My daughter’s gelding keeps getting a fungus on the front of his hind cannons. I’ve heard this can be a result of urine splashing on that area. Regardless, I’m confident it’s a fungus.
I’ve tried a couple different anti-fungal sprays, shampoos, and liquids. I’m not having luck. What’s the best anti-fungal treatment regimen?
My gelding tends to get this gray sludge-like build up on the front of his cannon bones.
Equiderma Skin Lotion works the best for me – and I’ve let two of my friends borrow it and they’ve also had results. It’s never come back the same for any of us.
I also find head and shoulders helps. I thought it was a fungus for a long time, but I think it is more of an oily dandruff and build up. I curry the front of his cannon bones as well and i’ve never really had it come back.
Another friend swears by dish soap. That’s cheap and easy to try!
Chlorhexidine -> Nolvasan Solution diluted.
Cannon keratosis/dermatitis?
I have always washed with listerine mouthwash (usually 2x week), rinse, and dry and then spray with diluted listerine under boots before/after work and it helps a lot. Also just keeping clean/dry.
That alone or Equiderma or one part desitin, to an equal part chlorhexadine cream with a 1/2 tube OTC cortisone cream. Mix well. Financially it comes out equal in price to Equiderma cream, and works as well or better.
Keep them clean and dry, might want to clip them if the hair is longer. Some geldings splash and/or dribble and that very well could be urine scald. Advancing age or medical issues can result in dribbling on the lower back legs.
Rinse daily. Might want to apply zinc oxide (diaper cream) which waterproofs the area. If its from splashing off where he is peeing, see if you can adjust that. Little observation of his habits might help you form a plan. Some wrap but…ewwww when you unwrap…and it doesn’t work unless they get changed twice a day. One of my less pleasant memories of horse care working for somebody else. That one nearly died from Flu or Herpes Virus and was left with a constant dribbling problem.
The vet can culture it for you if you’d really like to know what it is and get it gone. I once treated painful fungus for several months only to finally learn that it was bacterial. Doh. It was gone for good within days of giving the horse antibiotics. If you’ve been treating for fungus and it’s not improving, it may not be fungus.
If it’s cannon keratosis it’s not fungus but, as mentioned, a build up of excess skin and oils. This build up can get to the point of hard scabs that will leave bleeding spots if scraped off.
”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹”‹Currying the cannons with a rubber, toothed curry followed with a good brush during regular grooming will keep the excess skin and oils from building up.
What they all said because 1) each horse reacts differently to different topicals and 2) you aren’t quite sure what you’re dealing with.
Just this morning I threw about 5/8ths of an old bottle of Equiderma in the garbage because it never did a thing for my horses, lollol
I found Dawn Dish soap works wonders on the legs, for anything, without drying them out.
Probably not a fungus, my gelding does the same thing. I don’t fuss with it too much, a soft rubber curry helps it from building up too much. I’ve also gotten great results from the shampoo from Microtek, can use once a week.
My gelding gets it too. He will also get it on other parts of his leg (like the medial portion just inferior to the hock). Vet said it’s fungus in his case. I used to use Desitin (and various other creams/ointments) which seemed to work well, but the legs needed to washed often (I Use Dawn soap), otherwise it became on oily gross mess.
Now that my horse has transitioned from a full care show barn to 24/7 turnout, the Desitin isn’t practical. I have a lot more luck with the Coat Defense paste and powder. The paste is great for treating, and the powder is best for prevention. After applying the paste 2-3 times a week for a few weeks (it dries and can be lightly curried off), I switched to the powder. I coat his legs with it 2-3 times a week after a light curry to knock off any build up. I find the Coat Defense products much better for horses turned out often that aren’t being treated daily.
Hope this helps!
Equiderma worked for my sensitive mare fast! It’s a bit pricey. Within 2-3 days, even with a bad case of keratosis, it was cleared up. I couldn’t believe it!
I’ve used sheath cleaner and a little scrubbing on the cannon crud.
Povidone iodine…aka Betadine…or any generic version of it. The scrub and the solution.
Use the scrub as a shampoo on the cannons to scrub the crud, and then apply the solution and leave it on the legs…hopefully you don’t have a grey.
I used to use MTG, but I’ve recently found Nu-Stock Topical Ointment to be very helpful for “Scratches” type leg crud (Mud Fever, Dew Poisoning, Greasy Heel, Pastern Dermatitis, etc.)
Equiderma lotion. Most of the time it works in one application. If it’s really bad it may take two. Just slather it on there and leave it alone. Wipe off crud the next day and re-apply if needed.
[B]See ingredients;
Equidermaâ„¢ Skin Lotion[/B]
Equidermaâ„¢ Skin Lotion aids in the treatment of sweet itch, summer itch, muck itch, rain rot, scratches and insect bites. It is simple to use: just apply and the product will do the rest.
Features:
Size:
16 oz.
Ingredients:
Mineral oil, Aqueous solution, Surfactant, Chlorhexadine, N-Trichloromethylthio, 4-Cyclohexene-1, 2-Dicaboximide
[B]See ingredients;
Equidermaâ„¢ Skin Lotion[/B]
Equidermaâ„¢ Skin Lotion aids in the treatment of sweet itch, summer itch, muck itch, rain rot, scratches and insect bites. It is simple to use: just apply and the product will do the rest.
Features:
Size:
16 oz.
Ingredients:
Mineral oil, Aqueous solution, Surfactant, Chlorhexadine, N-Trichloromethylthio, 4-Cyclohexene-1, 2-Dicaboximide
Generic Chlorhexadine gets bacteria and fungus.
Nolvasan gets Bacteria, fungus and is antiviral.
Muck Itch spray. Works wonders. https://www.bigdweb.com/product/code/3943.do?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7JzzuKzf6QIVCInICh1ZQAPHEAQYASABEgLSrvD_BwE
I love this product.
My mare gets bouts of “cannon crud” pretty much every Spring and I keep it under control with Muck Itch. Spray on, rinse and curry the next day, repeat if needed. Easy.
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