hi i have a 13 year old mare who has a skin problem that i can't get rid of. Every year winter or even in the summer she gets itchy like little sores on her. I have tried iodine like it is a fungus it heals and her hair grows back but she is still itchy and bites at her sides and belly. I feed her corn oil and now I have started her on a supplement. I have not changed her bedding or grain or the hay that she is on could you please give me some help.

-- melissa eisenhauer (mega465@aol.com), March 23, 2002

Answers

She could be allergic to her bedding. Make sure theres not any walnut in it. Give her a bath with plain old Ivory dish washing soap. The liquid. When you rinse her off make sure you get all the soap rinsed out. Give her another bath about 4 days later. That should help. Rog

-- Roger Parker (zipsmykat@aol.com), March 24, 2002.

Have you tried any specific fungicides or only the Betadine? I've found that Betadine is only so-so on some fungus cases. If this is a persistant problem, you would probably be saving time, money & aggrevation to have a vet do a skin scraping and look at it under a microscope to find out what you are dealing with. The on-going skin itching would seem to indicate that you've treated the symptom rather than the underlying cause. There is the possibility that you may be dealing with a skin parasite, but there are also some very perplexing diseases in horses that cause skin and flank biting to the point of self-mutilation at times. I'd start out with a skin scraping.

In addition to allergens in bedding, it is also possible that she is having an allergic reaction to the corn oil. We had one gelding who was so allergic to corn that as little as a 5-6 kernels in his feed and he would break out in 1/2 to 3 inch hives all over his body. Usually they are only allergic to the proteins in corn, however, he was also allergic to corn oil as well, which shouldn't have been trouble, but it was.

If you want to keep trying things at random, I have had good results in unspecified skin conditions using CytOxyl shampoo (made by VetGenix) and following the recommendations on washing religiously. It is a 5% Benzoyl Peroxide shampoo. Another product that has been helpful in some instances is EQyss MicroTek spray, which is good against fungal, viral, and bacterial skin conditions.

Good luck!

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), March 24, 2002.

I have a friend whose horse periodically broke out with itchy bumps. The vet did some tests and found the horse allergic to mold. The horse now takes allergy shots and is doing fine.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2222@hotmail.com), March 24, 2002.

Is she by chance a chestnut??? Chestnuts are just like redheaded people, prone to allergies of all sorts!

Try switching her feed to something that has NO corn in it (like Julie mentioned), switching to canola oil, and try this: add a tablespoon of garlic powder to her feed twice a day, mix well with the added oil and add an ounce of cider vineger to the concoction as well.

This also has the addded benefit of helping to repel bloodsucking parasites, worms, and flies as well as being a top notch skin and coat supplement for man and beasts of all types.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), March 24, 2002.

I don't have any person horse experience. However, where I work we had a customer who complained of very similar symptoms on their horse. Tried many things, called a vet and it ended up being lice. A couple of treatments with Louse Powder containing Rotenone resulted in a very happy horse. Could the sores be the result of her being allergic to the louse bites? Perhaps a wild guess, but it couldn't hurt to check.

-- Bernie from Northern Ontario (bernadette_kerr@hotmail.com), March 24, 2002.

I truly suspect that this is a fungus. Several of my horses have had it over the years. Around here, we call it rain-rot because it's usually caused when winter coats and humidity go hand in hand (this can be a damp stall. The only way to "cure" it is to get some good iodine shampoo and shampoo the animal from head neck to feet every day for an entire week. Scrub well. Shampooing only once or spot treating with iodine won't do any good. The fungus regenerates itself unless it's killed out completely. Make sure the mare is fully saturated with water and shampoo and let it stand for a few minutes each shampoo, to penetrate down to skin level, before rinsing completely. Do this for an entire week and I believe you'll whip it.

-- kathy greuter (kathy@nrccua.com), March 24, 2002.

=== Try switching her feed to something that has NO corn in it (like Julie mentioned) ===

My friend only feeds Coastal grass hay, nothing else. My critters are on Coastal grass pasture. Nothing else.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2222@hotmail.com), March 25, 2002.

My horse gets rainrot every winter which makes it really difficult to go and give him a bath in all those fungicide shampoos I had the vet come and administer antibiotics and that did'nt work so I had an old farmer tell me to try Dr. Feiblings Blue Coat. That is the only thing that worked for my horse. He still gets rainrot every winter but when I put on the blue coat the hair starts to grow back with in a week.

-- Michelle (keweenawbaybum@yahoo.com), March 25, 2002.

I have a mare that had the exact same problem. It turned out she developed an allergy to oat hay. She had been eating it for years, from the same supplier, with no problem.

How we figured it out was, after going through vet bills and every fungus/bacterial exterior product known to man, was to remove feed items one at a time. Now she can't even get a little bit without breaking out. Funny, oats are ok just not oat hay. I also knew of a horse who would break out if given any hay but bermuda.

-- Stacia in OK (OneClassyCowgirl@aol.com), March 25, 2002.

My friend had a pony with rain rot. In addition to what the Vet gave her, I don't remember what that was, I gave the pony wheatgerm oil in some grain. I also rubbed the oil into her coat. The vet when he saw her couldn't believe that her coat was that good, actually her coat that summer was the nicest she had had. Good luck

-- BB (johnson337@hotmail.com), March 25, 2002.

We have had similar problems before. Are these raised, round bumps about the size of a quarter or larger? If so, they are probably the fungus we have had. Can't remember the name of it, but it is caused from spores in your soil, so it really is impossible to get rid of. I found our horses got it usually when I wasn't too faithful with brushing and/or bathing them. Our vet said to use copper sulfate (yes, the blue stuff you get at the hardware store for septic tanks) and if it is in powder form, just mix it with water and spray the bumps. Works like a charm! A friend of mine also mixes bleach with water, about half and half and sprays the bumps. Also works great.

-- Shauna in Oklahoma (shamelesscowgirl2001@yahoo.com), March 25, 2002.

I've dealt with rainrot and it wasn't itchy, it's painful. I think you may be dealing with something else - for a couple of reasons. But IF it is rainrot, you can use the rose fungicide Captan. Mix as if you were going to spray on roses (according to the container) but use it on your horse. You can also use any athlete's foot prep too. A good skin mix for both fungus and misc. infectious ickys is a simple mix of equal parts of Neosporin (or any triple antibiotic ointment) and Lotrimin (Tinactin or any athletes feet cream) and Desitin. When was the last time this horse was wormed?

-- Lee S. (trainrx2@swbell.net), March 25, 2002.