Rain Rot - what would you do?

My horse lives outside and gets rain rot everytime is rains for more then 1-2 days in a row. This week it has rained for 4 days straight and his back is covered in rain rot. I always treat it with a betadine bath and vetericyn spray - gets rid of it in 1 or 2 treatments (I never let it get out of control).

My questions is this weekend it is supposed to rain again (tomorrow), I think it is going to be cool enough to put on a t/o sheet to protect his back from the healing rain rot, but he might get a little hot durning the day. Would you put the sheet on knowing he is going to be a little hot or would you just let him get rained on again and treat the rain rot on Monday? It is getting harder to treat the rain rot because of the cooler weather a bathing him without hot water - annoying to heat up water and wash out of a bucket (but I will do what I have to to keep him comfy).

Thanks!

I have a horse that gets nasty rainrot (worse in the winter with his full coat).
If he gets rained on, his hair STAYS wet for days, I swear.

I clip him (leave his legs wooly). The shorter hair makes it MUCH easier for him to dry after the rain, and he doesnt get rainrot anymore.

Dont know if this is helpful, but good luck!

I changed the vitamin supplement the horse was getting to one that had a higher percentage of copper in it, and used Equiderma on the area. Within three applications the rainrot disappeared, and has not returned.

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Originally Posted by rodawn

sThe vinegar is VERY inhospitable to the fungus that causes rain rot.

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Rain rot is bacterial; not fungal.

Dermatophilus congolensis.

Rain rot happens, but if it is a frequent issue you need to look hard at your ration/feed and see if/what the horse is lacking.

And for those seasons/events where it rains 40 days and 40 nights get in the habit of grooming and powdering with Gold Bond. I have a horse (mustang) that just hates standing under a roof. It has to be bad outside to get him to comply with it is drier and better under the roof! When we get into monsoon season every evening when I feed him I also powder and rub in a small handful of Gold Bond down his topline.

I also Gold Bond horses under winter blankets and in the spring when I launder the blankets they are dried and then Gold Bonded for storage.

Walmart Equate version of Gold Bond is really cheap and works fine.

I was just about to post a thread on this--glad I saw this one before doing so!

I've got another rain rot case. First time for my old gal. Yesterday after I rode, she needed to be hosed down so I gave her a Micro Tek bath then used Betadine on the crud (poor girl looked like she had been clawed by something). Good to know on frequent bathing; she doesn't get bathed often as she's a 24/7 outside horse (with a lovely barn to hang out in but that never happens), but it's usually with Micro Tek if she does get a bath.

The rain rot is along the top of her croup, and some areas she's itched raw. I had been taught that the crud needs to get pulled off--thoughts on that? Pull them off, Betadine, and leave it, or just Betadine?

Supplement vitamin A, and you likely won't have any more problems with it. Most feeds don't contain enough for a horse that is deficient, and hay is depleted of vitamin A very quickly.