Any vets on here - would appreciate your thoughts on horse's coat

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emmac70

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Following on from my previous post about my TB mare not having lost all her winter coat (in NL2 earlier this week). YO and I were looking at her last night and are completely stumped.

Situation is this. She started shedding winter coat in January which is absolutely normal for her, usually she has full summer coat through by early to mid April.

Currently she has summer coat on hind legs, quarters and top of her back, shedding on her sides and belly so no issue with these areas however on her neck, chest and shoulders she has shed the top layer of her winter coat so only the under "fluffy" layer is left which is very thin. There is absolutely no shorter hair/ summer coat under this which seems very odd.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this, it's not normal for her (I've owned her for 15yrs so know her well) YO and I have both had horses for over 20 years and neither of us have seen anything like it
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Sorry it's a bit of a long post, wine and chocolate for getting this far!
 
How old is she - you say you have known her for 15 years, so it sounds like she could be 20 years old + ? Maybe she has mild cushings, it makes their coat behave in an odd way - they don't shed it properly...

My friend has a 23 year old pony each year it gets rid of its coat later and later. She now only has a summer coat for a couple of months before the winter one sets in again and she has mild cushings.
 
thanks for your replies BOF & Tracey, Cushings was something that had occured to me.

YO doesn't think it is as we have a 3 yr old on the yard that is pretty similar in terms of coat loss/ growth and I had a lot of replies to my previous post from people saying that their horses hadn't lost all their winter coat yet either. There are absolutely no other signs that are usually linked to Cushings. Coat length and hair quality is no different to normal so I wanted to get a wider view and opinions on any other possibilities which may affect coats - skin infections, mineral deficiencies etc
 
Afraid I'm another vote for possible cushings! According to my vet cushings is a normal part of ageing, so it's a case of when they get cushings, not if.

I have a collection of older ponies and they are all holding on to their winter coats, and although none have the pattern you describe exactly, I have got bits of summer coat in places and winter coat in others (particularly long over the ribs now I think about it). None have curly hair, just a reluctance to shed.

Did she have a rug on in the winter that might have prevented the summer coat from coming through just by being a fraction tight across the shoulders? Just a thought.
 
PF (also a TB) used to shed her coat so violently (for want of a better word) that she had near-bald patches exactly as you describe. Vet gave me some malaseb in case it was fungal, but it happened every year. Hasn't happened here yet (maybe the milder weather has something to do with it), although she does tend to get very thin under the saddle.
 
My Shetland sheds his coat very strangely each spring/summer.

He looks flea bitten, literally, as it's coming out. Bald patches are evident until his summer coat comes through.

I had skin scrapings done the first year, treated him for mites and lice too.

Poor Dinker. It's just normal for him. However, he's always been like this. Seems alot of horses are shedding strangely this year though due to the cold weather we had early on, then the unusually early onset of spring before it went cold and wet again.

Maybe it's all a coincidence, maybe it's age related. Not much help there, was I?
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I would say Cushings is a defo possibility. Tests can be done to clarify this.

Another reason in basically the weather has recently been the most indecisive piece of work as to what it is doing and when it is doing it! so a lot of horses and half shedding, and shedding bits here there and everywhere due to the lack of consistent change in climate, and they pick up on weather changes better than we do so often hang on to some coat if it feels like it is going to be cool again etc (does this make sense) so maybe she is just hanging on incase the weather cahnges for the worst again!!! Just as another explanation.....

Tests prob wouldnt go a miss though is you were concerned about cushings, there are loads of different ones available, how accurate they are will determine price etc (as does your vet)
 
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