annual fungal ear infection..

weesophz

weesophz

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around this time every year fox gets a few fungal spots in his ear, just 3 or 4 spots, a couple of washes with antifungal shampoo sorts it out and they dont come back til the same time next year..

any idea what could be causing this? it doesnt bother him but he does fidget when im trying to have a look! anyone elses horse get this? will try and get pics next time im up!

eta
you can kind of see them in this pic
 
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It's aural plaques. Quite common. When I lived in the UK I used to put the yellow summer fly cream (made by Hydrophane) in their ears to stop the flies getting in and irritating them and also to try to prevent the virus from spreading to other horses.
 
Aural plaques are caused by the papilloma virus which is generally transmitted, and further irritated, by biting flies. I'm not sure that there really is one specific treatment to get rid of them as they are tough to shift once they are there. Often the best you can do is to ease the discomfort they cause whilst the biting flies are out, so a soothing cream to relieve the irritation and/or use a fly mask with covered ears to stop the flies getting in. Over here in my country we can buy an antibiotic sticky cream which does both. It's a little odd, and I don't really understand why, but we have more biting insects here than in the UK and yet I don't have any horses here with aural plaques whereas in England, with less of a fly problem, a greater proportion of horses on my yard did have them.
 
Yes, is Aural Plaques spread by biting flies. My boy has them and the advice is to just leave them alone. Mask with ears will help and don't trim the ear hair.

They do no harm except for being a little unsightly.

Headley Britannia has them and it never stopped her! :D
 
My new boy has had these for years apparently and although they dont look that nice all research I've done says LEAVE WELL ALONE AND DO NOT TRY AND REMOVE THEM .... Apparently removing them can do more harm than good so other than putting a fly mask on him i wont be touching them at all.
 
There have been a number of vet papers released on aural plaques in the past 5 years, some fairly recently. You may wish to research the newer studies to see if they have ever come up with a reliable treatment. I read one a while ago talking about a cream called Aldara but having read about the side effects of Aldara I'm not sure I'd use it on a horse! :o
 
Spring Feather said:
There have been a number of vet papers released on aural plaques in the past 5 years, some fairly recently. You may wish to research the newer studies to see if they have ever come up with a reliable treatment. I read one a while ago talking about a cream called Aldara but having read about the side effects of Aldara I'm not sure I'd use it on a horse! :o
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oh my! :eek::o
 
Spring Feather said:
Here are another couple of links I found on a quick search. Not sure how useful they are though as the quick scan I've done of them, it seems none really give a definitive treatment.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1635997/

http://www.petmd.com/horse/conditions/skin/c_hr_aural_plaque

http://horsetalk.co.nz/news/2009/07/003.shtml
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heading out to work but i will have a look when im finished tonight, thanks so much, appreciate all the info cos id never heard of aural plaques!
 
Its the temptation to pick :o I'm a 'picker' .. spots (even other peoples) :eek:, peeling skin, scabs .. you name it and i have the urge to pick it :o
I will have to get over this though and get over it quickly with my new boy :D
 
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