Cracked Noses

I need suggestions for healing and prevention of cracked noses on my horses. They all have wide white blazes and the ends of their noses are cracked. I have been putting sun screen on them, but it didn't seem to help much. I'm wondering if it could be a plant that is causing them this trouble. They have the run of a 30 acre pasture, so finding the culprate could be difficult.

There is one plant that we have around here that does that but I cannot for the life of me remember what it is. From what I understand, St. Johns Wort can cause photosensitivity in the white areas on a horse too. Sorry I'm not more help.

Are you sure it's not sunburned? If you didn't apply sunscreen until after it was cracked, the only thing it can do is prevent further sunscreen. Try a lotion with aloe vera in it and keep it moist. I think you can find one with an SPF. Once it heals, put sunscreen on daily to prevent another burn. Or zinc, I hear that works incredibly.

Make sure that your not using any oil based products as they will burn very badly.

Try vaseline rubbed into there noses to ease there discomfort.
You can get facial masks to reduce the risk of further sun broke.

This happens to my BO's pink-nosed Walker every summer. I'm pretty sure what is happening to your horses is just sunburn. The sunscreen may not be working because it is wearing off or isn't water proof (because they stick their noses into the water to drink and sometimes play around).

You could keep them in a stall during the day and turn them out at night, or (I prefer this option) get fly masks with a dropped nose, so it covers the pink. If you don't wan to do that right away, I'd go for some water proof, sweat proof, long lasting sunscreen and see if it helps. Aloe on the nose will help it heal.

Used to have a couple of white nosed horses. Yep its sunburn--the pink skin under the white is real tender.

I can't remember what the name of the cream is but its pink and it acts as a sunscreen and sooths and heals the sunburn. Pretty funny to see a couple of pink nosed horses runnin round but it worked for sure.

My Wildey has a wide blaze and white nose. He was fine for years and then he started getiing cracked and bleeding.

We got a biopsy done to check what it was.

It started out as a reaction to a plant - Not sure what, and then as a result turned into photosensitivity.

Sunscreen/zinc isn't really a viable solution for during the day - Wildey at least is an expert at rubbing it off on his legs.

In his case we bought some cotton nose flaps and attached them to a halter that he wears 24/7 in summer. It's the only thing that has worked with him. We have about 6 and they get pretty grotty so we wash and change them regularly.

When he is ridden we use zinc - proper white people zinc. Sunscreen was too thin and did nothing. However he is like a ninja at wiping it off on other horses - Not uncommon to see four or five horses wherever he is walking around with white smudges on their butts!

With the nose flaps and zinc his nose is just about perfect. It took a long time to find a system that worked.

The only thing he gets now are small cracks to either side of his nostrils - However I beleive this is from snot freezing in winter and cracking his skin as it only happens in winter.

I recommend Desitin ointment. It's healing as well as containing Zinc Oxide.. It is pretty resistant, but if they rub it off that's not going to help.. I'm going to say it's also got to do with a plant. Some of our horses do have white on their noses(blazes) but they don't always get a sunburn.

are you talking about "swat"?

My horse has a pink nose and this is definitely happening with him. Cracked, flaky nose. Pretty much all the way around. I went out of town for a day, came back, and his nose was all cracked. An issue I'm having with him is he hates having sunscreen or any sort of liquid being put on his nose. He freaks out and backs up and won't let me touch him. I'm not quite sure what to do. It doesn't seem to hurt him at all, but I just feel so bad for his poor nose.