RECIPE: Rain Rot Treatment/Shampoo

Since there are only 2 ingredients and one of them is soap, I felt strange calling this a "recipe" but didn't know how else to label it so you could find it! :D

Oh and here's a little history for ya: There was a period of time when I had to ask and keep asking someone else how to make it and then I kept forgetting it before I could get home to make it! For some strange reason I had a real brain block on the measurements. I knew it was a 2-to-1 ratio, (in other words, twice as much of one ingredient as the other) but I just could not remember which ingredient you used twice the amount of! Yeah, this simple little recipe really made me feel like Ms. Bright Bulb! ;D

So...since I had such a hard time remembering it and could never find where I had written it down, I decided to include it in my recipes for others like me who may suffer from momentary lapses in memory or brain blockages! (There are others out there like me, right?) ;D

Okee-dokee...well, anyhoo....here's how you make it:

6 ounces of liquid Ivory dish soap
3 ounces of Iodine - (10% Povidone-Iodine Solution. Available at most equine supply stores)

I mix this up in the bottle that the Ivory dish soap comes in.

To use:

1. Thoroughly wet down your horse
2. Using a bath mit or "scrubby" plastic curry, lather the mixture (full strength) onto your horse, starting at the back of the ears, working it through the mane and working your way down and across their body to really work it into their tail, being sure not to forget their feet and under their belly. You do not want it getting into their eyes, so don't wash the horses' head or face with it.
3. Once the horse is completely covered, allow the mixture to sit on the horses' skin for about 5 minutes
4. Rinse well (and I would advise to rinse very well)

Your horse will be squeaky clean and super shiny! Bathe your horse with this mixture once a week for as long as it takes. I would recommend about 6 weeks but it could take up to 12 weeks.

Other helpful tips:

1. On light colored horses, do a "stain test" first, either on their belly or a small area on a fetlock or some small or hidden area. I know this is safe on chestnuts, bays, browns or blacks but it is possible that the iodine may temporarily stain the hair of ligher colored horses. If you really want to get rid of the rain rot and you don't mind your palomino being a weird shade of rusty "iodine-a-mino", then skip the stain test and get to shampooing!
2. Either before you bathe your horse or while you're bathing, wash or soak anything that normally comes in contact with your horses' skin such as saddle pads, blankets or sheets, ALL of your brushes, combs, curry combs, etc in soapy bleach water and this part is very important: Use only the newly cleaned equipment on the horse after you've bathed them in the iodine solution. This may sound like a pain, (and it can be) but once you get yourself "in the groove" and find little ways to save time, it's really not bad and it's so worth it to get rid of the rain rot! Before you head out the door to bathe your horse, you can just throw your blankets in the washing machine and toss all of your grooming supplies in a bucket of soapy bleach water and let them soak or wash while you're bathing. When you're finished bathing your horse, you have the hose out already, so just rinse out your grooming supplies and lay them out to dry.
3. You must ALWAYS sterilize all of your grooming equipment around the same time as you bath your horse so that you don't reinfect your clean (sanitized) horse with the rain rot bacteria that is living in your brushes and blankets.
4. Don't bathe your horse in this mixture any more often than once a week. Using it more frequently than that could really dry out your horses' skin and cause irriation.
5. Don't buy those tiny, little bottles of iodine from the drug store or supermarket. It will cost you a small fortune to buy enough bottles and that kind isn't really strong enough anyway. I buy the 10% Povidone-Iodine Solution, made by Horse Health Products, (which is a division of Farnam). A vet or equine supply store should have it and the large 32 ounce bottle only costs about $10 bucks.

As long as you keep up the cleaning and grooming of your horse and he or she is not constantly in contact with other horses' who have rain rot, using this mixture and these methods should get rid of it!