Common skin problems in the horse

Although the skin is the most visible of the equus caballus's body structures it is also the well-nigh easily overlooked! The peel provides a strong barrier to challenges from exterior the body and plays an important role equally part of the immune system. It also helps control body temperature and makes vitamin D. In certain parts of the body the construction of the skin changes to perform specific functions, for example the hoof, chestnut and ergot are modified pare structures and the skin of the eyelids is much thinner than on the back.

What are the common skin weather condition?

In spite of the exposed position of the pare, it is unremarkably remarkably gratis of disease. Notwithstanding the pare is besides the organ most probable to be damaged accidentally – cuts, bruises and burns are common!
It is difficult to say what is the most common skin illness. What is common in some circumstances is non necessarily common in others. For case, ringworm is mutual in racing yards merely is very rare when horses are stabled on their ain with no contact with others or poorly managed ponies might all exist afflicted by rain scald in the middle of wintertime due to poor hygiene and the lack of shelter. Old horses are very prone to develop Cushing's disease but information technology would be well-nigh unusual to run across this disease in a 1000 of young racehorses!

How do I know if my horse has skin disease?

There are just a few ways that the pare can react to injury and and then many unlike diseases can accept a similar appearance. The chief presenting signs of skin disease are:

  • Itching (pruritus): horses may show excessive twitching or swishing of the tail, rub, stamp, crumb or bite
  • Hair loss (baldness): can be due to cocky-trauma due to irritation, or due to diseases affecting the hair follicles
  • Exudation and crusting (dried exudate): causing matting and tufting of pilus, often due to bacterial or fungal infections
  • Excessive flaking or scaling of the pare: a frequent secondary feature of many skin disorders
  • Lumps (nodules) involving the pare: may exist due to inflammatory conditions or sometimes tumour growth
  • Pigmentary alterations:
    • Most unremarkably depigmentation of hair (leucotrichia) or skin (leucoderma), due to injury or other causes of inflammation
    • Less commonly, increased pigmentation of pilus (melanotrichia) or pare (melanosis), also later the skin has been damaged by inflammation
  • Excessive pilus growth: commonly associated with Cushing'due south disease, a condition of older horses and ponies due to a hormone imbalance

Why is my equus caballus itchy?

All horses can feel itchy, particularly when biting flies are around – simply it is important to continue a shut middle on your horse since anything more than a gentle rub could be the start of something serious. Once a equus caballus has started rubbing it tin cause more and more than harm to the peel and this can go far very hard to find the original cause. Horses are usually affected by peel parasites such as lice and mites, just at that place are other weather condition that tin besides cause itching.
Another very common cause of itching in horses is 'sweet itch'. Sweet itch is caused past an allergic reaction to an insect bite. At that place are many flies and insects that can cause a problem – although the major culprit is bitter midges. Itching is normally seen around the cervix and tail where midges bite most ofttimes. However, some midges bite the head and the belly line under the equus caballus. Horses sensitive to these insects volition rub at these sites. Horses that suffer from sweet itch usually cope amend if kept inside rather than outside and abroad from areas where midges and other insects live, such as ponds, streams and lakes.
Other allergic conditions such atopic dermatitis due to environmental allergens are less common and food allergy is extremely rare in the horse. At that place are some conditions such as pinworm infestation and aggregating of skin debris between the teats of mares, associated with overgrowth of a yeast organism, that crusade rubbing around the bottom at the base of operations of the tail. This should not exist mistaken for the tail rubbing seen with sugariness crawling.

How practice I know if my horse has parasites?

Lice

If lice are present they tin usually be seen in the haircoat. The near common blazon of louse feeds on pare debris and scale. Affected horses tend to rub and scratch at the sites where the mites similar to alive, commonly the neck and tail regions. Itching is normally worse in winter when infestations can be very high. Some lice feed on claret and, if present in large numbers, tin cause anaemia. Affected animals are ofttimes those in poor condition or suffering from other illnesses. Both types of louse tin can crusade a 'moth-eaten' glaze and some infected horses are irritable. Lice are quite difficult to treat and can spread apace from horse to equus caballus, so it's of import to get proper advice on control from your vet. Do not merely purchase "louse powder" – it might help a bit only it volition non solve the problem.

