Bacterial Skin Infection not clearing - Pics now Enclosed!

[Stacie_and_Jed]

Im at the end of my tether! Excuse the pun! My horse has had a skin condition for the last 4 weeks. Vets said it's bacterial and tested swabs. They gave him antibiotics and said that the bacteria is responsive to those so along with some antibacterial (dogs/cats) shampoo it will go away. I'm now over 4 weeks on and 3 courses of antibiotics down and it's still there. Any ideas or anyone dealt with anything similar? Don't want the vets coming back out and telling me to give him more antis as clearly aren't working....�� (They weep and are sore once I've descabbed them, they came up before clipping so nothing to do with that)







Any help/advice will be very appreciate xx

 

[Beausmate]

My horse had a similar-looking array of scabby bumps. I'm pretty sure that he was allergic to something in a pile of woodchip and fungi that were dumped (Not by me!) in his field.

I fed him activated charcoal for a couple of weeks and clipped round (it was winter) cleaned, descabbed and Sudocremmed the lumps. The bumps stopped appearing after a couple of days, stopped oozing a couple of days after that and had healed up within a couple of weeks, although he looked really motheaten when he moulted.

Has your vet taken swabs to find out what bacteria are present?

 

[marmalade76]

One of mine had this two or three years ago. It coincided with putting a rug on him to keep him a bit cleaner for riding (a clean rug!) He was obviously very itchy and irritated by it. Vet said pick the scabs off, clean with Hibi, left some cream to be applied (some stuff with silver in it) and think he had some antibiotics too. They cleared up in no time. It was decided he was better off without a rug. I have also had the odd one or two scabs on other horses in the past, but they were not bothered by them at all.

ETA - just remembered the vet left some Maleseb shampoo too but we never used it.

 

[splash30]

Just for a start I feel your pain. My horse has suffered every winter for the last 3 years with skin infection/pyoderma. Long story short, I had him allergy tested which confirmed he is allergic to all horse feed plus numerous other things.
The skin infection is secondary, the only way I could control it was with antibiotics and only batryl (sp) worked, he was on it for 12 weeks - not good for him or my bank account as insurance cover had finished. The vets had said they could do nothing more for me apart from give me antibiotics when I needed them.
I hoped this winter he had grown out of it but no it started early this year, I got a course of the antibiotics from the vet (at £163 for 5 days I nearly fainted) but as he had so many they didn't work.
I was at my wits end until I went out to dinner with a friend and she mentioned she had, had a holistic vet out to help her horse with other issues as I was at my wits end and have nothing to loose, I contacted her and she came out, he now has different potions to take and so far the change has been amazing so I'm hopeful it will help.
If you want more information let me know.

 

[Tiddlypom]

As above, IME it looks like an allergic reaction to which the bacterial infection is secondary. Could be environment (bedding, rugs etc) or feed. It's a process of elimination to find out what's the prime cause, and then remove it.

Good luck.

 

[applecart14]

Friends horse (very similar to yours) has had exactly the same thing for ages now. She came to the conclusion that the horse was too hot so clipped her out and has not had problems since.

You might find that with the weird weather we have been having it could be this.

 

[applecart14]

I'm pretty sure that he was allergic to something in a pile of woodchip and fungi that were dumped (Not by me!) in his field.

QUOTE]

Beausdale - This woodchip remark you have made is very interesting.

Our dog suddenly developed a severe reverse sneezing type of reaction which conicided with woodchip which had been placed in our chicken run. She used to walk through the run when we cleaned it out sniffing at the bits of food our ex bats had left behind in the woodchip. I did loads of research about the subject and found out there was a like to a disease called aspergilliosis (pronounced 'ASS PURK U LOW SISS' ) and woodchip. The fungus loves to live in woodchip. A swab of her nose and throat was taken on grown on a petri dish in the lab but it did prove negative for this disease. She had a fungal infection of her feet at the same time. I still wonder if it was a co-incidence or she did really have this disease but it didn't show on the culture for some reason, or even that the vets had tried to pacify us by saying they had grown in on a culture when in fact they hadn't bothered.

I have just looked up 'aspergillisosis and scabs' and this is what the search engine has come up with.http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Aspergillosis+Skin+Lesions&FORM=RESTAB

PLEASE NOTE SOME OF THESE IMAGES ARE NOT VERY PLEASANT TO VIEW, AND NOT ALL ARE ASPEGILLIOSIS. IF YOU HOVER THE MOUSE OVER THE PICTURE IT WILL TELL YOU WHAT THE IMAGES ARE.

 

[ester]

Frank get's these quite frequently over the years, he had two develop yesterday I should have taken a pic for you but just the same raised, scabby, hair comes off - pink and a bit weepy underneath, it is usually a low level bacterial infection as a result of skin disturbance - so heat bumps, fly bites, etc can trigger them, it isn't always obvious though.

I suggest that you mix some sulphur powder in some sudocreme and apply a couple of times a day and after a couple of days it will clear up. I do then have to keep on top of them/keep an eye out for new ones which is trickier on his longer bits of coat where he is unclipped- I have to get my fingers in the hair to have a good feel!

Equine america's fungatrol also works quite well when I need to avoid having fluorescent yellow bits.

I have never completely got to the bottom of it- it doesn't follow much of a pattern feed wise/bedding wise/season wise etc!