Does anyone have an "albino" sun sensitive horse with pink skin and/or blue eyes?

I recently adopted a pony that has pink skin and two blue eyes. He has pink skin around his eyes, and his nose is pink. He's quite sun sensitive. His eyes water in the sunlight, and he's prone to sunburn. I'm wondering if anyone else has a horse like mine and how you care for it. I've been putting a UV-protectant flymask on him during the days, but I am sometimes gone for days at a time with only my dad to care for him (who isn't the most horse-savvy guy). Does sunscreen work better?

Another question to go along with this -- I went out to the pasture today and I noticed that his nose is flaking. There's no redness, swelling, bleeding, or anything like that. It just looks dry and flakey. It doesn't hurt him at all either. What could this be, and how should I deal with it?

I've never had a sun-sensitive horse before like this and I was just looking for advice. Thanks so much - in advance. Hopefully someone has experience in this area.

Have a great day!

Hi,
Haven't had an albino, but had pink skinned appys. Swore I'd never have another sun sensitive horse, then fell in love with my current pink-nosed buckskin baby....

I believe albinos are a lot more sensitive than regular pink skinned horses, & I'd think the UV mask is probably your best bet, tho yes, it's hard if you're not around to supervise. I get by with zinc cream, but considering his eyes also suffer, this might not be good enough. Re going away for days at a time tho, I found that the first application or 2 of zinc for the year wasn't long lasting, but after a few daily applications, it stayed put well enough to last a few days between apps. So perhaps you could do both before you're going away, so that if he loses his mask while your dad's babysitting, it's not so important to get it back on.

BTW, the flakey nose is likely from sunburn/peeling IME.

Firslty - There is no such thing as an albino horse. The horse would have to have red/pink eyes to be an albino.

What you have is either a cremello, perlino, dominant white, or maximum white sabino.

I would keep a light white cotton rug on when it is sunny, a UV protecting face mask, as well as a cotton noseflap attached to a halter. Zinc/sunscreen are useless in the paddock as they learn to wipe it off. Zinc is great while riding.

Haha, I know. Sorry! Just trying to find a comparable term other than "sun sensitive". Thanks for your reply!

P.s...where do I obtain one of these cotton noseflaps?

Maybe it is for some horses, but has definitely not been useless for mine. My old boy(first horse) used to get a burned nose every summer before I started using it and apart from occasionally when I haven't been diligent enough at applying it, I haven't had a prob with sunburn on my pinkies since then.

Is a strong SPF sunscreen as good as the zinc cream? This is all so new to me!

I live in Australia and found them in my local saddlery made out of the same cotton as rugs. However you could make them easily enough - Just a you shaped piece of material with another piece sewn along the top on the back so you can thread the nosepiece of the halter through it.

My boy has a pink nose and this is the only way we have been able to get it back to normal - Nose flap at all times in summer (Not as often in winter) and proper thick, white, people zinc when he is ridden.

I have a full-face flymask that goes down to the tip of his nose...do you think this will serve the same purpose as a nose flap? A nose flap is a great idea for winter though. Never thought of that before!

I feel so bad for his cracked nose. Will it heal well if I keep that full-face flymask on do you think? He's really sensitive to anything being smeared or wiped on his nose. It always causes a big fight, and I hate to do it. I wonder if the flymask by itself will suffice.

A flymask on it's own didn't do anything for my boy, but I don't think we have proper UV rated ones. That's why we went to the nose flap.

I felt horrible with Wildeys - It would crack and bleed and was so painful. He was a pain about thezinc to start with but he gradually learnt it didn't hurt, and we learnt to be sneaky about how we approached him - Sneaking zinc up around the side of his head and applying from the top of the nose instead of in front or the bottom avoided any head throwing.

I also want to say that when his was really bad we didn't go straight to zinc - It needed a medical cream on it to help healing for a while before we could zinc it. We started with Prednoderm - Made for greasy heel I think and a horrible green colour that he wiped on EVERYTHING, but worked. We then went to septicide for a bit which was acid yellow and again he wiped everywhere, lol. Once the cracks were healed we left it without cream under the flap in the paddock and with just zinc when ridden. It now has no cracking and there is only a small area smaller than your palm where it is just pink skin with no hair.

Am leery of all the other chemicals in conventional sunscreen. Animals are often more sensitive to these than humans, and my daughters & husband are all too sensitive to cope with normal sunscreen - they get a rash & we have to use the expensive natural one.... which is predominantly zinc.

The other thing is, the thickness of zinc means it tends to stay on better, and it doesn't tend to irritate my horses as much as any other topical on their face.