Mud, mud, mud...

After my snowy weekend stint in Finland, I am left somewhat forlorn and disappointed about the local weather here. Life in the yard is a constant battle against mud and dirt. However, the little snow fall we had here yesterday, remarkably cheered me up. My chickens were so funny: being so young, they had never seen snow before, so even the little dusting on the ground made them suspicious and, bless, they tried to fly over the snowiest bits, in order to move from one part of the garden to another.

With this in mind when I went to the yard this morning – during the daylight hours, for a change! – I wasn't really overly surprised or shocked to have discovered a spot of mud fever in Rainbow's one hind foot. I was brushing off the dried up mud and picking her fetlocks to remove some stubborn lumps of mud, when I suddenly noticed the irritated, pinkish skin... "Oh, no, please no...", thinking to myself. Having never seen mud fever before – other than in photos – I asked for a second opinion from one of the girls. As such it was confirmed and I was instructed to gently wash it, dry it and then add anti-bac onto it. Fine, except the frozen taps due to the exceptionally cold weather and no clean towels at hand made the whole operation rather challenging. I had to boil some hot water in the warm room a couple of times, in order to wash the fetlock area and to make it a bit more comfortable for Rainbow. Didn't really have heart to splash ice-cold water on R's feet. 

I also had to get some stuff to put on the irritated skin. One of the girls told me to go and buy Hypocare in the shop... As I didn't have any other stuff at hand, I thought I'd give it a go, as the girl had told me it's "amazing stuff" and can be used for almost anything. 

www.horseware.com/hypocare

No mud spa (the paddock) for Rainbow for a few days, while I keep an eye on her feet. Will need to keep her as dry as possible for a while, too...  I hope I've caught it early, as the skin only looked a little irritated pink, not totally raging red or oozing anything, so that's good. 

But it's never fun to discover something like this and, especially, when I have tried to be sensible, so haven't over-washed her feet and always let the mud to dry before brushing it off. I have also kept her stable as clean and dry as possible, with plenty of straw bedding, which actually is brilliant stuff for cleaning. I often put R in her stable with muddy feet and by morning the straw has brushed them off and dried her feet too. Apparently, according to the shop-keeper, mud fever has been bad this year. So, possibly, I am not alone.  Ho hum.