Super stubborn scratches

[Nevada10]

I call it scratches, but perhaps it is not. My mare has had several small, crusty scabs on her [white] hind pasterns for years and nothing has cleared them up yet. We’ve done several rounds of different antibiotics, prescription topicals, and literally every OTC topical in the Dover catalog. When I use oil based products (Equiderma, MTG), the scabs will come off but the skin never heals. She’s stocking up now that she’s on day turnout and it really bugs me that I can’t get rid of this gunk!

Has anyone ever dealt with something like this? How did you treat it?

[mswillie]

My horse had a stubborn case. I gently cleaned the area, rubbed in some Triple antibiotic ointment, then slathered the whole thing with Desitin (the thick ointment, not the cream). Kept it covered with the Desitin and in a couple of weeks it had healed. You may certainly have already tried this but I found it worked better than all the fancy stuff.

[zbgirl]

My TB gelding gets scratches whenever his legs have been clipped by the vet - some little tiny scabs come off and suddenly bloom into these angry scabby things. We have used Flamazine, MTG and other products but have had the best results with not using water/washing to get rid of his mud fever. If I washed with Antiseptic soap and applied the creams, the scabs always seemed to increase and double in size!

I began using No Thrush Powder - no water/cleaning off of scabs- and they began to dry up by themselves and flaked away. Keeping the area DRY is key. I was tempted many times to help it along by picking at the bits of dead cells of the scabs as they came off, but they all cleared extremely well. Bad scabby bits took longer but they all came off over time.

[eternalbeginner]

I got rid of them as zbgirl says, no washing at all. To make the scabs fell off without using water I used a cream with salicilic acid (not acetilsalicilic, mind!). Then I used a cream based on lanoline (I’ve used several over the years). Water, shaving and steroid/antibiotic creams always made things worse for my poor fellow.

But then, scratches (mud fever or whatever you call them) are caused by a wide array of bacteria/fungus or a mixture of them, which take advantage of damaged skin (in the case of my horse was not mud but sun light). So what works for one horse may not work for another. You have to try different solutions.

[Simkie]

Have you ever tried supplementing her copper and zinc? Poly copper and poly zinc from uckele or horsetech. Half a dose of each daily.

I had one that popped with persistent scratches after we moved to MN. Tried a lot of the goos–they would help, maybe, but then I would back off a little and the scratches would pop right back up. Put her on copper and zinc and did nothing else and POOF, gone. Some weird issues in her coat also cleared up.

That same horse did also have some weird scabs near her coronary bands behind that were definitely NOT scratches that were there for years. I finally got those to heal by wrapping with medihoney. No clue what those were or why they refused to heal for so long, but they’re finally gone now. It took about 4 weeks of wrapping to get them to heal over!

[tazycat]

I just put desitin on it and apply it daily takes care of the scratches in a few weeks. Equiderma doesn’t work anymore on my horses. MTG is horrible stuff won’t use it.

[LauraKY]

I’ve used a mix of Desitin, triple antibiotic and an anti fungal ointment like Monostat. Apply and wrap at night while in stall. Wipe off before reapplying the next evening. It took about a week, but completely cleared it up.

[Marla_100]

Grind up some SMZ pills and mix w/ desitin- apply daily or twice if necessary. Cleared up the worst case of scratches
after trying many other things. Agree w/ copper and zinc.

[theresak]

Try supplementing the diet as suggested above with copper and zinc, and I’d also recommend increasing the Vitamin E.

If that doesn’t help, you probably need to have your vet do a skin scraping to see what organism is causing the issue. Scrape both legs as you can have different organisms on each leg.

[MCF1991]

Like others, I mix triple antibiotic ointment, desitin, and Lotrimin. The Lotrimin is antifungal so that is why I add that in.

[Proffie]

I fight with scratches every summer with my guy – he even gets it on his muzzle. I used Betadine for years and it worked wonders, but I don’t know if he built a resistance to it or what, but this past summer it stopped working. I switched to Chlorhexidine (which is Nolvasan, but I bought the generic at Walgreens) and that cleared it up. Bottom line is, keep trying different things, it seems to be different for every horse.

