Horse Health issue

[Tim & Maria Terry]

My friend suggested that I ask the folks at your website about my horses health question. I tried to post it but could never figure out how. Sorry, I'm not a computer guru, just a frustrated horse mom at this point.

I have an 11 yr old Tennessee Walking Horse cross that was given to me last year. He was wormy and had no shots and needed his teeth floated desperately. This spring he got floated again after losing a lot of weight quickly. Also bloodwork taken to rule out anything else. All was normal. We have tried 3 different kinds of food, corn oil on the food and finally my pasture is good enough that he is on some grass again. About the first week of June, he started losing hair on his butt cheeks. This progressed to losing almost all the hair and raw patches by his anus. Wormed AGAIN (Quest first-Strongid 10 days later) for possible pinworms. We tried Muck Itch, then MTG. Vet put him on FuroZone w/ DMSO? Also, iodine washes. Finally cleared up after about a month of treatment. Was healing nicely for about 3 weeks and now the itching/scratching/raw skin is back. Called Vet again. Thinks now it may be skin allergy. He was given an antihistamine, and a steriod shot and one to give today (48 hrs later). Told to stay w/ the washes/FuroZone. He's still itching.....HELP! My other horse is a Quarter Horse and shows NO sign of any allergy. My TWH also has to wear a fly mask or his eyes stay runny from the flies. I spray Endure fly spray regularly. We have had a cool, VERY wet summer for TN and they have been on a dry lot w/ hay for most of the summer.

Sorry, that was lots of info.... Hope you guys can post and get me some help. THANKS!

[Gregg Mason]

I have a horse that was underweight. I used a product called Cool Calories 100 that you add to the feed. Its a powder that you put a scoop of in the feed. It worked very well. Its less messy the corn oil and it also says that its good for horses coat. I have heard of a horse being allergic grass. Not sure if that would be the case but you might take them off the grass and feed hay to see if that helps. I had a horse given to me that colic'ed real bad after having a foal. Vet had me give her panicure power pak which is a 5 day wormer. It cleared the worms up and the horse and foal survived. I have also heard that the daily wormers work very well. Good luck.

[Tim & Maria Terry]

Thanks! He was on a dry lot w/ hay when this started. Now he is back on pasture during the day and the dry lot w/ hay at night. I have started a 12% sweet feed to try to fatten him up too. He is looking better slowly. The vet said his teeth will need to be floated again. We are now on a 6 month rotation for floating and 6 week rotation for worms. I gave him a 2nd shot of steriod yesterday and he looks a bit better. We do iodine wash in the afternoon and the furozone 2X a day.

[Robin Murray]

Hi Tim & Maria, first of all lose the furazone, it causes cancer, (read the last line on the back) go to icthammol on the raw patches after washing with lyme dip (get it from any vet) leave the dip on and massage with a curry brush a few minutes before rinsing. Is your horse a non sweater? That will cause him also to lose patches of hair on the butt also. Could be rain rot too. Supplement the thin horse with some alfalfa.

[Tim & Maria Terry]

He's a sweater... I tried the Muck Itch first because he had rain rot when I first got him. That stuff cleared it right up. Also tried MTG and that didn't work. I'll talk to the vet about the FuroZone. THANKS!

[dusty414]

I have a friend who has a horse that nearly died from allergies, he couldn't eat anything without having severe reactions. She finally found a cubed type feed (sorta looks like a hay cube of some sort) that he can eat and that is it, no hay, no other grain......so it could be he is severely allergic and you may just have to keep experimenting until you find the best feed for him.

All these things you tried on him, did you try them for several days or just a few on his itchy spots? It could be he's allergic to the fly spray, they have lots of chemicals in them.

One other idea when you talk of him losing weight, has his sheath been cleaned lately? A friend had a horse nearly die and someone told her to clean his sheath. He immediately started gaining weight, and came out of it. He was losing weight and became very lethargic. Needless to say it was extremely dirty........she didn't know anything about this before but afterwards always made a point to keep that done at least once a year.

[Tim & Maria Terry]

He's been on this fly spray for about a year now and no reaction. I don't spray close to his behind now that he's raw. We tried different feeds. What he is eating now comes from a mill and they mix it. The feed guy (and my farrier who recommended them) says that they don't make up a lot at a time. It really smells nice and Rock LOVES it. His sheath looks fine. He doesn't have any problems peeing or pooping! :-) He also has PLENTY of energy. He's just rubbing his behind on the trees. I asked the vet about leaving him in the barn but it's a 90 yr old wood barn (remodeled) that he could rub in there too. Thanks! We WILL figure this out!

[Adrienne Walsh]

Hi Tim and Maria, if you do keep on with the Furazone, be sure to wear gloves when you apply it, especially you, Maria, because it does cause cancer (there is something about it specific to women, I forget what) so don't get it on you! Good luck with your TWH...I hope you figure it out and get him well.

[Georgia Martin]

Change the fly spray, even though you have been using it for some time. Try maybe a vinegar/listerine mix or a more natural fly spray. Not sure how you could tell if bothering him if you don't change and there is no telling another chemical spray may cause the same problems.

1 cup of ground flax seed will help with allergies as well as many other conditions.
Also, I would cut the furozone and maybe rinse with a Apple cider Vinegar rinse and get his skin back on PH levels and go from there.

It could also be the grain causing him allergic reactions also, so talk to your local co-op.. maybe switch to
beet pulp and good weight builder.

Having allergies.. it is the total elimination of food and other used solutions and sometimes we are talking months after the change for the old to get out of their system.

My husband had been on blood pressure meds for 7 years, developed hives.. took all summer to figure it was the BP meds, go figure. :)

Good Luck..

Georgia

[julie]

I had a horse that was allergic to bermuda hay once. Vet thought he had heaves, but we knew that it was only certain times that he had symptoms. Took a long time to figure out the cause, but once we fed alfalfa and no bermuda he was fine.

[Jean Clark]

I was reading on another message board about a horse with severe allergies and the vet gave it dexamethazone. They said it helped a lot. You may want to talk to your vet about trying that.

[Tim & Maria Terry]

Update on Rock-Monday 8/17/2009. This is the second time this summer. We've checked for ticks. He does seem better after the 2nd shot Saturday and 3 more days of FuroZone. (Thank you for the reminder-I wear gloves before I touch the stuff). Sunday he had been wormed 8 days ago. I saw what I thought was a worm coming out of him. EWWWW! It was about an inch long and light colored and mushy looking (like gel). Anyway, if it was...the wormer is working and he should be healing soon. My Vet has a 6 wk rotation schedule that was effective last summer. I am the one who started worming less and this started in June. I have a LONG list of suggestions that have been given to me to ask her today! WOW! I didn't know there we're so many products on the market! Thanks to everyone for caring about my horse.

[Laura]

My horse gets raw hairless patches on his rear sometimes, too. I found that it only happens when I add oil to his feed. I can feed him just about anything, but he only has a reaction if there is oil in there. If you are still feeding the corn oil, take it out for a while and see if that helps.. after about 1-2 months you should see a difference. If you are afraid of him losing more weight, incorporate more forage into his diet- I use prepackaged alfalfa cubes or pellets.
I have a good feeling that removing the oil will help; your problem sounds exactly like mine.