Dry skin help

[Rosie'smum]

My mare has very dry skin atm and is itchy to the point of biting herself till she bleeds.
I've upped her micronised Linseed but hasn't made much of a difference.
Botanica wash and cream have helped a but but still cant get rid of the dryness and scabs.
She is clipped.
She is also fed; spillers lite and lean Balancer,
Micronised Linseed 100g
Honeychop oat straw chaff
Also fed hack up bespoke which has;
Tumeric
Msm
Bosweila serrata
Glucosamine
Ginger
Milk thistle.

Is there anything else that could be causing it and that I could be feeding?

Note its only really on her darker parts (coloured)which is her backend and mostly hips region.

 

[lamlyn2012]

Are you sure it’s not dermatophilis, ie inflammation of the hair follicle.
Can be caused by sweat (sweat scald), so possible over rugging, or wet thick coat, as in rain scald. It’s a bacterial infection which thrives with heat and moisture so thrives in thick coats. Mine has to be clipped out in winter. If you think it may be this a couple of baths in very dilute hibiscrub should clear it up and flamazine or similar silver ointment on sore, broken skin. Don’t be tempted to use sudocreme as this will block the follicles and cause it to spread.

 

[Rosie'smum]

I was in a catch in regards to rugging. She is fully clipped but a hot horse. I couldn't leave her unrugged as she would bite/stratch herself till she bleeds, but any kinda rug makes her too hot.
Vet did mention about inflamed skin as along her spine, earlier on in the year, she started to bleed the more you touched it. But this just seems to be dry, flakey and scabby. As I say batheing in botanica wash and cream on after seems to help a bit.
She does suffer with allergies and has sweet itch so don't know if that has anything to do with it.

 

[davidcompos96]

There are several potential causes of dry, itchy skin in horses, including poor nutrition, allergies, and certain skin conditions. It's important to consider both dietary and environmental factors when trying to determine the cause of your mare's skin issues.

One thing to consider is if she has any known allergies or if it could be seasonal allergies, as this can cause dry, itchy skin. The location of her symptoms (darker parts of the skin) is an indication that the dryness and scabs might be caused by external factors.

Since you've mentioned that your mare is clipped, it's worth considering if the clipping is too close and if this is causing irritation to her skin.

 

[SantaVera]

Have you tried feeding antihistamines? Also add linseed to the feed.i found applying udder cream to my ponies dry skin helped too.

 

[MereChristmas]

A suggestion from my experience.
One mare I owned was allergic to sugar beet which is present in a lot of feeds.
Her dry skin and small scabs only appeared on her neck.

 

[davidcompos96]

There are several potential causes of dry, itchy skin in horses, including poor nutrition, allergies, and certain skin conditions. It's important to consider both dietary and environmental factors when trying to determine the cause of your mare's skin issues.

One thing to consider is if she has any known allergies or if it could be seasonal allergies, as this can cause dry, itchy skin. The location of her symptoms (darker parts of the skin) is an indication that the dryness and scabs might be caused by external factors.

Since you've mentioned that your mare is clipped, it's worth considering if the clipping is too close and if this is causing irritation to her skin. Telstra Mail

A suggestion from my experience.
One mare I owned was allergic to sugar beet which is present in a lot of feeds.
Her dry skin and small scabs only appeared on her neck.

I'll be sure to keep an eye on this thread. Looking for the same issue. Bumped into your thread. Thanks for creating it. Looking forward for solution.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Have you tried feeding antihistamines? Also add linseed to the feed.i found applying udder cream to my ponies dry skin helped too.

I found that stopping linseed was the key to curing my cob's dermatitis, even though she had been fed a small amount for over 12 months.

 

[Fransurrey]

Bathe her in Epsom salts or Selsun 2.5 % if you can get it. Long term I would try removing the balancer and the Hack Up (individually) to see if one of those contains an irritant. One which jumps out at me is ginger. It can be a gut irritant to humans which would lead to general inflammation/itchiness and the balancer will most certainly have fillers (sometimes alfalfa, which my mare reacts to). The other thing to try is changing the forage or reducing grazing. My mare's sweet itch is at its worst when the grass is growing/rich and she can't have timothy grass hay!

 

[PurBee]

Some on here have horses sensitive to linseed - so consider that may be aggravating - swop it for linseed oil for omega 3’s during winter.

The ingredients of the spiller balancer also have potential allergen culprits, especially soya - id switch that to a basic linseed-free powder balancer - equimins advance complete powder mine loved and looked great on, and it has added b vits. Progressive earth do linseed free balancers too.
Try to use a balancer without any grain ‘meal’ added.

“Ingredients of spiller lite balancer:

• Oatfeed
• Sunflower seed meal dehulled
• Rice bran
• Wheatfeed
• Soya (bean) meal (GM)
• Calcium carbonate
• Molasses
• Dicalcium phosphate
• Sodium chloride (salt)
• Oligo-fructose (dried (0.6%))
• Magnesium oxide
• Cinnamon (0.4%)
• Rapeseed oil

Please note that we may occasionally make small adjustments to our formulations. Please contact the Care-Line for specific advice, especially in relation to allergies.”


Aloe vera gel is really good for sore broken bleeding skin - its cooling and will soak right through into the skin to heal it. I use it on my horses for all skin issues.