My 17-year-old gelding isn’t without his issues…he’s an Appy, he’s allergic to everything (he should live in Antarctica…he might not itch there), has dealt with anihidrosis for the past…oh…decade or so when it gets absurdly hot/humid…which it does here. I’ve had him since he was a yearling and literally known him since he was conceived. Saw him the day after he was born but was well acquainted with his parents and grandparents on his dam’s side.
My point…I know him well. LOL.
This year has been a year of firsts for him. He developed what seemed like rain rot that started around the dock of his tail that went all the way down the back of his butt and between his hind legs. Despite all of his itchy, lumpy, skin allergy issues, I’d never seen him with anything like that.
Then his shedding pattern was odd…he practically went bald in patches, like he was losing winter coat faster than he could grow new spring/summer coat. It all worked out fine eventually and he actually has the most phenomenal coat I’ve ever seen on him (and like I said…I’ve known him his entire life…owned him for most of it.)
He’s had some odd abscess…events…in his hind feet. One he was pretty sore on, and it resolved and things were good. Then the trimmer was doing him a few times ago and noticed what looked like a place on the sole of each hind that had possible places where abscesses had blown. I hadn’t noticed any soreness. Then he was done this past Friday and she found yet another place that seemed to be an abscess that had opened, drained, etc. right on the edge of his right hind (in the white line it seems to me). He HAD been a little sore a couple of weeks before when I rode him and I thought then it seemed to be in the hind end but couldn’t quite figure it out. Went on vacation, came back and rode and he was fine. She found the blowout a week after that. It was all dried and she said not to worry about it.
Yesterday I was grooming him and noticed he had what I thought was just some dirt and…honestly I thought it might have been pee that he’d laid in or something on his hock. But I kept trying to groom it off and I smelled it and it wasn’t pee. I curried and brushed and figured it was just something he’d laid in (though what, I couldn’t really say). This evening I checked and the nasty stuff was there again, but also above the hock and below and I noticed hair and actually skin was kind of sloughing off and there were bloody spots and it was a bit swollen. Nothing huge, just a little more full and this went all the way down to his pastern where there was more scabs, hair falling out, and what I can only describe as sebum or serum…like he’s oozing oil.
I took him to the wash rack and scrubbed it with Equiderma, towel-dried, and put Equiderma Wound Ointment on it. It doesn’t seem to itch or hurt or bother him whatsoever, but it has me concerned. He’s sound (at least at the walk, I didn’t ask for more because I was in a bit of a hurry), and seems oblivious that anything is happening with his leg. The swelling isn’t even enough that you’d notice it without looking very closely.
So…he’s also not the slimmest of horses and definitely hasn’t lost any kind of condition…in fact, his top line is super strong, better than it’s been in years, and he’s the picture of health (with maybe some extra pounds).
I’m worried about the two skin issues though and the abscesses. These are all totally new. He’s never had abscesses and he’s never had anything like what went on with the skin on his butt earlier in the spring and now the skin on his hock and down his leg.
Could these be early signs of PPID? Would it be smart to have him tested just in case? Anything else the could be contributing to these issues? Just a run of weird luck?
Thank you to anyone who reads and can offer some thoughts.