mats, and I can't do 24/7 turn out.

A lot of the suggestions made on this thread and Ambreys (wonderfully helpful!) thread talk about using some pretty harsh sounding stuff. I would have no problem for doing that to his tail, but the problematic spot is on that beefy chunk of leg between hock and hip. Is Oxyclean/dish soap/WOW! still okay for that? I'm not that desperate that I'm willing to make him uncomfortable!

Rest assured, he's only gotten 1 full soapy bath out of all these attempts- the rest of the time I've just done a very focused attack to minimize the drying out problems that could occur, and just done a quick rinse on the rest of his (fairly clean) body.

I don't think a sheet will help, as these stains developed in the winter, while he was already wearing a blanket 24/7.

I'm not opposed to clipping him, except I've never done it. Does the fact he is still shedding out in that spot matter? He's mostly done shedding there, I think, but definitely still has a bit extra there. Also, I don't really feel like investing in a full body clip. Other than the fact he will look a bit ridiculous, is there any reason I can't just clip that section and the fronts of his legs (which are still pretty dark dapples and gleaming yellow where there was once white)? I will most likely not be doing this myself, so it will be in the hands of a trusted professional, but I don't want to ask them to do something that is a major faux pas, haha.

::sigh:: I think I am just going to have to go the clip it route and start fresh. He's also really not a huge fan of fussing (he's a "man's man"), so he's probably enjoy the quick and dirty treatment over the multi-step ones. I never wanted a grey. Why did he have to be so perfect? :P And that was a dirty trick he played, getting all white on me instead of staying deeply dappled, haha!

[blaster]

Doesn't Oxyclean get warm/hot when you apply it? Is this something you should do a spot test with first, to see if your horse is sensitive? With my luck, my horse would break out in hives or something godawful like that...

Kim

I don't know about hot, but Oxyclean completely TRASHED a pair of leather seat breeches I owned after I soaked them overnight. Literally ate through the leather!

[In_]

Dawn Dish soap. The BLUE kind. Is your friend. Cheap- safe - and wonderful. Can I gush about it anymore?? Wash with it first - diluted in a bucket, scrub with a scrubbie or hand-mit. Rinse. Use quicksilver. Let sit for a few minutes, rinse! And *POUF* you have a white, glimery pony.

Whenever I give a horse a bath using horse shampoo, my hands are normally dry and itchy afterwards. I have not had this problem with the Dawn - and since I grew up in a Pony Club household - the horses had to be spotless quite often! My first Pony Club horse was a pinto. My second was a light grey. Enough said : )

[JSwan]

Borax. Works great on stains.

Or you can do what I did and buy a chestnut horse.

I used some of that color enhancing shampoo on him. I read the instructions and thought - when did 5 minutes do anyone any good? Measure the dose to the man!

He came out purple.

[Foxhound]

Cowboy Magic makes a yellow stain remover product. I don't remember the name, but I think it's supposed to be different from the green spot remover.
My grey horse is retired now, and I have a lovely liver chestnut who hides such stains quite well. Back when my grey was competing, I used to put a fly sheet and a slinky hood on her at shows to keep her clean.

[pony4me]

Cowboy Magic Green Spot Remover. The Quick Silver works great for regular baths, but you need the Cowboy Magic stuff for when he uses a big pile of poop as a pillow. Like my horse does.

[Acertainsmile]

Sounds like we have the same horse!

What I've found to work is bathing everyday for about a week to get the stain to fade... I use Quicksilver (have tried bluing, oxy clean, etc)... the Green Spot Remover did nothing for it.

Last fall I had to resort to clipping his legs (he formerly had a hunter clip). Now that it's warm I just give him a bath everyday, thankfully our show season hasnt started yet so I have a few more weeks to get that icky stain out!

[Carolinadreamin']

Or a sheet.

I am also in search of the perfect whitener, but for my guy's tail (his body spots never set in). Check out the thread for some great ideas :)

http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=201236&highlight=white

Followed the suggestion in post #6 on this (above) thread this weekend. Worked like a charm.

[pintopiaffe]

Wow Whitener is a leave-in spray that breaks down biologicals. The more/longer you use it, the better it gets. I've had quite good luck with it on yellow white manes.

Cowboy Magic "Yellow Out, Shine In" is quite good. Takes several goes at it though.

when all else fails, and it's show tipe, Shapely's sprays are a Godsend. The white will cover most everything, and is not tacky or sticky.

