Keeping mare's tail clean

[To_the_MAX]

I’ve owned my mare for about 9 months now and I don’t think I’ve ever had a horse that gets their tail so nasty. The underside of her dock (as well as in between her butt cheeks and down the inside of her legs) gets covered in goopy “lady juices” for lack of a better term…sometimes mixed with poop for good measure. The hair up at the top of her tail gets matted with this gunk extremely quickly. For example, I washed her tail on Tuesday of this week and it’s already a mess again as of Thursday night.

In the warmer weather it’s obviously easier to keep clean, and while I have access to warm water, I don’t have a wash stall and it’s very cold up here in the Northeast. How do I continue to keep her tail clean without washing it every 2 days? Baby wipes? Any miracle cleansers out there that I don’t know about?

And any tips on how to prevent this from happening going forward? When I first got her in the spring I just assumed that it was extra messy because she was in heat, but it seems to be a pretty regular issue from what I can tell.

There’s also nothing wrong with her tail, by the way, she just doesn’t seem to care enough to get it out of the way. It happens whether she’s wearing blankets or not, so not the tail flap either.

[Simkie]

Constant goopy lady juices isn’t normal. Have you had her reproductive tract examined? Perhaps she has a long standing uterine infection, or is pooling urine, and would be helped with a caslick.

[mmeqcenter]

Yeah I’d be having a vet out. That is not normal.

[To_the_MAX]

Thank you both - I haven’t had a mare in 10+ years so wasn’t aware it wasn’t normal to have some level of discharge - just thought she was especially messy. I will have the vet take a look!

[WildGooseChase]

Your mare should be in anestrus this time of year. Any amount of discharge is abnormal in anestrus. It’s all based off hormones. But your mare shouldn’t be producing any follicle stimulating hormones yet to throw her into a cycle. It’s too early in the year. Do you have her under lights that could be simulating summertime light cycles?

[Weezer]

Agree that you should talk to a vet. But I have noticed that my horses get poopy tails when they are wearing blankets. I think the weight of the blanket prevents them from lifting their tails out of the way.

[GraceLikeRain]

That sounds really atypical. I’ve never experienced anything like that with any of my mares.

[TheHunterKid90]

Speak with your vet about possibly ultrasounding your mare. Sometimes mares can develop cysts on their ovaries that make them act like they are in heat all the time. Worth a shot.