hot spots

[mitchmaine]

my old mare has always been prone to scratchin her neck and rump. when the flesh gets proud i wash her with soap and warm water and dust her and try to dry it up. shes got it as bad as i’ve ever seen, up on her crest under the mane. it’s beyond her collar so i can hook her no trouble. and i’m working on it, but she’s more sensitive to it than before. i’m wondering if it’s diet? any good ideas on how to treat it? thanks.

[CharlyBonifaz]

a chance of a picture?
mange?

[mitchmaine]

probably no picture. i can barely type. it feels like a bag of marbles under her hide. doesn’t look mangy to me, she’s the only one in the barn with it. she is probably 16 or 18. can’t remember. it’s her sweet spot. she used to lay her head in your lap if you scratched there. she can get it with her rear left. got me puzzled. i’ll go look up mange on the computer and see. thanks.

[ngcmcn]

Mitch, two things……..I had one old Belgium gelding, you might have met him at LIF six years ago, he did alot of what you are talking bout but not so localized……….on his tail stem, neck etc., turned out he had lice. He never chewed off the hair by rubbing but darn near. We looked, really closely down at the roots of his coat with a magnifying glass and sure enough the old bugger had lice. We treated him with Ivermectin orally and it worked. Theres al sorts of other treatments available.

The other horse we had with identical symptoms to your mare was a Morgan mare. Rubbing off on the neck, bumps itchyitch.Wewashed,powdered,cleaned, medicated, you name it, to no avail. So we sold her, to a doctor in southern Maine. the bumpy itch came back. The doctor bought over the counter antihistamines, put them in the little mares grain with excellent results, and from what i was told less frequent occurences of the itch. Don’t know dosage? Type of antihistamines? Maybe Jen Judkins could help on this one,I think she’s a Doc. I could dig up the name of the Doc who has our Morgan. I guess it was an allergy?

Good Luck

Neal Maine/Vt

[sanhestar]

Hello,

possible causes other than mange:

lice (already mentioned), skin fungus, sweet itch (allergic reaction) – improbable during winter except it’s still warm enough at your place for flies and moskitos, allergic reactions to something in her feed

[jen judkins]

@ngcmcn 14029 wrote:

The other horse we had with identical symptoms to your mare was a Morgan mare. Rubbing off on the neck, bumps itchyitch.Wewashed,powdered,cleaned, medicated, you name it, to no avail. So we sold her, to a doctor in southern Maine. the bumpy itch came back. The doctor bought over the counter antihistamines, put them in the little mares grain with excellent results, and from what i was told less frequent occurences of the itch. Don’t know dosage? Type of antihistamines? Maybe Jen Judkins could help on this one,I think she’s a Doc. I could dig up the name of the Doc who has our Morgan. I guess it was an allergy?

It was probably benadryl. Cheap and few side effects, except sedation.

I wonder if it is a corn allergy (as long as you have ruled out lice). 10% of mammals (people, horses, dogs, etc.) are sensitive to corn (wheat is also high up there, but not as common an ingredient in horse feeds). Try taking her of grain for a couple of weeks and see if there is any improvement. If there is you will have to add the grains back into her diet, one at a time….depending on what you are feeding to see what sets her off. Just a thought…I do alot of allergy in my practice. Jennifer.

[mitchmaine]

thank you all, i’ve been thinking allergies but needed to hear somebody else say it too. we feed oats or spelt mixed with sweetfeed along with some vitamin mineral supp. they also got 2 – 3 bushels of carrots culls and sweetcorn stalks. they eat what they want out of the garden. i’ll try cutting back on the grain, but she works pretty hard this time of the year. i’ll cut the sweetfeed and see if she improves. thanks, all.

[ngcmcn]

With our morgan, I think it was insect-initiated… not lice or anything, just general bugs… but once it started it was hard to get her out of it, even when the weather cooled off. She never really had any grain–maybe a little now and then as a treat, but basically hay and pasture. THe funny thing was that no vet she ever saw had any idea–it was always a fungus or something… it took the people doctor to think of just interupting the histamine rxn… and that seemed to be all it took. Just to get her out of the cycle of scratching makes it itch more. THe other thing I heard was that this is something that is somewhat common in morgans. Anyone else ever hear of this?

Gwyneth

[Pete]

Wormed her lately?

[mitchmaine]

veted each spring. she’s a belgian. a photo wouldn’t show much. feels like the scrathes would.

[grey]

Does it change any with the seasons?

[Jean]

I have a spot on my own back that itches all time, make you crazy kind of itch. I went to the Dr to get help for it. They said that there was nothing wrong and the reason it itched was because I scratched it, if I could stop the scratching it would stop the itching. They gave me a cortisone cream to put on it, of course it is in the center of back, so I can’t reach it. I continue to scratch it on any corner of the house or chair back, just like a cow.

I know I have opened myself up for a lot of jokes, but I am just saying I know first hand that once the cycle is started it is hard to stop.

Try Tea Tree Oil, has helped my sister’s dog with the same itch pattern.

[mitchmaine]

grey, it’s the first time in her long life with us that it’s ever happened. for that matter on any horse i’ve had. so i just don’t know what it could be. about diet, in the fall after 2nd cut we drop the gates and let the horses into the fields to graze. they like the swales so who knows what they eat. my dad would say if you give them enough good feed they won’t eat anything bad for them. we don’t clean their grain so its full of weed seeds??????
and thanks jean, i know what you mean about an itch. digging always makes it feel better and itch more. i might try that tea. thanks

[grey]

Let me make sure I understand…

She has always been somewhat itchy on her neck and rump but now it’s the worst it’s ever been and the skin is all bumpy, like marbles under the skin?

[mitchmaine]

hey grey, thanks for the response. actually she’s never scratched. she’s never seen a vet, she’s been so healthy. this is new to her. i wormed ’em all a week ago just in case, and pulled her grain, and brush her well each morning. she enjoys the attention but i can’t say she is any better yet. ?????????

[Author]

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