My horse has developed a skin condition. He is getting patches on his shoulders, rump and neck that he scratches raw. The areas will swell slightly and the skin secretes a little clear fluid.
I have been treating with fungicide and it gets better but then another spot appears. This damage will happen overnight. He looks like a dog with mange!
Any advice is helpful. I am trying to save a farm call.
Try using the medicated Mane and Tail shampoo for horses and then giving a bath with apple cider vinegar it gets in and kills any fungus and stays in the skin to prevent it.
With the size of those patches I would want the vet to do a skin sample. Then treat according to what the sample shows. That one on the neck looks pretty raw.
These lesions are definitely worth a vet exam. They look very much like a local reaction to something that is coming into contact with the skin. The most common cause of lesions like this that I have seen are fly sprays applied heavily in the area of the lesion.
Your vet will probably want to take a biopsy of the area--it's not a big process. The biopsy will be sent off to the lab for histopath to determine if this is a local inflammatory reaction as I suspect.
Stop applying anything to those areas other than possibly washing them with a bit of betadine once a day. Be very sure to rinse them well.
They look very much like a local reaction to something that is coming into contact with the skin. The most common cause of lesions like this that I have seen are fly sprays applied heavily in the area of the lesion.
He is out in the sun but he has been all his life. I do not believe this to be sunburn. He has plenty of shade available if he wants it. I appreciate the thoughts though :wink: .
The most recent area is under his mane and out of the sun anyway.
While it's been used for a long time and you may not feel that you apply it "heavily", it still may be the cause as even a little too much in an area can cause these kinds of reactions on certain horses. For example, while you may not soak the skin all over, the area closest to the spray bottle when you start spraying often gets more fly spray then the rest of the horse and it's those areas that I've seen issues in.
We went to the vet. He said it was a bacterial infection of the skin. He gave him a couple of shots and I am to give him a betadine / shampoo bath every three days for the next couple of weeks.
If he does not improve then we will do other test.
UPDATE: I went to the vet and he gave him an antibiotic and gave me a betadine scrub/shampoo. Things were getting under control and then I had to leave town for 5 days. When I returned Drifter had another terrible break out.
I called the vet again and he is going to give me something else to try. I will continue to bathe him frequently and then spray him. I may have a fly or other biting insect problem.
I sure would like to fix this.
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