Mites

Mites are much smaller than lice and mostly cannot be seen without special equipment. Mange mites commonly live on the skin of the feathered legged horses just tin can also affect the body. The irritation caused by these mites makes horses stamp their feet, bite at their pasterns and legs and rub against solid objects. Individual horses tin be affected in different means. Some horses have a lot of mites but do not get very itchy, whilst other scratch a great deal simply have few mites. If your horse doesn't get very itchy with mites the infestation tin can be overlooked and tin continue in a stable from yr to year; whilst if few mites are present information technology may be frustrating to effort to identify the crusade of the itchiness. Once a diagnosis is fabricated it is important to impale the parasites if possible by treating both affected and in contact horses. This is not easy and requires the use of off-characterization products, since there are no UK licensed products for this status in the equus caballus.
Harvest mites are a trouble in sure areas, ordinarily chalky soils, where the adult free-living mite is found. In the tardily summer and autumn the larval stage of this mite takes a blood meal from any unsuspecting mammal that happens to be passing. They adhere at contact sites (legs, face, trunk in horses turned out) and remain fastened for merely ii-3 days. Only 1 or two horses in a grouping may testify signs of irritation, probably due to a component of allergic reaction in those individuals. Once again, in that location is no licensed product for treatment, then advice should be sought from your vet.

Why has my equus caballus got tufts and crusts in the haircoat?

Exudation from the skin, which causes matting of the hair and formation of crusts, is frequently due to infection. Mutual problems in wintertime and early spring include rain scald, mud fever and saddle rash. The most common places for these clinical signs (lesions) to develop are on the back and on the pastern. Most cases are due to bacterial infection, but some are the upshot of allowed problems.
Rain scald is a very common condition caused byDermatophilus congolensis. Skin wetting from rain, long dense hair coat and poor hygiene create an ideal environment for the bacteria to abound on the peel surface. If ane horse is infected, others may go infected too. Scabs crusade pain and discomfort, and removal of them is ofttimes resented and usually leaves a rosy-red surface area of skin. Treatment of pelting scald involves keeping the pare dry subsequently a conscientious warm h2o antibacterial wash. Information technology is also important to avoid over-preparation while the skin heals; if the whole expanse can be clipped this will speed upwardly the healing process. Rugs and blankets should exist removed from the horse, as sweating without evaporation and extra warmth volition but encourage the leaner! Some cases are very difficult to manage, sometimes requiring courses of antibiotics, and affected horses may go repeated episodes.
Saddle rash is normally caused past Staphylococcal infection. It is ordinarily a painful dermatitis almost ofttimes affecting the back, loins, withers and neck of the horse. It is common in late winter and early spring and commonly acquired by a break down of hygiene. The combination of a long winter coat, an emerging leap glaze, heavy rugs, poor grooming and tack cleaning contribute to its evolution. At that place are several forms of the condition, including:

  • Focal "acne-similar" disease – pustules (spots) develop in the skin; there may be few or many lesions.
  • Widespread skin changes with oozing over the surface in some cases.
  • A milder class – where Staphylococcal bacteria gain entry to pocket-sized scratches (such as sugariness itch rubs and tack abrasions, etc).

In one case the status starts it tin can be extremely painful; the equus caballus may resent beingness handled or existence washed. It is common for the affected areas to expand or seem to spread to other areas – this may be associated with the use of dirty brushes, rugs and other tack. In the same fashion information technology can spread to other horses. Diagnosis is commonly simple – your vet should accept material to examine under the microscope and a swab of the pare to identify what bacteria are present. Sometimes a skin biopsy has to be taken and so that the bacterial swabs tin can be obtained from deep inside the peel.
Treatment is e'er difficult. Washing with warm h2o and an antibacterial shampoo is helpful once the area has been clipped. In some cases the lesions are so painful that heavy sedation or even an anaesthetic may exist needed. Hygiene is imperative. A cotton fiber sheet that can be removed and washed every day is helpful under rugs or saddles but information technology is far amend to avoid any skin contacts at all.

