Horse with scabs on her shoulder

A few days ago I was out petting my sisters horse and I noticed that she had a rough patch on her shoulder... So I naturally looked at it and ran my hand back across it... I pressed on it and she acted like it was tender. I went back today and looked, and it looked as though whatever it is that's on her had spread...Whatever it is that's on her feels like little scabs of some sort.. just in a patch.....

So, I started looking around on the internet to see if I could come across anything......... I came across rain rot... and it said that it happens primarily in hot humid locations.. and it's the middle of winter here.... So, I am not thinking that it's that?

I was thinking that it could be a fungus of some sort.. but I really don't know.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what it might be?


Thanks :)

Scabs can be any number of things with horses and I would advise getting a vet to take a look. It could just be a healing wound but if it has grown then this is less likely - rain rot is a fair possiblity as one of the more common bacterial infections and in my experience rain rot can easily 'form' in the absence of warm temperatures. It could also be some other form of bacterial or fungal infection and it could even be the beginning of sarcoids. Either way vet attention is needed quickly as what could be a small lump today could be a big problem tomorrow.

What Dave said!

Sounds like rainrot to me. My DIL's mare gets this off and on, seemingly out of the blue. If the hair is slightly raised or even looks like it's prickly, then I'd say rainrot. Slather some desitin(baby butt cream) on it rubbing it in as much as the horse can bear. Remember it hurts. Try to pick off clumps as they loosen. It will take a few days to a week to clear it up if you keep the desitin on it and work the clumps off.

The desitin won't hurt it if it's not rainrot, btw.