the Sage By Nature blog

When I first moved to the soggy Pacific Northwest from sunny California, friends and family joked that I would be growing moss between my toes in no time. Well that didn’t happen, but over the last couple of years my horse has had a case of rain rot during the winter.

This winter after her shelter crashed from the weight of snow, Sage has been subjected to more than her fair share of soggy conditions. More importantly than that, though, is the reason why she has rain rot – and its not as simple as too much rain.

I was dismayed when I first found the hair loss (on the crest of her neck and her poll area), but after I reviewed some information at a holistic horsekeeping forum and some other resources, I realized that the rain rot was telling me something that I needed to know about Sage: her immune system needs a bit of help.

The skin is an organ, and part of the immune system, so when a breakdown in the defense system happens like a case of rain rot then it is a good piece of information to know as her caretaker. Scientifically speaking, rain rot is a bacterial dermatophilosis infection, but in this case it is a little red warning flag telling me about deeper things going on inside of her.

Fortunately, rain rot is not life threatening nor does it seem to be terribly irritating her. In addition to topically treating the infection with a great calendula/tea tree salve from Wild Harvest (actually a product for people that I have found works wonders on kinds of scrapes and skin problems on horse and human alike), I am giving her immune system a little help with a skin-specific herbal powder blend from Silver Lining herbs.

The hair loss seems to have arrested at this point, but we have also been getting a reprieve from the rainy weather for the past few days. Today looks sunny and that is supposed to continue over the weekend, so Sage will get a little rare winter sunbathing (and Vitamin D production).

An interesting side note is that after years of having problems with her guts, Sage has now had this issue surface with her skin. There is a relationship here according to principles of Chinese medicine – of which I am no expert – so this is yet another example of ying and yang and keeping things in balance. With her guts and ulcers being addressed and healing, and her emotional environment stable for the moment, I have confidence that the rain rot is a passing storm.