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scatches



April:   I had a gelding with serious scratches during our el nino year.
I had never seen scratches and the fungus/bacterial combo that seems to
make up this syndrome had a really strong hold.   The vet mixed up a
concoction that didn't seem to help much.    Fianlly,   three days of
azium allowed his imune system to calm down enough for other treatment
(external) to work.  Here's what I did.

First:  clean is important but not as important as dry (IMHO)

I used betadine to scrub the area with a stiff brush to remove scabbing.
This was hard on the poor guy...had to hurt!    The scabs that didn't
brush off, I took off with my fingernails.

Then I  dried the area as thoroughly as I could with towelling.  (This
was hard because we don't have enclosed stalls and it rained, and rained
nd rained and rained and rained....)
Then I generously slathered on the desitin...but only on dry skin/hair.
I'm with you.... I think shaving exacerbated the problem.   You just
have to work really hard to be sure the desitin is getting to the skin.

I remember taking thermoses filled with hot water out to the barn to
wash off the "treatment" from earlier that day or the day before....Baby
wipes also help remove the residual desitin.   I agree with Teddy,
desitin holds dirt. However (thinking baby bottoms here!)   put it on
THICKLY and the dirt, etc... won't penetrate it.

We have to cross the Kern River whenever we ride out so when this horse
recovered I rubbed desitin below his fetlocks for every ride.

It took a good six weeks for him to heal.  I am not so ignorant about
this problem now.  His case was so bad that his lower leg had puffed up.
I had a vet out before the legs reached that stage and she just assumed
I had overtrained (he was "off") and didn't look up close at the leg.  I
don't use that vet any longer

Don't give up. Keep after those bugs/fungi!  I'm sure you havae more
humidity than we so it is probably harder to clear up.  Keep us posted

jan freed.


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