Hi everyone! I have an OTTB who has terrible scratches. I have tried softening the scabs and gently removing then treating. I have tried washing his legs with anti-fungal soap, I have tried the furazone and desitin. Nothing seems to work. (however it could have been I wasn’t consistent enough/not treating aggressively). Does anyone have any shampoos, ointments, sprays, regimens you swear by to get rid of awful scratches?? PS its only on his back legs which are white socks and pink skin. TIA!!
If you haven’t already, trim/shave the hair. This helps keeps things drier.
When my horses get really bad, I get a custom ointment from my vet. She “invented” it herself with the help of another fellow horse owner who is a medical doctor (and was having issues with scratches with her horse). It’s a mix of a bunch of things, including antibiotic, antifungal, and I don’t even know what else is in it.
One thing you could do is take your horse to be scraped and cultured to find out what organism is present and then they could possibly do a prescription ointment to battle it.
I have used the Tea Tree Oil Fungasol shampoo. Let it SOAK, pick a few scabs off as they soften. Apply more soap. Let it soak longer. Pick off more scabs. Add more soap. Let it soak more. (Get the idea?) All in all, I take at least 30 minutes to go through this process. I make sure all the scabs are gone and the soap has been on there for a long period.
Then it is critical to make sure it is completely dry. Then put on the ointment of your choice and then bandage. I have used the Fungasol tea tree oil ointment (if I am not using my vet’s custom mix).
If you keep it bandaged, then the scabs cannot reform. The problem with the scabs is that prevents the medication from getting where it needs to go, to kill the offending organisms.
Every day, I change the bandage and apply more ointment. Since the bandage also keeps the area clean and the scabs off, you do not need to rewash or should only have to wash about once a week.
I usually end up bandaging for about a week, if they had gotten really bad. But I try hard to watch close to they do not get bad. As they heal the rest of the way, I like to use the fungasol tea tree oil spray and I douse it good.
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I use Equiderm daily until it is gone. Equiderm is basically just chlorhexadine (in a mineral oil base). You can get chlorhexadine in various forms for pets and humans on Amazon.
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My horse came with scratches. My vet had me scrub with a chlorhexidine shampoo. What I think helped him most though was a lower-stress life - if this horse is recently off the track, the stress of all the changes, shipping, etc could cause a flare up as I think this can be similar to eczema in humans that can be a stress-induced thing. I also started him on a hoof/skin supplement for hoof care with higher levels of biotin, copper, and zinc, which I think also helped - I wouldn’t have made the connection, but other threads on here mentioned the connection between these minerals and skin health and therefore scratches healing. They haven’t come back in over a year since I bought him and started this regimen!
One of my mares had a case of scratches I could NOT get rid of, despite multiple treatments of the sort recommended above. Hers were located on the back of her pasterns. I finally got rid of them using this stuff:
My theory is that it finally kept the area dry enough for it to heal.
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One thing that helped a horse I owned was to clean the area thoroughly, trim the hair, either soak for 15 minutes or do a wet wrap of sauerkraut brine for an hour or so, remove, clean again, dry thoroughly.
I know the sauerkraut brine sounds completely weird AND may be outdated as better products became available, but darned if it didn’t work! Plus I like sauerkraut and it was handy to have another use for the brine.
I hope you find a method that works for you and your horses. Scratches hurts to look at, you know?
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Vitamin E fixed one horse at one point. Copper/zinc supplement fixed my senior at a barn with high (but within safe human consumption limits) iron in the water. Not all horses will be affected - my senior was the only horse with scratches at this barn.
If the topical treatments aren’t working, try nutrition.
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NOLVASAN, solution sprayed, ointment or skin cleanser ( 2% (w/v) chlorhexidine acetate in a stable detergent base).
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The first thing I’d do is mix a tube of Desitin (40% zinc oxide, generic is fine), cortisone cream, and neosporin ointment, all generics are fine, wash and dry the leg, then apply liberally. Only wipe off and reapply after that, don’t wash again. That will soften scabs, soothe the skin, and provide some antibacterial support
Then - what’s the whole diet? He may need extra copper and zinc
It’s also worth blood work to check selenium and Vit E levels, and supplement appropriately
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Following. Just moved my older horse to a friend’s farmette and it’s muddy. He had scratches last time he was there. I know he did get smz tabs for a while las time.
My husband and I are looking into solutions to help her with the mud surface since she is flying solo as a single mom.
