What we are doing now for our retired mare with chronic scratches is washing legs with store brand copy of head and shoulders shampoo(with zinc). Just washing NOT SCRUBBING! The scabs need to come off on their own. If we remove them before they are ready, skin becomes irritated. We do this in evening and dry with towels. She is in an in an out stall and decent sized paddock at night.
She is turned out first thing in morning, but before she goes out I apply triple antibiotic cream and over that I smear a barrier cream. She is out 5-8 hours, goes back to stall/ paddock, and then in the evening we wash and dry again. This seems to be working.
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How far up the leg are you using barrier cream.
Mares scratches are on her pastern, so no higher than fetlock joint. Basically just smear it over and around sores.
So count me out of the chronic scratches group. Took my guy to a different vet yesterday for a second opinion. He was mostly healed but had smatterings of the previous insult. You are going to die when I tell you the diagnosis: chiggers or oak mites. It makes total sense. It goes up the leg above the hocks and knees. The exudative oozing in spots is what you see with a chigger or tick bite. When I put him back out after he was healing, he got reinfested. The treatment plan would have been the same, antibiotics and lots of antiinflammatories. I don’t think he has had scratches ever. I think he is super sensitive and when we get late summer oak mites, he over reacts. We are using a spray on his turnout boots hunters use to ward off bugs called permethrin and he won’t go back out in that pasture until after a good freeze.
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Yay for getting an answer!
Although I wouldn’t say you are out of the “scratches” group because “scratches” isn’t a diagnosis it’s a symptom and it can be a symptom of a ton of different things. It’s getting to the root cause that is hard, so it’s awesome you got there!
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