French Chalk too, though that's harder and harder to find, and is more for stockings/socks, but can be used on the body. Corn starch--I actually prefer corn starch baby powder, though it is more expensive than corn starch.

[findeight]

Mine is 20 now and sleeps on the same side-so the skin itself gets stained. Bummer to get out and never 100% gone.

Posted before, will again, make a paste of either Orvus (comes in the big tub thing), Dawn or Ivory dishwashing soap and Oxyclean powder. Let sit for 5 minutes and rinse. Repeat at least 3 times a week until most of the stain is gone.

Doing this for about 8 years now. Tried all the others, this works best with no side effects. Cheaper too. if you use it on the tail, condition after rinsing.

Once you get most of it out, just the Orvus or soap several times a week. Staying on it is the best solution.

[Jaideux]

findeight: is there a specific ratio that works best? I know you said "make a paste", but I'm feeling super left-brained side today, and it really likes measurments :)

Staying on top of it is absolutely my plan, but right now I am in total recovery mode, haha!!

And I definitely appreciate the suggestions of powder, sleezys, and sheets for before horse shows, but I'm just looking to surive on a day-to-day operation at the barn right now, and destruct-o-horse would have a field day if he was dressed up like that all the time, haha.

I've decided to just keep telling myself that he wants to look like his older brother and be all black, and THAT'S why he keeps these antics up!

[findeight]

Well, about 2 squirts of dish soap or a handful of the Orvus (it's like toothpaste if it's cool out, clear and runny when hot), What's that? 1/4 cup or so?. The Oxyclean comes with a scoop so about half that scoop.

No water, just mix it up and apply to wet horse. Work in and wait about 5 minutes to rinse. Leave it in the tail longer...actually, have had absolutly no problem with the stuff at all so time is not a big deal. Other then it does dry the tail a little so condition...does not seem to bother the rest of them.

[CatOnLap]

Beware of using dish soap or other drying agents on horses. They dry out the skin, making the horse incredibly itchy. What do itchy horses do to try to relieve it? Roll, and grind their skin in the dirt. I would think that Oxyclean or other laundry soap would be much WORSE, as dish soap has to be entle on hands. Bathing horses causes problems anyway, as it removes the natural oils that keep them warm and waterproof.
hmm, thats odd.
my horses are bathed fairly regularly about 3 times a winter and practically weekly in summer and have never been itchy as a result, nor are their coats stark or staring or lacking in oils. Sunlight dishsoap is absolutely the best stuff I ever found for getting rid of manure stains on a white coat. I have a leopard, so that's a lot of white, but sometimes it does take 3 washing/rinsing cycles to get it clean. The rinsing is the key- if you leave any trace of soap, it will irritate the skin, but if you rinse well, it doesn't. I used to use Orvus or mane'n'tail but neither worked as well. Quiksilver, even full strength doesn't do anything special for my horses that ordinary dishsoap doesn't do better. You can't use the soap full strength though- dilute it in a bucket of warm water as you would for dishes and use a sponge to work it into the stains, leave it a few minutes, rinse and repeat.

I wouldn't use laundry soap or oxyclean because it has a very different pH (very alkaline) than dishsoap.

[Melelio]

Perhaps this is the perfect opportunity for breeders to develop the new breed of horse for the horse owner with little time...

The "Eco Green Horse", in different shades of greens, bay points allowed, penalized for white markings :lol::lol:

You'll never have to wash again! And think of the environmental positive impact of saving on soap! :yes::cool:

[SophieGirl23]

A very long time ago a Pony Clubber taught me about using rubbing alcohol. We just pour some rubbing alcohol on a towel and then scrub the spot. It actually works wonders and acts as a brace. We generally keep several large bottles on hand for shows since we have a large messy gray that shows with us almost every weekend.

Do a test spot before using it on large areas, especially if you have a horse who tends to be sensitive.

[Montanas_Girl]

Borax. Works great on stains.

Or you can do what I did and buy a chestnut horse.

I used some of that color enhancing shampoo on him. I read the instructions and thought - when did 5 minutes do anyone any good? Measure the dose to the man!

He came out purple.

You owe me a new keyboard! :lol: While I have not turned my chestnut purple with the color enhancing shampoos, I have ruined many shirts and pairs of jeans - I now have a dedicated outfit for bathing him at shows.