Hello. Here I am. Again.
So here is my update with my case of scratches from hell. They cleared! Until I left him without any medication on there for a few days (bc of a family member health issue). They came back. But not anywhere close as bad at they were before. So what got rid of them? E3 antibacterial/antifungal wash once a week with triple antibiotic/desitin application every other day. So now, they are back and I am at a fricking loss. I wash them twice a week and his scabs just come right off. I fully dry then put on his medications and he goes back out. Then they are back. It sucks because I cannot keep him stalled. Also, he has cannon crud!! So I have no clue how to treat that… So, I am left with some decisions/questions:
Do I put zinc/copper/vitamin E supplements to his diet to see if that works?
Should I try the silver whinny socks out?
How do I treat the cannon crud?
He has skin that has no hair just bare and pink. How can I tackle that?
Any tips also would be greatly greatly appreciated. I love my boy so much and would do anything under the sun to cure these suckers on his legs!
I spent a year fighting scratches. Hay Where’s That Blue Stuff helped, as did Equiderma, the vet cocktail, and a number of other goops. I think what finally cured it was adding the copper/zinc from Mad Barn, then getting his diet squared away. He’s now on Purina Omega Match, which seems to have sufficient Cu/Zn along with omega 3s. No longer need to supplement the Cu/Zn.
For cannon crud, Equiderma completely eliminated it on my other horse. Slather it on, then wash off the next day, dry and repeat.
I have a horse that is prone to scratches and will get them BAD if I am not careful.
One year, about 10 years ago, he got scratched in the middle of winter (mind you, North Dakota so usually below freezing) so bad ABOVE the pastern and made his leg well so he was lame.
I keep his legs trimmed all the time; year round. Clipped! It seems to keep him more dry. I check him daily. He is outdoors 24/7 on pasture. I do not have a barn.
When he has had flare ups, I bandage him. I do a good bandage job on his hind legs, and I apply MEDICATION I get from my vet that combines anti-biotic with anti-fungal and such. I put a very good duct tap boot bandage on it because he is turned out 24/7. Usually I can get a full 24 hours on my bandage job, sometimes two days.
Bandaging is key.
Get the scabs off and get medication on it so the medication can penetrate into the wound and kill the organisms at play.
If it’s not too bad, then I will use TEA TREE OIl cleansers as tea tree oil kills most things.
I have access to HYPOCHLOROUS ACID (SOLUTION) as I happen to be an eye doctor and that has also been very effective to kill the organisms when I detect scabs may be starting to form.
Fun fact, they used Pure&Clean hypochlorous acid at the Olympics the last two times to disinfect things for the athletes and they are also using it more in healthcare, including the Mayo clinic against bacterial - resistant bacteria.
I’d do the Zn/Cu/E supplementation and I also recommend Equiderma products for washing and topical.
Scratches freaking suck. My late heart horse had them and it was a constant battle. But that was before I knew about supplementing Zn/Cu/E or that Equiderma existed. Maybe things would have been different if I’d known more. Maybe not. Current horse is allergy prone and his skin has issues in the buggy months due to that, but no scratches or cannon crud, thank goodness. He is fed an abundance of Zn/Cu/E though. Like…a lot.
If you are saying you haven’t already evaluated his diet to confirm how much zinc and copper you are feeding you absolutely want to do that. And, if your horse isn’t getting 8 hrs of fresh grass you want to supplement natural E - I order from Santa Cruz. It’s powder and easy and fair pricing.
My latest horse came to me a hot hot mess of poor nutrition before me and he had a very stubborn spot of scratches and it’s long gone due to high quality nutrition. Not only the minerals but also testing hay to confirm enough protein. If I were you I’d even run a course of BCAAs (branch chained amino acids) AND does what you’re feeding supply Lysine, Threonine and what’s the other one? And enough of them? I’m just getting going this morning and not firing yet to have all that in my head.
Nutrition is where it starts fighting skin crap.
And how often are you seeing him? Ideally you’d keep the areas covered in zinc oxide for soothing and helping calm things down. That’s what worked for me. I’m also a huge Red Horse Products fan - Honey Heel stays on and forms a protective barrier while healing. I’d try that and not pick scabs etc. So much easier.
