ALOPECIA need advice

[neighnay]

Hi Everyone i know this should be in Vets but theres a lot more viewing in here so i thought i would place this in here.
Ok last year my thouroughbred/appaloose horse lost a lot of his hair in patches when in came to malting time(so about now) however the years before He has always been clipped and his summer coat seemed to grow through naturally.
It has now happened again this last week, and i can see its going to be exactly the same as last year. I did not clip him this year as he had a four month break and there was no need. I orignially thought it was stress...but hes the most unstressed horse you can meet, does anyone think it is purely he cannot cope with the transitition of winter coat to summer coat?? and is there anything anyone can think of that i can bath him in to help the growth of the summer coat as when it does come through its stunning and shiny!
Many thanks in advance

 

[Cocoa]

Hi, one of the horses on my yard had alopecia last year, the patch grew very slightly and the vet took a skin sample to confirm alopecia, she said that there was little we could do about it and that it is not thought to be caused by stress in horses. The patch didnt get any bigger an she hasn't gone bald yet sof ingers crossed! If you are worried about ti it may be worth having the vet out to look (the vet also suggested- prior to skin sample- that it may be a form of a sarcoid).

 

[Archangel]

I was in a similar position to you a few weeks ago, one of mine lost his big winter coat without any summer one even starting to come through. It was shocking, I could pull it out in handfuls leaving just skin.
In the end he only had fur on his tummy and knees/hocks downwards - he looked truly awful.
He was double rugged at night (lives out) but where possible I left his rugs off during the day to help his summer coat come through. He had about 3 weeks when he was bald, it seemed like a lifetime but there is now no stopping the summer coat.

I gave him a course of Global Herbs Restore as a tonic and he is on a big dose of vitamin E supplement and gets cooked flaked linseed.

My horse got his alopecia as a result of being critically ill, but I have heard of seasonal alopecia which must be what your horse suffers from. Hopefully the longer days now will see his new coat coming through at long last.