Soooo… :lol:
Yeah, he doesn’t have lice, which was already asked. No bald patches, not itchy, etc. Just this odd bleached pattern. He was clipped in April or May, can’t remember. This bleaching even goes through the dorsal strip.
Could it just be summer dapples?
Our Morgan bleaches into dapples like that at the height of the summer and it is also only on his belly/back. It is beautiful. I always look forward to his dapples. The intensity varies from year to year, btw.
Some animals only have dapple pattern on the top (spreading from top down the sides little). EB being a small critter, it would make sense, he primarily bleaches on the top.
Look up this thread (though it is about horses). Apparently, dapples might be a sign of a good coat!
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-253496.html
Wow! It’s beautiful! I would call that reverse dappling. I think you should share it with “the equine tapestry” on FB (or the blog) I think the crossing of the dorsal stripe is way cool!!
Dapples are a reflection of the underlying vascular system in the skin. I have no idea how that winds up expressed as hair color…
aside- I saw a documentary on vampire bats with some heat signature film footage of a sleeping cow - and she looked like a dappled ghost- and her dapples were pulsing in waves with the surges of blood in her veins… SO COOL- I had always heard dapples and veins were linked- but that sure proved it- (in daylight none of the cattle were dappled)
Sort of looks like lacing. I know a black horse who has white lacing covering her rump, but she stays that way year 'round.
It does look like lacing, that was my thought. I didn’t think about dapples…do donkeys get dapples??? :lol: I dunno that I’d say he has a “good” coat though, benign neglect being the order of the day really.
I’ve just never seen anything like it!
Mutant. It’s the only explanation.
StG
[QUOTE=TheJenners;7716321]
I didn’t think about dapples…do donkeys get dapples???[/QUOTE]
Yep, it looks like Odie has transformed in a dappled roan under your supervision.
It does not look like lacing to me. Our mini has laces (also only in the summer) and it almost looks like you could untie him from the top. :lol:
Donkeys get “reverse dapples”- dark on light (instead of light on dark).
Check this site for some interesting pictures. Those are minis, but you can see patterns of reverse dapples as well as lace.
http://equinetapestry.com/2012/10/reverse-dappling-progression/
Anyway, enjoy the art, while it is there! 
It was the uniform :no:
Now he’ll have to wear his Officer Odie outfit year-round :yes:
With a hat.
With earholes.
Sunscreen applied erratically?
Is the hair any different? In other words, do the lighter or darker spots have longer/thicker hair? My donkey – and from what I’ve read it’s typical of donkeys – is a late shedder and is early to start getting his winter coat. He is spotted in a similar manner when he is almost shed out, or just starting to grow winter hair.
If it’s really just color, not texture, then I haven’t a clue! But it’s cool-looking!
Mineral deficiency?
Our mini donkey, Izzie, gets the same thing on her back, same places, in late summer after she’s been clipped. I think it’s a sun bleached, almost sun ‘burnt’ sort of thing that happens to her (their) coat after it’s been clipped. I started using a spray sunscreen on her coat when I fly spray her and it helped it diminish. Her skin was quite dry under those patches also…
Odie was clipped in April or May (I think April…) because he doesn’t shed. He normally gets clipped again in August, and I was going to clip him before the event where he wore a police outfit, but decided against when I ran out of time :lol:. He had the markings before the event.
No, the hair is the same. He’s not shedding. His coat has been weird this summer, he’s normally a grey dun and he was very much a brownish sunburnt color this year. I didn’t notice until a friend asked me if Odie was brown, because she thought he was grey… Also, his hair did grow back in in a funny way, with long guard hairs (we joked that he had pubic hair :eek:) and with random longer patches. But a lot of horses grew clipped coats in funny; Rory and another horse got long, coarse guard hairs on their faces too.
As for mineral def; I don’t think so? He gets a vit supp, biotin, electrolytes, and his Cosequin, plus quality hay. He eats basically the same as everyone else, and they are all fine coat wise.
None of those things you mentioned have mineral supplementation. If his coat is weird and dry and he has patches of discoloration, I would suggest you might want to do a quick blood test to see if he is deficient. It really makes no difference how the other animals are doing, he is a different creature.
That looks like reticulated leukiotrichia, or however you spell it. Or vitiligo. On my phone now, can edit post when I get home. IIRC, it can also be caused by trauma:fever, etc.
Here is another discussion of Leukotrichia.
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?354142-Leukotrichia
OK, what minerals are you talking about Calamber, and I’ll look at what he’s eating?
Izzie has the same things going on-not shedding, etc. I do notice if I put her mini fly sheet on her in the summer early and throughout the day, it doesn’t happen and she stays grey. She has the longer hair patches also. How old is Odie?
[QUOTE=TheJenners;7715698]
Soooo… :lol:
Yeah, he doesn’t have lice, which was already asked. No bald patches, not itchy, etc. Just this odd bleached pattern. He was clipped in April or May, can’t remember. This bleaching even goes through the dorsal strip.
Picture[/QUOTE]
At home now.
Yep, that is definitely reticulated leukotrichia. Give your vet a ring and see if s/he thinks that it is caused by vit/mineral deficiency. IIRC, sometimes it has more to do with than just copper deficiency - it could be anything from too high an iron, etc etc. A blood panel will tell.
Now that I think about it, this is the same animal you had a thread about last… September, I think? With a pretty big fracture? It could just be residual trauma from the body recooperating from that, see if your vet thinks it could be related to the massive amount of stall rest, etc, that he had.
ETA: it is not uncommon in my experience for a horse that has undergone some kind of trauma to their body to have weird shed outs, skin, dermatitis, etc after undergoing long stall rest. It comes with the territory - my gelding came off stall rest around the same time as yours (Sept - Jan) and his coat is doing funky things right now too. He is probably going to have some blood drawn next time my vet is out.
Here is a picture, or a few, of leukotrichia:
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h161/Shaklana/SA_0561.jpg
http://baxterspaintedpasture.com/resizevickotherside.JPG
I knew a STB that had a similar pattern as your guy, after struggling with recovering from pneumonia - he had such a high temp he nearly died, and when he recovered he started to lose pigment all over his body.
I agree that it looks like leukotricia. For what it’s worth, my donkey developed it once, but not from a mineral deficiency but rather from sunburn.
For some reason, even though I use 10 blades, body clipping basically balds my donkey. She is a hairy yak usually, but when clipped her coat becomes really fine and her skin is exposed (but if I don’t clip her she gets overheated). I have to keep a fly sheet on her for the first few weeks after clipping. After a few weeks, the coat thickens and she’s fine.
The first year I clipped her I didn’t realize this and she got horrible sunburn on her back. The skin peeled, and her hair grew back with the mottled, bleached pattern.
Beowulf is on the mark, it could be the stress from the injury and the recovery period. I did not have a specific mineral in mind because they are all so interlinked. A good blood panel should either rule that out or not. Did he ever show signs of sunburn, ie skin flaking or roughening? We have certainly had a long unusual stretch of hot sun!