You & your horse might be victims of your environment.
My gifthorse came to me from a friend with a herd of 5. They lived out year-round with a large shelter. He was the only one who got scratches every Summer & came to me early Fall with a healing case on both hinds.
She gave me a concoction her vet supplied that she used. Didn’t know what was in it & told me it was pricy.
When I used the last of it, I came here & found my Magic Bullet. But after that first season, he never showed any sign of scratches.
I attributed that to my different soil & grasses/weeds in pasture. Whatever he’d been sensitive to at her place did not grow here.
Now, 10yrs later, still no scratches.
I had a horse come to me with a significant case of cannon crud on all four. Equiderma applied daily (no washing it off) got rid of it in 3 days. Whenever I saw it star to reappear, which was usually in spring, out came the Equiderma and it worked every time - fast!
I went to try a lovely horse last year and could see he had had scratches on his hind white pasterns. They had healed and you could barely notice, but I knew what to look for. Seller said he got them “now and again”, but that along with another minor issue put me off. I’ve seen the struggle a couple owners have had and just didn’t want to deal with it.
In addition to hay and pasture at over 20lbs/day, I feed just a wee amount of hay pellets and copra along with a TBL of iodized salt each meal and 2 scoops/day of KIS Trace which provides:
9gms Lysine
2gms Methionine
3gms Threonine
285mg Copper
850mg Zinc
and a bunch of other things less important but important.
and we need Selenium in our area so this one has 3mg of that too.
If I were having skin issues I’d run a course of Uckele’s Tri Amino and increase the lysine, methionine and threonine for a month…in additional the Santa Cruz BCAAs. Protein is critical to skin health too.
All these amino acids are proteins.
I’m willing to put money on the table that if you got your nutrition tight and kept those areas covered
that you’ll clear this up.
Honey Heel - Case Studies - look at the bottom of this page about Charlie:
He is taken care of every other day. He gets the zinc oxide caked on his legs. The reason I haven’t supplemented it yet is because he gets acres of grass plus a square bale with constant access to fresh water. I am not sure if he is deficient and don’t want to risk overdosing him. Also, his skin color and mane/tail shows so no signs of deficiency (atleast from what I researched).
he is on dac bloom (he has been on that after his time on the track and it works for him) and tribute feeds synergize so im not sure thats enough for him? what do you think?
DAC Bloom is providing 39gms of zinc and .6 gms of Lysine. You want a daily total of 900mg of zinc and hay is notoriously very low in zinc. That DAC is not worth whatever it costs. https://madbarn.com/feeds/dac-bloom-direct-action-company/
How much of the Tribute Synergize are you feeding? (in weight)
If you are dealing with pastern leukocytoclastic vasculitis versus “regular” scratches, you really need to throw a steroid in there to clear up the current problem, then figure out what your triggers are. Its worth taking a look at if you really can’t get ahead of things.
Even if you’re feeding 3 lbs of the Synergize a day you are only providing 300 mg of zinc. You’re way short. Zinc is not selenium. It’s not toxic like that.
“ Upper safe levels of copper is 2,500mg (1,100lb horse), and zinc is 5,000mg (1,100lb horse).”
It’s going to be tough to overdose on those, but it’s easy to be deficient because iron inhibits zinc and copper uptake, and iron is very prevalent in US soils.
So almost don’t bother analyzing the current diet - it’s deficient in Cu and Zn because your horse is showing the signs: scratches and cannon crud. I’m only being slightly flippant here.
That is fascinating the upper safe levels are that high. I sure have seen remarkable, positive changes in my horses since getting their intake at 285 mg Copper and 850mg Zinc. Skin, hoof wall quality, deep color in their dark hairs.
And the medical documentation on the benefits of zinc, speaks for itself: immunity, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, wound healing, protection from the sun, protein metabolism, skin vibrancy, elasticity and on and on.
I have skin issues from hell horse due to allergies. However, supplementing copper/zinc and a good high omega 3 option totally eliminated her scratches. I forgot she even had them until this because it’s been a complete non issue.