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I have a TB that developed very resistant scratches on his front legs, both white with pink skin. It took years to finally clean up. They’d get better and I’d think we were good, and then they’d come back. So, what finally worked was a compounded cream my vet had made up. It is nystatin (anti-fungal), gentamycin (antibiotic), triamcinolone (steroid), and DMSO cream (antimicrobial and a carrier to help penetrate under the skin). He had me clip to the skin, like a surgical clip. Then pick off all the scabs, wetting the area thoroughly as you’re doing it to help the scabs peel off. Then paint the area with the ointment and wrap or cover. I found that wraps made the horse’s legs swell, so I used surgical stockinette from amazon (like they put under casts) 6 inches wide and cut to go from above his knee to his hoof. I secured above his knees with vet wrap and duct tape and then hung it down to cover to the top of his hoof. It drapes nicely over the leg. Then I would daily reapply the cream, I just rolled up the stockinette, applied the cream, and rolled it back down. I rewashed every week or two. It took months of this procedure, but it did finally clear it up. I now spray his lower legs every couple of days with Bannx to keep the area hostile to all types of microbes. So far, fingers crossed, it has kept things at bay. But scratches is a recurrent problem. There was a thread last year about scratches that asked, “will the scratches ever heal” and someone responded “yes, when the horse dies”. Kind of morbid, but accurate, I think.
Edited to add the compounding pharmacy that makes the cream: NexGen in Weatherford, TX. A bit pricey, but worth it for me.
I have had great success clearing it up with VetOne - GenOne spray Gentamicin / Betamethasone (Generic) Topical Spray for Dogs. Yes its for dogs, but my vet handed it to me for my gelding’s superficial hip sore that would not close and it worked magic. Requires prescription but my vets always carry it so I just keep one on hand. Once the crusts heal up I stop using it and apply Equiderma until the inflammation is gone. Never had to treat longer than a week.
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This is 90% of what I did to fix a horse that would get regular cellulitis that often started as scratches.
The other few things I did:
I added an anti-fungal to the homemade scratches cream as that seemed to really help clear it up.
My horse was on a lot of antibiotics for the cellulitis, so I started giving him a high-quality probiotic to try to repopulate is gut and skin with good bacteria.
- Clipping the white hair/pink skin seemed to make the scratches worse.
- I didn’t scrub or shampoo since having wet skin often doesn’t help either.
- I would not pick off scabs except those that “rolled” off on my fingers as I applied and gently massaged the ointment in.
I think the copper and zinc added to the diet were a game changer.
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I use MTG and Equiderma
IME over the last…25+ years, this is what fixes 90% of horses. I know several who have added that anti-fungal that you did, and honestly, the bacteria that causes scratches and rainrot has fungal properties, so it’s not a stretch, plus infections like this can open the area up for fungal infections too.
YES to NOT picking at scabs! That just leaves a new wound. If it comes off while you’re wiping off the old goo, perfect, that means the skin is at least baby-healed enough to release the scab.
I just have to add, because I always do when I see MTG mentioned, that it’s burned so many horses, even when used according to the label, and because there are too many other products that can do the job as well or better and aren’t sulfur-based, I will always, ALWAYS recommend against MTG, and add that I wish it would be removed from shelves 
Yes I know it’s worked for some. But when it’s truly burned others, and there are many other options, why would you?
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Mine got cellulitis from scratches in the fall mud season two years running. For whatever reason, after a bout of cellulitis he will get abscesses starting a couple of months later. After his 2023 cellulitis and the abscesses from hell in the first few months of 2024, I was going to do everything I could to try and get rid of the scratches before the fall mud season. They mostly went away during the summer, just dry crusty patches than never fully healed. In the spring I read about using copper/zinc to balance excess iron, and as I knew the barn water had high iron I figured it was worth trying. The scratches healed up 100% and stayed away through the fall mud season.
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My OTTB had a bad case this past fall for the first time ever. We didn’t have any mud really, so not sure where they came from. I tried diaper rash cream and that helped a bit, but what worked best was our supermarket’s triple antibiotic ointment—kind of like Neosporin I guess. I didn’t pick the scabs, and he wouldn’t have let me anyway. You can do anything to his legs—I’ve pulled 50 porcupine quills out of one foot before just in his stall without even a halter on—but these were much more sensitive. I applied it thickly every night. Took a few weeks, but they finally healed. I keep his legs, pasterns, and heels clean from mud so not sure why he had them. Fingers crossed he doesn’t get them again.
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Hate MTG. Burns and smells like bacon. Bad bacon. Am trying to be proactive with my guy and wash with chlorhexidine (sp). What is a better preventative cream- triple antibiotic or Desatin?
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Too much washing is hard on the skin and actually opens up invitations to the fungus and bacterias that cause scratches/mud fever.
Desitin/zinc ointment is a great preventative, but it is very messy. Don’t use antibiotic anything unless you’re actively treating something. Unnecessary antibiotic use contributes to antibiotic resistance.
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Topical prevention against scratches? Maybe Gold Bond Medicated powder or something like that dusted on and brushed in a bit if things are looking a bit like they’re going to do something. I’d keep that to a Need case, rather than prevention, unless he proves otherwise). Possibly simply corn starch just to help keep his skin drier without dessicating it. There are also skin moisturizing sprays, like Healthy Hair (or something like that, pink bottle) that might be an option to keep the skin soothed without it being wet. If you DO wash, I’d blow dry so it’s not wet for long.
