I am curious to know what has worked in your personal experience on scratches on the fetlocks. I have a cremello mare who is getting scratches BAD and instead of doing trial and error I would like to get a consensus on the best treatment. Thank you in advance for any helpful advice on this matter.
A friend of mine developed a salve that works wonders for scratches and all kinds of skin issues. Denise’s all heal salve - google her website and also go to facebook to see before and after photos. The salve is non-toxic, can be ingested and in fact she encourages it as it de-toxifies the horse and is safe for humans. I have used it personally with great success. I get no kick backs. I just want the word to get out on this fantastic product. Denise will also work with you throughout the healing process.
Any baby butt ointment will work. Don’t pick off the scabs, let them fall off. The cream will provide a barrier against moisture.
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As scratches is a general name for a skin condition that has many causes, I don’t know that there is “one best” treatment. From what I understand, regardless of what one treats scratches with, it will resolve itself in 4-6 weeks with or without treatment. Causes, I understand vary from fungal, bacterial, to contact dermatitis. Treatments may speed healing and relieve discomfort --but since there isn’t exactly a specific “germ” that causes scratches, a forever cure or even one that works in all cases isn’t likely. If scratches persist, or are recurrent, there may be an immune system problem and the scratches are slow to heal because of a bigger concern the horse is having. But anyway, Denise’s all heal salve may work wonders --but so do: keeping the area clean and dry, diaper rash cream, topical antibiotic cream, or anything else that softens and keeps the area protected. We use something we call “Tom’s” because a groom named Tom used it. 1/2 C Desitin, 1/2 C Furizone (yellow goo stuff) and 10 cc dexamethasone. Mix (wear gloves) well. Apply to clean, dry area. Use gloves to apply. I am not a vet, but that’s what I know about scratches.
There is no best treatment because what works for one horse might not for another, and the cause of the scratches might change throughout the year, which means you have to change the treatment.
I always suggest first asking a local vet if they have a house-made scratches ointment. If they do, it’s usually something they’ve seen good success with.
Then if that doesn’t work, I’ll use furacin + liquid Dex, which usually clears it up.
I’ve also used silver sulfadiazine.
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Also, my vet says to use one treatment for 7-10 days and switch if you are not seeing significant improvement.
My mare is prone to scratches on her RH. Most recently, what ultimately worked was a mix of cortisone cream, triple antibiotic ointment, and micronidazole in equal amounts. Applied once a day. And it did help that the weather was very dry.
I had a paint with scratches a few years back. I used Malaseb shampoo. Let sit for 10 min before rinsing. Worked great. I recently started using Equiderma Lotion for other skin type problems (crud on the cannons, rain rot, etc). Never used it for scratches but I definitely would try the Equiderma Lotion to clear it up. Good luck
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Welcome to the scratches club! You will get many recipes for concoctions and different methods to clear up the scratches from the folks here. I’ve tried a lot of different things but what has worked best is to treat it systemically as well as topically. My mare had a bad case of scratches this summer, I fed her sulfur flower powder (purchased from a holistic supplier) and vitamin C. I also mixed the sulfur powder with coconut oil and applied that topically. The scratches were coming off with nice new skin underneath in 5 days. I don’t pick any scabs ever.
It is also best to SHAVE the horse’s legs (no feathers!!) and keep them in a dry environment. Shaving the hair and keeping them dry help heal the scratches and prevent them from coming on. I agree that you do not want to pick the scabs off, as that tends to make them worse.
I’ve had success with good ol’ iodine or betadine. Seems to kill most everything. I don’t even rinse it off – just spray some on and walk away.
My horse Red did have a particularly strange case of scratches that developed on the side of one leg and then spread downward (kinda) and caused his entire leg to swell. My vet made me a custom mix and took a skin sample. The sample didn’t come back with anything special, and her salve worked well. I used that for about a week, and then finished up with betadine washes and applied MTG every couple days.
I really appreciate all of the responses thank you!
Do be careful about clipping/shaving the legs. If there is an element of photosensitivity to the scratches, it will make them much, much worse. Also, the clippers cause microabrasions to the skin and can allow the scratches to spread quite rapidly. I think these things are both worse on white legs with pink skin.
I used to clip white socks regularly but was constantly battling small and large bouts of scratches. I stopped clipping socks and now just shape the hair around the ergot. I have clipped just the margins of a very stubborn patch of scratches but I only do that as a last resort.
Since I’ve increased the natural Vitamin E in his diet to 8,000 IU/day, the skin issues and scratches have improved immensely. I think the other suggested diet alteration is to add copper (?). Searching for old threads here will bring it up.
When its wet rainy I put desitin 40 percent zinc oxide, on my horse’s legs with white markings. Since I started doing this haven’t had scratches, on either horse.
Keeping them in a dry area is impossible it’s been raining on and off all summer long. Barnyard is a swamp of ankle deep mud.
No deit changes required. My one horse would never touch any supplement added to his feed.
Chlorhexidine. The only thing I ever found that worked on my gelding and his one white leg.
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I trim the legs just so there isn’t a lot of hair to stay wet. They aren’t shaved, just a close trim. It’s ideal to keep in dry environment but sometimes that just isn’t possible.
I use a cream of steroids and sulfadiazine. Not totally convinced it actually works but probably makes ME feel better 
Chlorhexidine scrub every other day and an ointment of equal parts triple antibiotic, desitin, and athlete’s foot cream. The ointment itself tends to do a pretty good job for the local variety of creeping crud, better with an aloedine scrub, but our warm winter last year gave rise to a particularly difficult strain to kill, and it took the chlorhexidine to knock that out.
I’ll take Foxglove’s immune comment a bit further.
Vets and companies make tons of money off of owners who buy salves and medical-grade topicals to try and solve this issue which, more and more often, is not actually dermatological in origin but immune, specifically liver toxicity. This is usually from ingesting high levels of certain plants which contain photo-toxins and, when processed by the liver, create a photosensitive reaction in the skin…which is why scratches almost always occurs on very thin skin and more often on light colored areas (read: white socks, light colored horses) and why it can be a pain in the rear to get rid of. You end up treating a symptom, not the source (now, there is topical dermatitis that can affect that pasterns, in which case you are treating the source…but if you’ve got a long-standing case that won’t go away or only comes about in certain times of the year, i.e with the boom of certain plants, chances are you’ve got a case of liver toxicity.)
Most owners don’t want to do the legwork of figuring out exactly what their horse is eating, but this is why it’s so important to know exactly what your horse takes in for forage every day, including knowing what plants are in your pastures…not everything green is good for your horse.
First cleaning the affected area with chlorhexidine and then…
​​​​​​​Desitin
Triple Antibiotic Ointment
Athlete’s Foot Cream
1-2 mL of Dexamethazone
1-2 mL of DMSO
Mix together, apply daily USING GLOVES (because of the DMSO).
Would a blood test determine any deficiencies or too much of something (i.e. eating certain plants causing a toxicity)?
I’ve had beautiful results adding poly copper and poly zinc to the diet. Persistent scratches cleared up on their own like magic. You can purchase from either Uckele or Horsetech.
