Thursday, October 1, 2009

The Butt Crack of Dawn...

Occasionally, when Mike lets the dogs out in the morning, they see or hear something and take off in hot pursuit. Since it's 4:30, he doesn't yell at them to come back. Sometimes, they come back right away. Sometimes, we have to go looking.

This morning, we had to go looking.

Mike walked while I drove, and naturally, once we decided they were lost forever, we returned home to find them on the porch. BAD DOGS!!!

Beau - I'm still trying to figure out what is going on with the flaky crud on his back. It just keeps coming, and I want it resolved before it gets cold.

I brushed him out last night and noticed that the hair was mostly grown back, but the dirty flakey crud is still there.

I put two products on him last night. One was the M-T-G. I know that will lift all the gunk out and leave little mudballs on his back. But it doesn't seem to be having a long term effect.

I also put some T-Zone Wound Cream on him. This is the first time I've used it, so we'll see if that does any good.

Honey has a spot just like it under her mane that I've been fighting for almost 2 years. I've tried fungicide, dandruff shampoo, you name it.

I thought that perhaps Gold Bond Medicated cream might work. Maybe Preparation H? Heck at this point, I'd be willing to use axle grease if it'd help. I've been feeding him flax oil on his senior feed to try to get a handle on it from the inside out.

Any thoughts? It's dry, flakey, itchy.

While brushing Beau out last night, I noticed that he's almost totally filled in across his back. His whither still stick up, but his spine is almost completely covered. The Hole at the top of his pelvis is filling in also, and while he's still hasn't recovered across his butt, he doesn't have that "starved" look.

He will get a regular paste dewormer when the rest of the kids come due in a couple weeks.

Someone at work that I was talking to yesterday said that she had a Morgan gelding get laminitis and to give him comfort, she used that pink styrofoam sheet stuff, cut out pieces a little bigger than his feet, then duct taped it on.

The foam compresses over a week or so, but as inactive as Beau is, I think it might help his comfort level. So maybe this weekend, Beau will get new pink "high heels".

I'll try to get some good picture tonight.

12 comments:

PRS said...

These folks make an amazing product that will help foundered horses gain some comfort and they will often walk off sound! They can be a bit pricy though. When my horse needed some help after a stone bruise I turned him out in his Old Mac's and he got a "hoof slipper while stalled.

http://www.hoofwings.com/hoofwings.htm

Lauren R said...

Karen, at LCC we also try that sometimes for sore feet. The biggest problem is if it's too thick, they're unbalanced - cut too small and it slides off - cut too big, they step on it and it comes off!! We have tried using a little thinner piece combined with a diaper and lots of vet wrap and duct tape - seems to work best. :)

ZTIG said...

Have you tried rinsing him in Apple Cider Vinegar? I've had amazing success with that on all things crusty and flaky. On really bad cases I would do it daily (don't rinse it off leave it on) diluted maybe 50/50 with water. or put it on straight every other day or so. Usually in a week or two any fungus is completely gone, never to return.

Anonymous said...

My horse had gotten a strange skin infection that was similar sounding. my vet gave me an antibacterial shampoo, and antibiotics. Who knows what it started out being but it became a skin infection.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I've read your blog a few times about you restoring Beau to good health - you probably already know you're doing an incredible job. :)
Anyway, I saw your photo of his sheath and rear-belly area swelling. I'm not sure if the vet has diagnosed the problem yet or not BUT my OTTB has always had sensitive skin and he had the same identical problem. It was determined that it was the gnats or 'chiggers' or whatever you'd like to call those nearly invisible flying insects that are common in cycles.
A few things have helped my horse:
Ridiculous amounts of insect spray that also deters mosquitos, not just flies. I use Endure during the really bad times. It is oil based so lasts a little longer.
I've also always had a fly sheet on him. It breathes as well as protect him from a lot of insects without having to spray his whole body all the time (that gets expensive).
The vet had prescribed Dexomethosone (or something that sounds like how I just spelled that) orally and when it was as bad as your Beau had it, it cleared up in a few days. It was just long enough for me to get a little more control on my horse's environment so that the insects didn't bother him anymore.
I'm not sure if you needed to know all that but others' experiences have been helpful for me in the past so maybe this may help you.
Good luck and GREAT JOB!
Danielle

adrienne said...

