A horse at our barn is having major issues with summer sores lately. They pop up mostly on the legs and a few on his body. He has been seen the vet numerous times and she has all kinds of creams and salves, wormed him, spirullina to boost his immune, keeps the sores wrapped and covered (changed daily since he bites at the sores) and they are still popping up! Anyone have any luck with anything that she hasn’t tried?
How did she worm? Double dose equimax repeat two weeks out… if they are “popping up” it seems to be more an internal thing than new sores. There is a HUGE thread somewhere here on them… search for it I am sure someone can post a link. My vet has a salve he makes with DMSO, Ivermectrin, and an antibiotic… https://www.petersonsmith.com/what-are-summer-sores-2/
Here is the HUGE thread… this may not be the first page… https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/f…posted-page-58
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I dealt with summer sores on my arabian for three summers. They appeared on his lips mostly. But any open wound caused a summer sore. First thing to do is find a vet that will inject steroids. Some sites never heal without an injection. If all else fails a course of steroids, pred, will do it. I never had any success curing them myself unless I could keep it FULLY covered and it was always a daily rinse and clean. I used wonder dust if I kept it covered and it was too moist, then it won’t heal. But if this guy has them in multiple places go with steroids, it’s the only way to go. Steroids have their own drawbacks but fighting non healing sores is ugly and sometimes a losing battle.
The other thing to consider is if the horse has allergies and is possibly scratching wounds open. Mine had to be on Hydroxy or would scratch himself raw. Hope this helps.
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I’m having success (knock wood) using a protocol and salve made by Denise All Heal Salve. She has a FB website. I highly recommend you find her FB and website - read her protocol (it’s easy) and see before and after pics of summer sores and other wounds. If I could post pics here I would. Unbelievable the difference my horse’s large unwrappable mouth sore from May 1st to today. It’s almost gone.
Further to my above post - I would look at the disgusting sore on my horse’s mouth (third summer in a row) - bleeding and just moist yuck. I had been applying the vet summer sore salve - as usual - no help. Vets had seen / treated my horse numerous times - he was even kept at their clinic until the one on his mouth and penis/sheath healed last summer. I don’t think the mouth sore completely healed though it looked like it had. It flared in December. Then again in April when flies became active. I kept thinking the sore would do better/ get better if I could somehow keep it mostly dried up. But how? I tried various things - then one night thought about activated charcoal. To try to make a paste from capsules I had on hand. I researched summer sores and activated charcoal - and voila - I found Denise’s All Heal site. I called her and she walked me through how to treat the sore. While waiting for my purchase of her Swell Gone salve (which is activated charcoal based) I was able to start an important part of her protocol. Sea salt water. 3T sea salt per quart of water. The SSW cleans and help dries the sore. When patting dry it gets kind of sticky - and helps the salve stick to the sore. I applied the salve on the sore and all around it. In the past my horse would immediately lick off the F-zone based sore salve. Not Denise’s salve - even though it is said to taste good. I could not believe the difference in just days of doing the SSW and the salve. The salve doesn’t kill anything. I’m not sure what it does - but it works - and must be used in combination with the SSW. I was in despair that I would be battling the mouth sore and possible fly transfer to penis/sheath again this summer. I wish I could post pics of the progress - but similar can be seen on her FB site. And gag - we thought summer sores were bad - had never heard of Pythiosis. There are before and after pics of that on her site. Dogs and horses.
Hi, my suggestion is to go with steroid injections. It seems like the topical treatment has little or no effect in your case. Horses tolerate steroids just fine, especially the young ones, so don’t be afraid to give it a try. Take care of the fly infestation. The vets usually advise getting rid of the intestinal parasites.
