Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Sounds like it might be worth a shot.  

The hairless, scabby thing on the frontal portions of his rear cannon bones sounds like something my old gelding got.  I don't know if there is an official name for it ... "gelding grunge" was the only term I heard.  :)   However, my vet was familiar with it, and said it was caused by a fungus.  He didn't have anything for clearing it up permanently - said that once they developed it, it was chronic, and became a management issue.  I got it to go away by daily wash / scrub with an anti-fungal, then treating it in between with Furosan.  However, just as the vet said, if I slacked off the daily treatment, it would come back.   This was quite a few years ago, so there may be newer anti-fungal agents that work better.

I would usually wash the area, then let things soak for a while before trying to scrub or pick anything off.  I also did only a little at a time, as the skin underneath was very sensitive (and would bleed when I got down to the bottom) - he could only take so much scrubbing and picking.  After, I would put Furosan ointment and a sweat wrap on.  Then, next day, take off the sweat wrap, wash everything, and do the pick/scrub deal.  When it got more under control, I left off the sweat wrap. 

It is possible that your fellow has a wide-spread case of this.  I have seen a horse that was much worse than my fellow, and he got it on all 4 legs.  It was a rather extreme case.  It is also possible that the stuff on the back cannons isn't related to the stuff on the front pasterns.  You might consider having your vet take a look at it.

On Sep 3, 2009, at 4:26 AM, EnduroGal wrote:

Thanks very much for your response, Naomi.  I’ve seen scratches, and it doesn’t seem like scratches, though.  The very good photos on your website show, very clearly, the scratches on the rear of your horse Malabar’s pastern above the bulb of the foot.  My horse has nary a scratch at this location… all is perfectly clean.  The problem is on the front of the pastern and there are, literally, small hard scabs here.  The skin around the area was even slightly sore and inflamed yesterday.  And he also has a small, scabby sort of spot on his left croup, as well as a bit of the hairless, scabby thing going on at the frontal portions of his rear cannon bones.  Nothing is as bad as the fronts of his pasterns, however.  It could be some type of allergic reaction to certain plants, it could be a fungus-type infection, or maybe it is some sort of weird variation of scratches.  I might try the Q-Shot stuff just because I’m desperate, though.

 

Anybody else have a horse who’s had something like this?