Oh, and I also swear by Desitin to protect the area between cleanings. Also, DO NOT pick the scabs!! If they come off by themselves, great, but picking seems to make the area more angry.

[bathsheba8542]

My only substitute is that I use equal parts DMSO, an antifungal, and a triple antibiotic. I put on for three days, then every other day for about another 6 days. That has always worked.

[Groom_amp_Taxi]

I have a gelding who has had pastern dermatitis on both hind fetlocks for the entire 11 years we have owned him. It was noted in his PPE, and we thought “no big deal”. Ha.

During the early years of ownership, I tried most things that have been mentioned so far on this thread - including topicals in various combinations, wrapping, leaving uncovered, daily washing, not washing, systemic antibiotics, supplementing with copper, zinc, vitamin E. Did some natural stuff too- azomite, some kind of naturopathic drops. Due to the somewhat cyclical nature of the lesions, I did the neck threadworm protocol with ivermectin a couple of different times. And within the constraints of boarding barn feeding limits and him being on the hard-keeper side of the spectrum, I have also tried tweaking food and supplement routines to go as far toward a grass hay only diet as possible.

Nothing made the crud go away, and in fact, I believe the constant messing with it in the early years of ownership contributed to making it worse. Any “insult” to that area of the body no longer heals - instead the horse gets a new scabby, non-healing lesion.

Got serious about trying to sell the horse somewhere around 2011 and brought in a local veterinary dermatologist for a consult. This vet has a multi-animal practice that includes horses - so not an equine specialist, but horses are a regular part of his practice. After the consult, we did a combination of a short-term systemic antibiotic, a long-term systemic antifungal, a topical spray (think it was Genesis), as well as long term low dose dex. Gave it the good try for around 4-5 months but stopped the anti-fungal when the horse started making weird “burp-like” noises.

Several times when horse was on higher, short-term doses of dex, the stuff seemed to respond but would come back after tapering to a lower dose. Over the years, there have been lots of things that the crud seemed to respond to initially but never to the point of healing. It seems to adapt.

Things never tried: allergy testing, punch biopsy, keeping the crud wrapped/covered 24x7 over a long period of time (weeks/months as opposed to days).

I have contributed to many “scratches” threads here over the years as well. There was one notable one where we had several pages of folks who were raising hands and saying “me too” as far as having horses with pastern lesions that they can’t get to clear up. Lots of the horses were TBs. Many of them were from places where it can be damp and muddy for much of the year.

The last several years, I have gone with the benign neglect approach. Since I have adopted this approach, I don’t think the stuff has gotten any better, but it’s not really any worse either. As stated above, it’s kind of cyclical in that sometimes the lesions seem active, other times they are just there. I try to keep them fly sprayed during fly season. Sometimes they get itchy - horse lets me know when they itch by holding out his leg, and then I rub and pick with his permission until he decides I should be done. He has had one bout of cellulitis in the RH - maybe/possibly related to the crud, maybe not. Who knows?

OP, my advice to you: if the crud you are dealing with has been there for years and it’s not too unsightly, don’t mess with it. Try oral supplements and easy stuff like that if you want - it’s only money, right? If you still feel you must try other things (and I know that feeling), there were two things over the years that gave me the most “hope” for resolution. The first was a family of products called Mud Stop from the UK which I bought from a vet practice is Missouri that imported them. The second was the Silver Whinny socks which you may have seen advertised over the last couple of years. For my horse, the socks showed a fair amount of promise in terms of the scabs coming off. Unfortunately, I have never been able to leave the socks on for as long as I think it would take for healing to occur. They get dirty in turn-out and need to be changed regularly, and I found it EXTREMELY difficult to get the largest size on and off (off especially) over the horse’s size 2 hind feet - especially since he also has trouble holding up his hind feet.

If there is anybody out there who thinks they have the magic solution that will cure this, I will be happy to send you my horse for you to try it out. Pm me.

