Aural Plaques

[Firefly8949]

Ah, the dreaded aural plaques…

I’m looking for another/more opinion(s) on aural plaques/papillomas. My 15yo horse has always had flat white spots in both of his ears (Rt>Lt), but last year, 3/2019, I noticed that one of the lesions in his Rt ear was protruding. I discussed this with his vet -the growth was removed and sent it out for histopath. confirmed it was an aural papilloma.

Since then, both ears have been quiet, back to flat white spots, until recently, 10/2020. His Rt ear is having another flare -several raised papillomas. Lt ear is still quiet. I discussed with his vet again (she was just out for a barn call recently & looked at his ears while there) -she recommended monitoring for now & told me I could use a steroid ointment to try to shrink them. I tried animax, now I’m using a chlorhex based lotion. I’ve researched Aldara cream & Retin-A on VIN (I work at a small animal clinic), but have seen mixed opinions. My vet told me they could potentially progress into sarcoids -so told me to monitor & call her if no improvement. What treatment recommendations do you guys have? Removal again? Different ointment/meds? Any way to prevent them from flaring up? I’ve heard DERMAfas is good, but it seems to be out of stock everywhere (I’m thinking it’s possibly been discontinued). I’ve ordered a tub of horseman’s dream vet cream w/ Aloe that I’m going to try (some of the same ingredients as DERMAfas).

My vet told me flies can irritate the ears and cause flares -he does already wear a fly mask when turned out, but he’s also never had this issue during the summer months.

Should I try an immune supplement -lysine, Spirulina? I’ve been looking into Spirulina due to its anti tumor & antioxidant properties, but wondering if anyone has had luck with using for aural plaques?

I’ve seen papillomas WAY worse than this, but I don’t want them to get out of control -I’d like to be ahead of things. Thank you for your time!

[JB]

My N=1:

I smeared Dynamite’s Wound Balm on Rio’s (RIP) ears one year, mostly to provide a pretty sticky barrier against flies, and to my surprise, the plaques came off when I wiped the Balm off about a week later, and never grew back.

And no, I’m not a distributor (any more), so no ulterior motive

[theresak]

I’ve got a 3.5 year old with one bad ear (cauliflower floret type plaque) and one ear with the flat plaques and I’ve been wondering if there’s anything I can do to treat that’s non-painful. I used Swat this summer as a fly barrier but it didn’t do anything for the plaques.

@JB that Dynamite ointment was non-painful?

[JB]

@theresak

@JB that Dynamite ointment was non-painful?

100% non-painful. It’s not like XTERRA which I hear is terribly painful. It’s not caustic. It’s not that kind of thing. It’s literally a wound balm. I use Wound Salve on fresher wounds, then once they’re out of the acute stage, I switch to the Wound Balm to keep things softer and reduce the risk of scarring. It’s thick, which is why it sticks so well inside ears, definitely not going to run down into them. It’s also why you don’t leave it outside in the cold if you ever want to actually use it LOL