Good luck, @ihearttbs. I see that generic Zyrtec for horses is quite inexpensive, so I hope he takes it and that’s the remedy.
Does he get dandruff anywhere? I’m wondering if the chlorhex was also drying out his skin which may just be already prone to dryness? My guy has a very itchy face. For a while I thought it was just the dirt irritating him and wiped his face with baby wipes periodically. Then I noticed he was rubbing his tail. Then I noticed small amounts of dandruff by his skin in his mane and just above his tail. I ditched the baby wipes in case they were drying his skin (only used them on his face not those other places) and got a good coat conditioner. I spray a soft cloth with the coat conditioner and go to town on his face. It still pulls up the dirt and he loves it. I also work the stuff into the roots of his mane and his tail. He’s much less itchy but it’s going to be a chronic thing that requires near daily attention to keep it fully at bay. The good news is his tail is almost fully recovered.
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No, his coat is lovely, he has no dandruff or itchiness anywhere else. I think the face scratching actually got a bit better after starting using the wipes, certainly didn’t get worse.
Facial nerves, such as trigeminal? It could be a form of head shaking.
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I would think about a skin biopsy. We had a mare who did this to the point of insanity, and it was impossible to take her anywhere, she looked like she’d been through a war all the time. It turned out to be NTW, and the ivermectin protocol fixed it completely and forever.
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Oh, good suggestion, there are so many nerves on the face that could be triggered by a lot of things!
I don’t know what to suggest, but I am interested in this discussion because my mare is always scratching and rubbing her face too.
While you are trying to figure out the reason behind the scratching, you could try something like this to protect him from himself
I would definitely keep an eye on him at first though in case he transfers the behavior to something else (ie it’s not actually physical but a stereotypie, or even if physical he still might just try to scratch elsewhere out of frustration).
A few years ago, I noticed odd scratches on my old gelding’s nostrils…I couldn’t figure out how he was getting them until one day I witnessed his rubbing his nose on the rough wood of his stall door…I deduced that his nose itched & suspected an allergy. Relayed this to my vet who prescribed Zertek (I use the Kirkland brand from Costco…12 months of the year)problem solved.
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“Zyrtec” that is….
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Hi all, for anybody dealing with a similar issue,
I have tried Zyrtec and several other possible remedies for itching and it has not improved.
I reached out to a specialist I will be trailering him to in May, and he suspects nerve pain/facial neuralgia.
Has anybody else had a horse like this and had success treating him or her?
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If anybody else is dealing with something similar- he was diagnosed by a specialist with inflammation/pain in some of his facial nerves. We injected a corticosteroid and they recommended that I used surpass in those areas.
This was after a year of thinking it was a skin issue and trying all different things for that.
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Yes you were spot on!
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What kind of specialist did you take him to? What diagnostics were they able to do? Thank you
Hi, i researched the backgrounds of the vets at the top equine clinics in my area and found one that has written papers/conducted studies on cranial nerves, which was good enough for me. I suspected it was nerve pain myself, because we have tried literally everything skin related and it doesn’t help one bit, and I know that this horse with his previous owner had an incident in sidereins where he flipped over and did some real damage to his head, so I suspected residual damage from this.
The vet I took him to did not do any diagnostics, other than looking closely where the majority of the lesions on his face were and seeing that they follow the paths of the trigeminal nerves on both sides of his face. Based off of this and his history she was certain that it was nerve pain and performed the injections in the trigeminal nerve about a month ago. They have already made a huge difference for him and the hair is growing back on the areas he rubbed raw on his face. I don’t know how long they will last, and neither does this vet because she hasn’t had a case exactly like him before.
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Good on you for sticking with it when your horse was clearly uncomfortable. I’m so glad you found out what was bothering him and have a solution!
