My little gelding has a patch of unhappy hair that I can’t seem to get rid of and it seems to be spreading. It’s dry and scabby and I have tried Equiderma, Silver Honey cream, a local vet scratches cream and Desitin. His fly mask isn’t rubbing and it’s bigger in one side of his face than the other. Anyone have anything they like?
I am dealing with the same thing. Equiderma also not working. Going to switch to Vetasan, which has more chlorhexadine, and see if that works better.
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It might be time to have the vet look at it and see if there is something else going on.
That is not a small spot.
Just curious, did any of those treatment seem to improve things or make things worse?
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I agree with having a vet look at that. It looks like it might be a sarcoid.
Got a call into the vet too since I think it needs a look. The stuff I tried did not make it look worse or better but the spot is still growing. Its not itchy either so I am at a bit of a loss!
I would send a pic to the vet, but try Coat Defense paste on it. That stuff works amazing on skin crud.
So does he have these lesions on both sides of his face? That would suggest that it might be caused by rubbing even though you think it’s not.
Ditto what others have said to get the vet out to look at it. Sarcoids can look very similar to this, so you need to rule that out before trying anything else.
My gelding gets a dry scaly patch on his haunch on the side he lies down on. I tried a lot of lotions and shampoos, but MTG finally cured it. I read somewhere that sulfur is effective for psoriasis, so I tried MTG and, lo and behold, the dry scaly spot cleared up in three days.
Please let us know what the vet says . . . I’m curious as to what this is.
Because it’s so close to his eye, I’d be very careful what I used topically. We had one w something similar. Our vet used Exceed- cleared it up quickly.
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The unhappy skin is way bigger on the left side than the right, its about 1/4 of the size on the right. His tack, flymask and halter all sit well below the area so I am thinking its not rubbing. No change in feed either and I never see him rubbing it.The rest of him is shiny and dapply and pretty clear skin.
I’m holding out on the MTG at the moment since I have a love hate with that stuff. Vet is on call and has been sent pictures and info… leaning towards something fungal but he will have to come see it in person first.
Like others have said, for something that big and stubborn, worth having a vet take a look. But for something fungus-related, I’ve had the best luck with the Fungasol gel. It’s worked miracles on tough cases of scratches, and while I love Coat Defense for lots of things, for fungus problems, nothing is as effective as Fungasol, in my opinion.
Something I have not seen mentioned here is Calm Coat. Teatree oil based. Have used it on several sensitive skinned horses with good results.
Spoke with the vet and we are going to try a 50/50 mixture of myconizole and hydrocortisone cream and treat it as something fungal. He will come take a look at it on Sunday and we will go from there. Fingers crossed!
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My horse has a bit of face crud.
I think it could be from wearing a fly mask so many hours of the day / night.
Seems like a perfect breeding ground for crud.
Heat and moisture under a cover - not enough fresh air (and sunlight)- to the area. ?
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I keep fly masks in rotation. When one gets rained on/filthy it goes in the laundry with a little bleach and thoroughly dried before it goes back on. I had something similar but very much smaller last winter. Coating the spots with zinc cream and being absolutely fastidious with keeping masks clean helped. Yes, my little idiot must wear a mask year round due to her propensity to stick shit of variously point textures in her eyes.
If your horse wears a halter with fly mask, make sure that is thoroughly clean too. Mine wears lightweight Bucas so whichever has been worn with a sullied mask also goes in the wash and is not put back on until thoroughly dry.
All that aside, glad you are getting the vet out. That’s huge 
My horse got into something and rubbed her face bald right before a trip. I had to hide her face in a fly mask. It took weeks to start looking better. I tried all sorts of ointments. Finally went with Lyme sulfur dip because we have chiggers in the woods and I thought she might have gotten into some. It eventually went away. I don’t know if the Lyme sulfur helped but nothing else did. No idea what it was and it never returned.
Definitely something fungal got in there since the monistat cream mixture has made this look so much better! Vet took a look at it yesterday and said to keep with the cream for a little longer and should be good to go.
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Wash his fly mask in a good anti fungal.
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My roommate’s horse had a similar face crud issue and I used basically your recipe to clear it up. It didn’t respond super well to miconazole at first, so I changed the mixture to Greer’s Goo (nystatin, hydrocortisone, zinc oxide) and it was gone in a week or so. His was only on the left, which is the side he usually naps on, so I’m thinking he picked it up by laying in his stall. The barn changed to shavings vs sawdust shortly after it cleared up and so far it hasn’t reappeared.
