New to this website, so glad I found you. I have a new four year old paint with lots of "chrome" and his first sunburn (since living with me). He's been outside for his whole life... But I am new to this.
Feeling like a bad mom. We are slathering on aloe and sun screen. I ordered an SPF fly sheet, too, which should arrive any time.
We have decided not to move him into a stall as he just settled in as alpha of his little herd of five geldings and is so happy there. We don't want to disturb his bonding.
Am I making a big mistake? Can you tell I am an anxious new mom again? My other horse is 20 now and newly retired. Had him since he was 18 months old... But he's a bay and never burned like the baby has. Just a pink nose now and then.
Deep breath. Patience and humor, John Lyons used to counsel. I'm trying.
Sounds to me like you're doing all the right things (aloe, sun screen, SPF fly sheet, etc.). Make sure you get an SPF fly mask, too—one of the nice, long, over the nose ones (especially if he's got one of those cute pink noses, the poor thing).
If it gets super bad you can put him into a stall, but if it's just a little pinkness then I think keeping him outside with a lot of precautions is good.
In general, put him in full sun protection armor every time he goes outside if he's got a lot of white. :P
If night turnout isn't possible or if he is out 24/7, I really second the zinc oxide.
Buy WalMart's "Equate" diaper rash paste not the cream. The paste version has 40% zinc oxide.
Also Cashel makes a face mask with an extended nose piece but a lot of horses won't tolerate the nosepiece and rip them to shreds.
BTW welcome to the forum, hope to hear from you often. You've had your Bay his entire life --- 20 is still young --- I hope he isn't retired from illness or injury and you retired him, "just because".
Thanks for this! Ordered two tubs to arrive by Monday!
Will aloe vera dilute its effectiveness?
We have the Cashel mask but his friends pull it off sometimes.
PJ and Bodhi's first kiss! ...after I tried bringing PJ to meet Bodhi and Bodhi had turned away from us and showed us his rump. So, I tried a second time, taking Bodhi to PJ instead. That worked just fine.
PS had to retire my 20 year old due to fused knees ...his mom rolled on him as a weaning in a trailering accident. Nobody wanted him for showing... We had 18 amazing good years!
I still cry when I tell people we cannot ride safely any more.
Ditto the aloe, along with diaper rash paste is fine. I use it with antibiotics to keep flies off wounds,malus it does not come off in the rain, easily
It sounds like you have given your Bay a fantastic life. Hopefully retirement will give you more years of enjoying each other
I second the zinc oxide. This is the one I use: https://www.walmart.com/ip/21092569...75035&wl11=online&wl12=21092569&wl13=&veh=sem
You can also get it in a smaller tube as well for cheaper to try it out.
I swear by this stuff. When I would go out of town and I had to rely on the barn to put on his sun stuff.. well sometimes that wouldn't happen and I would come back to him and he would have a horrific sunburn. I popped some of that paste on and by the NEXT DAY it was almost totally healed up! The only thing is, it sticks to everything so just make sure you have a dry towel around to wipe your hands off.
Also-- not sure if your horsey has blue eyes like mine did but mine required a special mask because his baby blue eyes were very sensitive to light. I purchased a guardian mask (Product Information) with a nose attachment and that protected his nose and face during the day. So it was like his pink skin was inside during the day and he didn't need to be stalled.
Just make sure to always take it off at night. It's very dark inside of the mask and when it gets dark they will not be able to see out of it and it becomes very dangerous since they can't see where they are going in the middle of the night. But that mask saved his face day in and out. I only had to put the zinc oxide on him when he didn't get it put on one day, or he decided to lay out in the sun and his chin got sunburnt...
EDIT: For some reason I somehow missed the pictures?! Anyways, a cashel fly mask with nose attachment will work fine for him and putting zinc oxide on his pink chin daily. If the horses pull it off then I would suggest the guardian mask since it's very fitting and has a very strong velcro to it.
Thanks for your reassuring words about my bay's retirement. I think the grief colors things for a while. I have never retired a horse before and my feelings are similar to watching my mom's decline which was slow.
Night-time turnout and inside during the day is the best way to avoid sunburn. Creams, salves, ointments, etc. just attracts dust and makes a mess.
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