What causes excessive flaking and scaling in my equus caballus's coat?

Bit and scale are quite different from chaff – scale is light, gray in color and very soft and is produced as a normal process of pare maturation. Withal, many skin atmospheric condition can result in alteration of the charge per unit of turnover of the skin and thus an increase in calibration production, which becomes visibly evident.
In that location are a few bacterial and fungal infections that result in localised or more full general scaling which are usually very well recognised, e.g. Ringworm (more properly called dermatophytosis) – a fungal infection that appears initially as focal tufting, followed by hair loss and scaling in expanding rings. This is a self-limiting condition that gets ameliorate in time (probably 3-4 months) without treatment in most horses, but is infectious to other horses and besides to humans and other animals. It can be a recurrent problem in some racehorse yards, with young susceptible horses coming in each year, since spores are very long-lived in the surroundings and hard to eliminate completely.
Many other peel diseases can exist associated with increased scaling, including other infections, allowed disorders and fifty-fifty some neoplastic (cancer) conditions.

Why has my horse's hair gone white?

The most mutual conditions involving loss of colour in the peel and hair are actually of no major issue and are restricted to the skin. These include:

  • Loss of pigmentation at sites of injury or inflammation: post-inflammatory depigmentation normally occurs at sites of healed wounds and areas of tack damage, most commonly the saddle area or other harness contact points and anticipated pressure points for tack. Sure chemicals can produce this event, particularly some forms of rubber. There is nada that tin be done to cure the condition and the horse is seldom, if e'er, affected by it in whatever way. This tendency is actually the means by which freeze-branding is effective.
  • Vitiligo is an immune status where at that place is a progressive loss of pigment in and around the eyelids and/or mouth region, anus and genitals. At that place is nothing that can be washed, but information technology generally causes the equus caballus no problems and in some cases repigmentation may occur. The status known as "Pinky Arab Syndrome" may well be a form of vitiligo. Once again, no handling can be offered, although the status may wax and wane.

Call back that any depigmented skin should exist protected from exposure to sunlight considering stake skin is more susceptible to sunburn and the take chances of skin cancer at these sites is higher.

What other skin diseases are important?

Mud fever is classically caused by a single bacterium chosenDermatophilus congolensis, with crusting and tufting of hair affecting the lower limbs. The term "pastern dermatitis" is usually used for those cases caused by other bacteria. Pastern dermatitis normally involves staphylococcal organisms, often together with other leaner, and can extend to involve fetlocks and cannon regions. Very similar clinical signs may too be caused past fungal organisms, and parasitic mites and harvest mites tin can also nowadays in a similar way and and so be complicated by secondary infections. In some cases that get-go with a bacterial infection this tin pb to more serious immune-mediated bug, which tin exist very difficult to treat.
Diagnosis is unremarkably fabricated after a careful clinical examination and collection of samples from the skin and the moist surface. Skin biopsy may be necessary in some cases. Handling of pastern dermatitis involves identifying the primary cause and initiating specific treatment to remove it. Symptomatic treatment of the pare damage may be like, only without appropriate specific treatment directed at the underlying cause, cases may become refractory and chronic and difficult to cure. Early veterinary attention will help considerably.
Pare lumps are extremely common in horses. They can exist broadly divided into cancerous (neoplastic) and non-cancerous (inflammatory) weather. The well-nigh common of the skin tumours of the horse are sarcoids and melanomas. Other causes of lumps in the skin are allergic reactions to insect bites, or less commonly other allergic reactions, or fifty-fifty more rarely a generalised reaction to medicines or internal disease. The advice of your veterinary surgeon should be sought and if there is any doubt as to the cause or nature of the lump(south) and then biopsies should be taken to enable the pathologist to give a definitive diagnosis. Only with a firm diagnosis tin the hereafter outlook be predicted (prognosis) and appropriate treatment initiated where possible.
Peel diseases are mutual in horses, simply many take very similar appearances. Early veterinarian attention gives the best chance of a good, elementary diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Many skin disorders are complicated by the use of the wrong treatment or the incorrect apply of the right treatment.