Heading to the tack shop soon and want to pick up something to help rid pony of general skin gunk. He has big flakes of yellowish stuff in his mane and dander all over.
The stuff in the mane is sticking to the hair and too sticky to brush out, although brushing does loosen it. He is a little itchy and has rubbed out a bit of main.
Would something like MTG work? I don’t really want something that has to be washed out after application due to the cold weather and no hot water at the barn.
MTG was a big fat fail for my gelding who had what sounded like a similar situation. It actually made it worse - shedding giant sheet-like flakes of skin. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of stuff in MTG for a horse having some sort of skin sensitivity flare up to react to (or a horse who has sensitive skin in general) so I’ve actually never preferred it for situations like this.
I would identify what the root cause of the situation is. Is it something icky fungal? Or is it just dry skin? Coconut oil might be a good (and cheap) option if it’s just dry skin. Banixx is wonderful if the cause of the situation is some sort of crud. Mix and match to see what works for you. (Equiderma skin lotion is another good thought.)
My tough spot was the dock of the tail - crud and gunk and thicker product was hard to work in all the way through so spray-in leave-in applications were preferred. That said, if you get a nice day of weather I would use some mild shampoo to try to wash and de-gunk the area entirely before winter really sets in… it might help you start off on a clean slate.
MTG could help but it can be harsh for some horses. I’d start with something like CK shampoo or even just head and shoulders or T-gel shampoo.
The yellow crud in the mane is often the aftermath of a tick bite. I would bathe with an antifungal shampoo to start with.
My gelding instantly welted up from the test spot of MTG.
5cc/month of Vitamin AD (injectable cattle type, but given to the horse orally) keeps my formerly skin-crud-prone guy looking good. He used to have weird crusty, flaky patches on his neck, mane, face and belly which I couldn’t get rid of with any shampoo, spray or diet change.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE “That Blue Stuff” It works on a horse that I have that gets skin crud a lot. MTG was too harsh.
I picked up some “Nature’s Miracle”. It has aloe, tea tree oil and witch hazel… decided against MTG since so many people’s horses had reactions to it.
He has not been itching since the application but the flakes are stuck around the hairs and really hard to get out. I need to pick up a fine toothed comb to get the flakes out. I don’t think it is anything serious, just a case of sweat and dandruff in a very thick mane.
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