Ear / Aural Plaque

[vivhewe]

My neddie has some white crusty spots in his ears - one larger one in one ear and a smaller one in the other which I discovered last night and managed to get the scabby crust off to reveal pink skin underneath.

I am thinking they are Aural Plaque but has anyone else had this problem?

I can't touch his other ear at all and he is getting bad to bridle too

Any info appreciated!

 

[spaniel]

General feeling seems to be that they dont cause any problems and are best left well alone.

 

[crackerjack]

be careful trying to get them off, a friend of mines horse had a procedure to try and get them removed a couple of years ago with it's previous owner that failed and now she can't get near the horses ears and has to use a bridle that clips together in pieces!

 

[brighteyes]

Leave them be! They are harmless and horses generally REALLY don't like you touching them.

 

[Bossanova]

Dont try and get it off, you'll just make it worse!!
Leave well alone and just be ultra careful around the ear- take the bridle apart to put it on etc

 

[vivhewe]

Thanks everyone.

I loosened his bridle to put it on and he seemed better, and his good ear was itchy on the outside so I have it a scratch and then I gently scratched the outside of the other one (normal ears on outside) and once he relaxed he loved it!

There's some cream in the USA called 'Dermafas' and I've emailed them. They claim to clear up aural plaque with their cream.

Anyone think it's possible? Or are you all as sceptical (sp?) as me and not sure?!

 

[brightmount]

I used Dermafas several months ago as part of a trial on this forum. Initially it seemed totally ineffective and it was making my horse's ears greasy and manky so after a few weeks I stopped using it.

However, a few weeks after that, when I thought to take a look, the aural plaques had gone!!! It seemed possible that the cream had knocked on the head whatever caused the plaques and it had a delayed effect.

On the other hand it could have been a complete fluke!

I still have half a pot of cream. PM me viv if you want it rather than possibly waste money as it's quite expensive.

 

[vicijp]

If they really do bother him ask your vet to sort them out. The horse needs to be heavily sedated, the vet will scrape them off and apply some stuff (cant remember what it is, think some iodine based stuff - my vet makes his own). Shouldnt be attempted without sedation and bute for a couple of days afterwards.

 

[vivhewe]

Ah! That makes it a tad more clear vicijp! A horse that was at my cousin's riding school when she bought it must have had them. I used to ride it when I was about 10 (and the little bugger must have remembered because he floored me twice in 30 minutes lol! I ended up sitting on the ground with a wedgie facing him!)

He had a special bridle so you didn't touch his ears and he had white crusty things inside his ears which the vet had to sedate him to remove, but they still came back.

Thankyou! I know what it is now!

 

[horsegirl]

My TB has them and I have to take his bridle apart to put it on, apart from that they don't seem to cause any problems. We were treating them with athletes foot powder and they did seem to be improving but then he hurt himself and I had to put cream on his cuts which he also hated so I stopped doing his ears for a while as I didn't want him to think I was going to hurt him everytime he saw me. Now the cuts have all healed there is a new cream out which says you get 7 days treatment from each application so I thought I might get some and twitch him to apply once and see what happens.