Horse's heel bulbs soft and peeling

[OzarksRider]

Three or four weeks ago I noticed what appeared to be a tiny (quarter inch) cut on the heel bulb of my horse’s right front foot. At the time, I thought maybe he had either hit a rock or maybe overreached with his back foot. I treated it with betadine spray and it healed (or at least, I thought it did), and I didn’t think any more about it. Then today, when I was putting on his hoof boots to go for a ride, he had a much larger (nickel size) spot where the skin had peeled off. He had a similar spot on the heel bulb on one of his back feet, and this one was oozing a little blood. These lesions look for all the world like blisters where the skin has sloughed off. They do not appear to be infected, and he’s not sore. He doesn’t flinch when I palpate the sores, and he was galloping around the field with his buddy like nothing was wrong.

He had these exact same sores about this time last year. At the time, I attributed it to a combination of a very wet summer and and not being ridden enough to keep his skin toughened up. I was using Cavallo Trek boots last summer, and I thought they had rubbed blisters on the heels of three of his feet. I stopped riding him and treated the “blisters” to keep them from getting infected, and they healed within a month. I also switched from Cavallo to Scoot Boots because they are open in back and can’t rub the heels. So now he’s got “blisters” again and I have no idea why. It’s absolutely not the boots.

My best guess is that it has something to do with heat and moisture (dew, not rain) or maybe something in the pasture (clover maybe??). He’s out all day, but in at night. I don’t think it’s thrush because these lesions are shallow and clean. I thought maybe pastern dermatitis, but I’ve checked all around his fetlocks and pasterns and I don’t see anything wrong. He was trimmed 2 weeks ago, and his frogs are firm and the grooves are shallow. His heels are not contracted. I don’t think this is caused by abscesses bursting out at the heels (2 feet at the same time, and 3 feet at the same time a year ago–not likely). Also there’s no stinky exudate like an abscess would have.

I’m stumped, so I thought I’d ask COTHers if any of you have seen this. What do you think this is?

[babyeventer]

My guy gets these in the spring. Same exact description- front and hind. Never any lameness or soreness. My farrier and I attribute it to lots of moist (dewy) turnout and fast hoof growth, which the turnout plays into. The skin swells with water and then dries throughout the day in turnout.

I just spray his entire heels with scarlet oil. It’s antibacterial and it has an oil carrier to prevent excess moisture from laying on the skin. I’ve also had good luck with MTG oil or Corona. Slap it on. He sloughs some heel skin and then with continued barrier applications of Corona, he’s good as new.

I have found that weekly applications of MTG from the hocks/knees all the way down to the heels, really helps with everything from soft heels to fungus, on horses who turnout a lot in variable moisture or weather. It really seems to keep my boys’ legs beautiful. It helps with hair regrowth on scuffs and scrapes, too. I know some horses are sensitive to it, so I spot-applied until I was confident there was no reaction. Also, I use Keratex hoof gel twice weekly, and I always put some up there on the heels. It’s amazing stuff.

[Postandrails]

I’ve had this happen in ongoing wet weather too - it’s just from the the heels staying wet for too long. I just use vaseline on them as a barrier.

[OzarksRider]

Thanks for the replies; knowing others have seen this reassures me that my horse’s feet aren’t going to fall off, and it validates my suspicion that moisture plays a role. I think with my horse, it’s moisture plus something in the field–a weed that grows late summer/early fall, but I have no idea what. We had a very wet winter/spring/summer and his heels were fine through all of that. Now we have dew in the morning, but no rain in several weeks. But the fact that this happened the same time last year makes me think some plant in the field is contributing to the irritation. Or maybe it’s the alternating wet in the morning, dry in the afternoon. Just one of life’s mysteries.

I dabbed some Biozide gel on the “blisters” to keep out any infection, and then sprayed with AluShield for a moisture barrier. I also keep MTG and vaseline on hand, and I’ll look for scarlet oil next time I’m at the farm store. Thanks for the tips!

[Peggy]

When we see something like this (and I’m guessing what it looks like since there are no photos) in our stabled horses in Southern California, it’s sometimes rats. They also eat the chestnuts. You can generally see little teeth marks. At least here, the rats have kind of a population explosion this time of year–a sort of last hurrah before what passes for our winter. But I’m guessing that the OP is not in SoCal given that they refer to all-day turnout and a wet summer. So it may well be just too much moisture. For the morbidly curious, here’s a thread on this from years ago–https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/forum/discussion-forums/horse-care/63516-flesh-eating-rats