Poor guy. I hope he’s doing better soon.
My vet said something that resonated. I was trying to figure out what I was doing wrong every year that my guy would get scratches. He said it’s not a husbandry issue, it’s a horse issue. It’s something with the horses system. Huntington is being worked up for Cushings as he has a lot of the vague symptoms. Has your your guy been tested for Cushings?
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If you were replying to me, yes we tested for PPID this spring through Cornell. Normal. Also tested E and Se, normal though Se a smidge on the high side.
There is also a circulation test of sorts, a biopsy I think? I think one of the posters on this thread had that test done. My vet is recommending we do that test, for his laminitis, pending he stabilizes. If he “fails” the circulation test then it’s possible that the scratches are related to his laminitis issues and the treatment might help both conditions. We’ll do another “fall” test for PPID as well, again pending his laminitis/founder has stabilized enough.
I was trying to reply to the OP but interesting to know you tested also.
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For all, my vet said there can be an allergy component to this also. Has anyone tried treating prior with something like Zyrtec?
Oh no, I’m sorry you are going through that, that sounds awful. Sending healing jingles to your boy.
I did go through the Cushings testing for my horse too (negative) and my vet wanted to add some supplements, until I pointed out that the supplement he was on already had plenty of what they wanted. He is on a monthly Eqstim now, which is immune support. It was after the Cushings test that we finally went to Davis for a biopsy and diagnosed vasculitis - decreased bloodflow causing sores.
The steroid spray cleared them up and when I saw signs of a potential new one a few sprays for a day or two cleared it up over the summer. But he’s got a new scab on his RH that’s being a little more stubborn but I’m hoping enough consistency with the steroid spray will get that one too. I keep fly wraps on my horse 24/7 to try to help keep sun off as that can make it worse. He’s hind legs have also been a little mildly puffy off and on over the summer, but standing wraps are usually enough to clear that up.
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Last year when my donkey was treated for the same medical issue at the practice treating your guy right now, Dr. F over there recommend Platinum Performance Skin & Allergy supplement, lots of Amino acid in it. I’ve used it all summer and so far, so good. He related it to my donkey trending towards IR based on annual labs we’ve run. I can’t recall how he tied it all together- I just follow directions.
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Have you tried one of Absorbine’s Fungasol products ? It comes in a spray, shampoo or ointment.
I used the shampoo with great success. It works on bacterial, and fungus problems.
I used to use Banixx all the time, and it seemed to work ok, but when I tried Fungasol, the results were much better, and faster.
Frees suggested this also for us. lol
For the rest of you dealing with this, my vet felt there was a big allergy component to my guys so he put him on 25 tabs Zyrtec twice a day (50 tabs total, fairly cheap generic at Costco) to see if that helps. He is a prone to scratches horse anyway so add an allergen and he blows up. I have not read most of this thread so not sure if that has been mentioned using.
I dealt with a terrible bout of scratches a number of years ago. Oozing, weeping, cellulitis. Vet did 3 rounds of IV antibiotics, knocked it back but didn’t fix it. Tried oral antibiotics longer term - same, knocked it back but didn’t fix it. I honestly was worried we were going to lose him. Even hauled him to the hospital so they could double check and make sure there wasn’t something else that was causing or contributing to this. Their recommendation was same as vet, antibiotics and perhaps trying ichthammol ointment. The ointment was terrible and to my eye made it worse.
As a last ditch effort, slathered the back of his pastern in honey (just the local unpasteurized type, not the fancy manuka). Did that for three days, almost cried when the skin started to knit together and calm down. Fixed within a week. It’s my new magic formula. Any scrapes, scabs or suspicious maybe scratches looking irritations get a blotch of honey on it.
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My 27 year old TB has scratches on the backs of his hind cannon bones, but for the last couple weeks I’ve began noticing scabby patches on his body. The worst is on his left side, near his flank, and going under his belly. There are also scabs along his spine, and random patches on his neck and back. He his a blood bay, still in work (hacking and light arena work), and he’s towel dried after baths.
I’ve been reading on the thread some comments mentioning copper/zinc deficiency’s. He has not been tested for these deficiency’s, so would adding a vitamin supplement be harmful? the small animal vet boarder at the barn gave me a small tub of clorhexidine pads for eye socket crud, but the crud is back the next day. I also have access to dermostat scrub, but he’s getting his winter coat, so it’ll take some scrubbing to get down to his skin. Due to random super hot days and threats of rain, he’s been out without his fly sheet, and comes in with hives from bugs and god knows what else, so he is rather sensitive.
Does anyone have any suggestions? my next step is getting the vet involved.
I did the copper/ zinc supplementation for my mare. She didn’t have scratches per se but got sores on her legs in the summer from standing in tall wet grass. And then she had scar tissue when the sore healed up and every summer that scar would itch, she would bite it, the flies would bite her on the raw skin…YIKES! Last summer it healed up by using an elasticon bandage, Raplast and Shoo Fly leggings sprayed with Rap Last. So this summer she started up again but I nipped it in the bud and she leaves her Shoo Fly leggings on her legs. And I got the pasture mowed at shorter intervals so much less wet grass. So did the copper/ zinc help??? I don’t know.
That was the good news. I noticed she has a place on her heel on the back right leg. AUGH!!! She has no white so it maybe isn’t scratches but a close relative. So back to bandaging with Elasticon and an ointment. I did use some silver honey ointment last year and liked it a lot so I need to find my tube. These places never heal unless they are covered by a bandage but have never caused anything like cellulitis. I hate summer time and wet grass.
Not harmful: a Cu and Zn supp is hard to overdo at the recommended amounts. If you are not feeding a complete feed at the recommended amount, I’d give a vit supp or ration balancer first, and add additional Cu and Zn if that doesn’t work.
I tried copper zinc for 10 months but then he came down with scratches again so that didn’t help. Try Zyrtec. It’s a weight based dose so if you tell us what your guy weighs I can calculate a dose. I get the generic from Costco.
Today my vet is planning to inject my horse with some sort of “contrast dye” and then take x rays of his front feet to check his circulation. While the primary motivation for the test is unraveling his laminitis/founder issues, vet and I both believe that if a circulation issue identified then treating that might also be beneficial for the horse’s chronic scratches.
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Well … circulation was normal. Sooo. No progress at this time on the scratches.
Well, that’s good news as poor circulation would be a problem.
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Very big problem so it’s actually quite good news. We are going to repeat the diag on one foot next time as we had some technical issues resulting in poor quality images in one set. We are going to repeat the PPID test as well. The vet wants to teach my how to do IV so I can do another course of gentamicin for the scratches.
These are all running together. Did they do a biopsy of your guy and determine it would be sensitive to gentamicin?
