Skin on underside of tail issue

[Ganesha]

I’ve noticed areas of pink skin on the underside of my horse’s tail. The come and go. His skin is black. There are no sores, weeping, etc and it doesn’t look irritated. But from time to time where there was black skin, there will be an area where it is pink, almost like the black skin peeled or fell off. Then that area will be black and later he’ll get another patch of pink skin along the underside of his tail bone.

It this normal “skin shedding”? He doesn’t seem itchy or irritated. The areas are usually large - about 3 inches long.

[retrofit]

My previous bay horse had the same thing, and my current chestnut has dry, flaky skin on the underside of his tail and along the sides of the dock. I put it down to normal skin shedding. If you think about it, we don’t curry or do anything to those areas to allow dead skin to flake off. I’m really OCD about preventing tail-rubbing, so I just take my hand (or use a paper towel / latex gloves if you like) and gently rub a little to get the dry skin off. For my chestnut who gets itchy when he has dandruff at the dock of his tail, I use MTG on a regular basis on the “topside” of his tail and gently down the sides. I avoid using MTG under the tail for obvious reasons

[Ganesha]

Ok thanks retrofit. That sounds totally logical (and more probable than some exotic skin disease). Today I wiped the underside of his tail with a wet cloth, then gave it a thin coating of vaseline. I know I should be checking that area more often for things like ticks, etc.

I tend to neglect that area because my horse gets a big tail clampy, but I think if it becomes a more regular part of our routine he’ll be less tense about it. I tried massaging the top of his tail bone a bit and doing some tail circles before cleaning underneath and he “let go” with his tail and was ok with it.