# First time dealing with Rain Rot



## ecbreed (Jun 13, 2006)

So apparently Lily has rain rot. I have never had to deal with this before. I was going to use Tea Tree oil on the lesions, but does anyone have any experience with this? Should I be using something else? It is too cold her to give her a bath.


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## Irish Pixie (May 14, 2002)

ecbreed said:


> So apparently Lily has rain rot. I have never had to deal with this before. I was going to use Tea Tree oil on the lesions, but does anyone have any experience with this? Should I be using something else? It is too cold her to give her a bath.


Rain Rot is a bacteria with fungal qualities so you have to treat for both. I've always used povidone-iodine (Betadine) on it. You can put it in a sprayer use it that way. You have to treat anything that touched the area as well.


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## Cashs Cowgirl (Jan 26, 2006)

Tea tree oil is good, but it can burn if it's too strong. I use it as a wash with warm water, but I don't use it exclusively. Rain rot is nasty stuff. Treat everything! Betadine really does work good.


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## SFM in KY (May 11, 2002)

I got hit with rain rot when I moved from MT (where I'd never even heard of it) to KY ... where all of my MT horses, with no immunity at all to it, ended up with it for several years.

I tried a number of different things, based on local recommendations from both vets and local horse owners and found two things that worked the best. For lots of horses, mix Captan (which is basically a rose dust for a fungus disease on rose leaves) with water and saturate the rain rot areas with the solution once or twice a day.

For one horse, I've found something called "Schreiner's Solution" which I ordered from an online catalog (and don't offhand recall which company) ... comes in a spray bottle ... again, saturate the areas where the lesions are once or twice a day until it's gone.

I've used the iodine ... but prefer either the Captan solution or Schreiner's since there is no color staining.


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## beccachow (Nov 8, 2008)

Make sure if you have other horses you separate any grooming brushes used for Lilly, and you clean those brushes thoroughly. I have had good success with Betadine and Tea Tree Oil.  I will certainly be looking into SFM's products, though...this can be a very messy thing.


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## DaniR1968 (May 24, 2008)

Original Listerine, athlete's foot spray or cream, or diaper rash ointment. I've used all three depending on what I had on hand at the time to treat rainrot.


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## Tiempo (May 22, 2008)

When I first brought Tiempo home he had the worst case of rain rot I've ever seen..not a single part of his body that has hair did not have rot. Imagine a horse that was one giant scab except for his feet and eyeballs. In the roots of his mane the scabs were over an inch thick.

It was November and cold, but something had to be done and spot treatments were not an option, his whole body had to be washed down. It took 3 full body shampoos with Betadine laced with a little extra iodine (no rinsing) at two day intervals, I did it in the barn. Towelled him down gently and put a light fleece cooler on for a while after each soaking. A layer of dry bath towels draped over her and a nice pike of hay to munch on to keep her still if you don't have a cooler would be ok, just keep her out of the wind until he's mostly dry.

On the seventh day I went to the barn (I was still boarding at the time) and it poured on the way there. When got there the scabs were releasing from his rain soaked body in a mess of goo...then he dried up, I brushed him and it was gone..it's never come back and I've had him for 6 years...I have no idea how he got it so bad, all the other horses at the sellers barn looked fine.


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## Irish Pixie (May 14, 2002)

DaniR1968 said:


> Original Listerine, athlete's foot spray or cream, or diaper rash ointment. I've used all three depending on what I had on hand at the time to treat rainrot.


I've used a mixture of athlete foot cream, antibiotic ointment and zinc oxide on scratches/greasy heel but I've never heard it used on rain rot.


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## Maddiequus (Nov 4, 2003)

Wow, I wouldn't have thought of Listerine!


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## Irish Pixie (May 14, 2002)

Maddiequus said:


> Wow, I wouldn't have thought of Listerine!


Personally I wouldn't use Listerine the only medicinal property it has is the alcohol and that would burn something awful. Rain rot is best treated with Betadine.


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## DaniR1968 (May 24, 2008)

Rainrot is a fungus and original Listerine will work as a fungicide. It can also be used as a muscle rub after a hard workout.


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## Irish Pixie (May 14, 2002)

DaniR1968 said:


> Rainrot is a fungus and original Listerine will work as a fungicide. It can also be used as a muscle rub after a hard workout.


Actually rain rot is actinomycetes which is a bacteria but behaves like a bacteria AND a fungus so both have to be treated. Alcohol is not a good treatment for rain rot.


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## DaniR1968 (May 24, 2008)

I just took a minute to check and original Listerine diluted 50/50 with water does work and is recommended as one of the treatments for rainrot. 

OP can take a few minutes to research any advice given to double check before trying.


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## Lisa in WA (Oct 11, 2004)

Our POA gets it every spring unless we keep him in a turnout sheet. Betadine clears it up in no time flat.


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## fellini123 (Feb 2, 2003)

My old mare, well she wasnt old at the time!! She got rain rot on her rump every winter UNLESS she was pregnant.
I tried treating it with everything. Betadine helped a bit, but nothing really worked. 
We bred her one year and she had no trouble at all. The baby never had any problems. But the next year she got rain rot again. The following year we bred her, and again no problems at all.
I figured it was something in the pregnancy hormones.

Alice in Virginia


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## MelTX (Aug 25, 2009)

Vetericyn. Works like magic. Miracle juice. Really!


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