He has only rubbed the top of his tail. Plenty of hair lower down except some pieces that broke due to being caught in the boards. No flakes in tail. Skin colored dandruff in mane. I don’t think his smegma is unusually smelly, but he did lift a leg to reach back and scratch next to his parts this afternoon. I tried the Micro-Tek gel with aloe yesterday under his tail, and he didn’t rub last night. He did not get much build up this week as compared to the last couple of weeks, so nothing really to clean out. (I checked after seeing the scratching)
The trainer at my barn washed my mare’s tail with EquiShield IR shampoo on Thursday, and as of Sunday evening the mare had not rubbed her tail again. The trainer swears by it and uses it once or twice a week. We will see! In any case, the mare seems much less itchy now.
This seems to have helped my gelding with the itchy tail - we bought it for legs, but gave it a try when he started rubbing and it seems to have made a difference. https://www.smartpakequine.com/pt/equiderma-skin-lotion-13998
I basically DIY Equiderma mixing the basic ingredients which I already keep in my tack box, which has worked in the past…mainly for the fall time rubbing. I’d use it under the tail mostly but also massage in a little at the top of the tail. It wasn’t doing anything for me this time, though, and I think the mineral oil part of it was creating more build-up and more itchiness.
So far, the Eqyss Micro-Tek leave on gel seems to be helping him the most after a good wipe down between the legs. The aloe makes his mane a little crispy, but it’s also cutting down on the dandruff in the mane. I try to massage into the roots, but some gets on the ends.
I think the plumber is going to fix our water issues today, so he will be able to get some more rinses/baths in this hot week we have coming up. I’m going to try to do more evening rinses to get the day’s sweat off.
I make a homemade flyspray that works well for bugs and great for the skin too in regards to itching. It’s 50/50 witch hazel and acv (the good stuff with the mothers) and then doterra essential oils: Terrasheild, Purify, Lavender, Peppermint, Tea Tree, Eucalyptus.
I’m hesitant to use oils since that’s mostly what’s in the Ultra Cruz natural flyspray sample that gave him slight hives. But witch hazel and acv sounds interesting.
Poor pony is so sweaty and itchy all over, and the water is still not fixed. We are doing a lot of currying and some very cold sponge baths, and he hates it so much. This morning, he also had swelling right in front of his sheath before the belly button… I think he got bitten by something last night. I skipped the Vetrolin today and just did acv in water for his sponge bath.
It’s usually pin worms and can be treated with a good wormer that is designed for pin worms. My horses never rubbed their tails till I moved to one barn. So I went to feed store and the woman owner handed me the wormer and I used it, and it worked. I’ve had vets tell me and my friends that our horses did not have pin worms, but after a friend used a lot of topicals that were expensive on her leased horse, I handed her a tube of pin wormer and the horse quit rubbing his tail bare. Ivermectin is not the cure. You have to use a wormer for pin worm control.
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Could be lots of things. Itchy sheath from overproduction of yeast and smegma is also what causes tail itching.
If it is pinworms, Ivermectin IS indicated as a pinworm treatment. So is fenbendazole (Safeguard), oxibendazole (Anthelcide EQ), and pyrantel pamoate (Strongid, Exodus).
I’ve heard the Ivermectin as mentioned by someone else. If it’s pinworms, or has any chance of being pinworms, I think that’s worth a shot for you! My gelding does this same thing, drives me crazy. Last year I started using coconut oil/balm on his tail and it’s the ONLY thing I’ve found that helps so far. I’m actually allergic to coconut, so I have someone rub it into the base of his tail bone, and the entire underside of his tailbone. Seems to work and helps with the hair growing back.
I am inclined to think it’s not pinworms. Either that or a lot of horses in the barn have them. Mine’s just the only one seriously bald because he has the skimpiest tail to start with. But if there isn’t any improvement soon, I will get some ivermectin.
The plumber fixed the warm water and water pressure in the wash rack this evening, and I have never seen this horse so happy to get a bath. It was a HOT and buggy one today.
I’ve used coconut oil on his tail before when there has been dryness. I have a conditioner that is largely coconut based that I’m using right now, which seems to soften the frazzled hairs a little bit more, but if the aloe-based stuff quits helping under the tail, I’ll try coconut oil. For an oil, it seems to attract less dirt buildup than baby oil/gel.
Try Anthelcide EQ wormer. It’s relatively cheap and gets female pinworms better than other brands (according to a vet that works for Pfizer). Can’t hurt to try it and has worked around here for tail rub problems that had tried everything else with no luck.
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My gelding has had this issue for years. I tried everything to no avail. What finally worked? Benadryl. He gets a bit at night and no more itches. We switch to dex before rated shows.
I have recently gone through this- tried absolutely EVERYTHING for tail rubbing and for us what seems to be improving the situation is clotrimazole. I only realized that he had ringworm after I got a strange looking round rash (not Lyme) and realized the bugger had ringworm and gave it to me. Both of us are being treated with the clotrimazole and both of us are better.
We’ve had a couple cooler days and no rubbing. I’m thinking it must be a sweat/bug issue. I have kept up with at least a daily wipe down or rinse or mane and tail wash. The mane dandruff seems to be under control now.
Something I have considered, but not tried yet, is washing Blush’s tail and butt with this stuff. Seems like it might help to keep the little bugs from landing while not attracting more dust and stuff with fly spray.
I’ll order some and see how it goes!
Yes this is the go to solution for pin worms. Ivermectin did nothing for mine but one dose of anthelcide EQ stopped tail itching. The vet couldn’t see pin worms because none were exiting my horses when he did the test.