[Heart_s_Journey]

A friend of mine developed a salve she calls Denise’s All Heal Salve and it works wonders on scratches, Pythosis, summer sores, etc. It is non-toxic, safe to eat (I’ve tried it) as it detoxes your system. She has a website as well as facebook page where you can see before and after photos. I know people are wary of new products, but this has been around 3 years now and has cured a lot of horses, dogs, and people with long standing sores. I personally use it for my horse, cats, and myself. I do not receive any kickbacks from telling people about it. I want to spread the word about a product that does work. She also advocates using salt water to clean wounds. She will discuss your horses’s issue and assist with the treatment. Please check out the website and facebook page. You will be amazed when you see the photos. Please try it

[NMK]

After similar frustration I took my mare to the Dermatologist at OSU and after everything from scraping to biopsy, the THING that works is Dechra’s TrizCHLOR4 shampoo or spray. Dechra also makes a MiconaHex +Triz that works equally as well. Both can be purchased on Amazon for about $12 a bottle. The vet bill at OSU…well, that was quite a bit more.

[Groom_amp_Taxi]

@NMK do you know what is special about the TrizCHLOR4 that makes it work when other things haven’t worked? What was your regime for using the products i.e. how often did you wash or spray? Did you wrap? Did the horse stay in or go out while being treated?

[NMK]

I am not a vet so I can’t tell you the med that makes it work best, but I can tell you that keeping the area clean and dry helped-I would towel dry and spray in the winter. Most of the paste type applications/meds do not let the skin dry out and the bacteria stays in. I used it every two to three days until the scratches were gone. I did not wrap, and the horse would go outside on the usual turn out schedule. The key is just keeping the area dry and clean.

Now when I see a little hint of it on any horse I use it, and it’s usually gone right away. I have told a number of folks about it and it’s worked for them too.

[EventerAJ]

My go-to for any skin lesion is chlorhexidine scrub, the stuff vets use to clean wounds, prep for surgery and joint injections. Use with or without water. For my back-40 pastured broodmares (far from the hose) I kept chlorhex scrub in a syringe, squirt some on the scabs and gently rub it in (once or twice a day when they’re fed). The bad spots took two weeks, the minor spots cleared up in a week. These were outdoor horses, living in dew, mud, and grass, not a dry stall.

Most important thing: NO PICKING. No scrubby brushes, no fingernails, just the pads of your fingertips and palms. Try to work the shampoo into the deep crevices of the scabs (thus the syringe) but let the scabs fall off naturally.

Another trick for long lasting scratches is to apply ivermectin paste wormer directly to the scabs. I don’t use it often, but it has cleared up two stubborn cases before I discovered the wonders of chlorhexidine scrub.

[EmilyM]

i use equifit’s silver leg wash (maxium strength) to clean legs with scratches (and the daily for normal washing. makes a huge difference in leg health)
make a paste out of smz tablets and miconidazole cream to apply to scratches. You can also add vetasan which is a chlorhex cream. no need to wrap unless legs are swollen.

[Victorious]

I have tried everything. You name it, I tried it with varying degrees of success. I do wonder if certain remedies do lose their efficacy after a while? I have not tried supplementing her diet with copper and zinc. That will be next, but I have to give a big shout out to what has worked for me and my level of attention. Whinny-sox. They are truly ridiculous, but I’ll be darned if they didn’t clear up her legs! I wash the legs well with that expensive silver shampoo(not sure that matters, any soap would prob be fine), then dry them completely, like towel dry and then set her up in front of a big fan. Then put the sox on. I can get about a week out of a pair of sox before I need to switch them out. And they are a colossal pain to put on with shoes(actually taking off is the pain, putting on is fairly easy). She does not ever go on grass when its wet or dewey, but she went out in her run-in all summer long at night, and then pasture for a few hours once it was dry. She is a fattie anyway, so that was not a problem. This is the first time in a long time that I can remember that she has no scratches at all. It takes no time at all and works. The sox are pricey, like $70/pair, I think, but worth it. She is tough on them, but still wears them even when they are pretty ratty-looking.