Any idea what this could be? Lumps/Spots?

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jumpthemoon

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Hi, I know I should post this in vets but there is noone in there at the moment and I'm at my wits end!

My horse has come out in lots of little lumps/spots all over where his rug would cover, except neck. When they go the hair falls out. It's not ringworm, I haven't washed his rug (in fact I changed it to see if it made a difference and it hasnt).

The vet said he thought it was feed intolerance, so I've cut out his hard feed two weeks ago and they looked like they were getting better, but they came back again yesterday.

They are really itchy as well. Does anyone have any ideas what it could be?
 
We have just been through this with a horse on our yard and the end result was stress. The horse was a little cob that never bothered about anything but had been moved stables (on the same yard) the horse next door gets lots of food/haylage and he is always on a diet. He didn’t look particularly stressed but when she moved him to a different stable they all went.

I must add the new stable has the same bed (she moved her old one with her), same rugs, same hay and same feed.

He had lumps for over a month and she tried everything even antihistamines from the vet and they only went when she moved stables.

Don’t know if this helps.

The more obvious things are, heat so too many rugs, allergy from food or hay etc and rugs washed.
 
as they are under where his rug would be is it possible that he is too hot? this can cause the lumps which look like an allergy response.
 
Thanks for your reply. I wouldn't think it was stress, as if anything the only thing that has changed is that he has been doing less work lately (ie not been out in the lorry so much). He has ad lib hay and seems chilled out enough. I'll bear it in mind though!

I've cut his rugs down to bare minimum - he wears a HW at night and a LW in the day - only one rug and he's fully clipped out. Hay is the same as it has been for the last 2 years (same field, stored in the same place etc. Rugs were washed last year but he's been wearing them all winter. I just don't understand it! Thanks for your help!
 
Hi,

No they are not like heat bumps and he is fully clipped and only wears one rug - just a LW in the day. They are kind of scabby rather than 'lumpy' if you know what I mean? But only scabby when they are about to go.
 
do they get sort of serummy scabby? slightly yellow tinge? start as just a raised area of hair, that (if unclipped!) wouldnt be immediately obvious unless you ran your hand over it (might be hard to tell this as he is clipped)

F gets something that sounds similar, range in size from a 1p to much bigger as they sometimes spread if I dont catch them early enough. and most of the time hair comes out

They either seem to be triggered by him getting warm or fly bites (depending on the time of year). My theory is that they start off like that and then he gets a v low grade infection there. I find that either sudocrem or a sulphur cream clears them up well.

---- he was ring worm tested initially too
 
Sounds just like what my horse has got - it started in a small itchy area in the Autumn when his coat started to change. It has gradually crept over one side of his back almost in little random lines. Didn't realise how bad it was until I clipped him out a few weeks ago. Don't think its ringworm - but have been treating with strong antiseptic/antifungal spray (which would kill ringworm) for last 3 weeks and I don;t think it has made much difference. As I have the vet coming tomorrow for teeth, I am going to ask him to have a look. It is, however, the third winter I've had him and each winter he does seem to get an itchy spot somewhere or another in his winter coat which dissapears by the Spring - not been exposed by clipping before - so I am really puzzled at how bad it looks!
 
One of the horses at our yard had something similar. Came up in lumps in random places which the vet thought was an allergy so gave him a steroid injection. Lumps went down but hair started falling out. About a week later they came up again in different places. Same again with steroid jab. Couple of days later a different vet was out and he had a look and said it was dust mites. No idea where he got them from and he was the only one affected. He had a bath with a special shampoo, (sorry don't know what it was) and had to have all his rugs washed and frozen and all now seems to be ok.
 
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