Try some a solution of detol and water. 1 part detol for every 10 parts water. It is a general fungicide, it also kills yeast and bacteria so whatever is causing his skin rash should be wiped out with that. I've used it with great success on all of my horses :). Apply once per day for a week, then once per week after that, if needed (if it's been raining a lot)

Karen V said...

Danielle His sheath is better. But stupid me never though about the fly sheet. Geez! I'm SUCH a dork! He'll probably look like a 2yr old in gramma's dress, but I'm sure it'll help.

Dana - I got your e-mail. Thank you! That is sort of what I had mind.

ZTIG - I'm gonna try the apple cider vinegar! That toally makes sense! Acidic enough to kill the gunk, yet won't harm Beau. I'm also feeding him RAW ACV to try to change is body chemistry pH from the inside too.

Cygnata said...

Maybe it's psoriasis or eczema? Do only humans get those? I had the latter at one point and the doc gave me a steroidal cream for it. Ask the vet?

-Cyg

cimbpin said...

Try washing him with Orvus. We usse this on our 29 yo TB that has Cushings. He doesn't sweat and he gets the same gunky crusty dander patches. Orvus dries it out and the whole area will flae up and be easier to comb out. I use a metal flea comb like you use for cats and dogs. It's wonderfull because the tines are really close together so the flakes all comb out more thoroughly but the tips of the tines are rounded so it doesn't scratch and break the skin.

Also, for weight gain... go with CalfManna!!! It's a miracle worker! I have a 20 something rescue pony, Harley, that we have had a hard time getting weight on. A half cup CalfManna in the am and pm with his senior pellets has made a world of difference. You can literally see the weight going on every couple days and his dry shaggy coat is now dark and gloriously shiny! He is also missing a couple upper molars and was having a hard time with chewing his hay properly so every evening we give him his alfalfa "soup" that he gobbles down eagerly! It's 4 large double handfulls of alfalfa cubes soaked in a half bucketfull of water with canola oil added.

JustMe123 said...

I was going to suggest ACV with his feed/in his water, but I see you're already doing that so...

I've had a horse have a reaction to MTG before (left bald itchy spots instead of healing) so just be aware of that.

Also, my farrier swears by a double-deworming with Zimec Gold or Equimax to clear up skin conditions (giving a double dose according to body weight - in other words, if he's 900#, you'd give an 1800# dose). I've seen it work on cases where nothing else will, but of course you don't want to do this on a horse that hasn't been regularly dewormed recently.

LearningDressage said...

Hello. Hope you'll get this comment. I came over from Fugly's blog, and have a suggestion for dealing with the crud on his back.

Give him a bath with Dawn dish detergent. Lather him up with a sponge, then curry him with a rubber curry, rinse off the soap and then apply your vinegar rinse. The dish detergent is gentle enough that they use it on wild birds after oil-slicks, and obviously it cuts through muck like a knife through butter. This is how I deal with my horse when he gets 'scurf.'

Unknown said...

First, you are doing fantastic with Beau... so glad you found him!

The weird scurfing on his back, my best friend rescued a registered emaciated medicine hat stud and he had some type of skin condition like that going on as well. I can't remember the name of product she used but I do remember that it was heavy on tea tree oil/extract in it and she washed him every other day with it and once it got to the point there wasn't open sores she also wiped him down with the apple cider vinegar. MTG did not help at all. Using a flea comb like cimbpin said would be great as getting that flakey/crusty stuff off makes a huge difference. As he gained weight and became healthy eventually the combination of it all helped clear up the problem. Chance is a gorgeous gelding now with no problems, but it took her a bit to get him there. Her blog about it is http://rhisworld.blogspot.com/. Good luck with Beau!