Eosinophilic granulomas (skin bumps) advice/share experiences

[horses99]

My horse has bumps predominately over his back/ withers area and I believe after research and speaking to vets they are eosinophilic granulomas. I’m looking into treatment options such as ointments, skin scrapes, biopsies, steroid injections etc.
I don’t see surgery as a viable option as his are dynamic and there are multiple although majority are pea size.

I was wondering if anyone has particular experiences with this skin disease and any advice regarding treatment or stories they could share. My current issue is the majority are under the saddle and irritate and I’m sure make him uncomfortable. He’s not insured (pre existing condition) but they have worsened over time and want to make him comfortable.

I'm currently thinking of steroids/ ointments initially to reduce them then regular cleaning and purchasing a hospital grade hypo sensitive pad to help keep them under control. Hoping for some happy stories that could help thank you nothing nasty please just want my boy to be comfortable and happy!

 

[jojo5]

My boy had multiple tiny skin bumps such as you describe last summer/autumn when he was new to me. The vet felt that they were a reaction to heat/sweat. He had been out in heavy rain and had been wearing an old lightweight rug from my previous horse that was a bit small, probably not very technical, and fitted closely on his skin. He is a horse that doesn’t cope well with heat Generally and is very sweaty so we clipped him out fully all winter, used only light rugs and stopped using them as soon as the weather allowed. When he actually had the rash, I washed him thoroughly regularly with Malaseb until they disappeared. This summer so far he has two very tiny patches under the saddle which we will treat in the same way.

 

[bounce]

My mare had collagen granulomas all over her saddle area. Firstly the vet told me to ignore them as they were not painful. They gradually got worse. We then tried steroid injections directly into the lumps and whilst they decreased in size they didn’t go completely. Then after another treatment she reacted really badly to the hibiscrub solution which was used to clean the area before injection. We then used steroid tablets (prednisolone I think) and this cleared them up nicely.
They seemed to be caused by a reaction to sweat. She was always a hot horse. After treatment I washed her back and saddle cloth after every ride and only used Lemieux mesh air pads. They never came back.

 

[horses99]

Thank you both for your experiences I’ve had the vet out since and he is having bath twice a week with malaseb and I’m apply steroid in a ointment form twice a day hoping to see some change but it appears you both used cleaning and steroids in some form and that’s the way to go, can I ask how many lumps your mare had?

 

[Bernster]

Hmm it’s a tricky one as they presumably can be caused by lots of things. Mine (a fair few years back) had little lumps mainly around the girth, back and belly area. Seemed to be an allergic reaction as they came and went but he’d have little outbursts. Never managed to fix it. Vet did various tests to work out what was causing it, but didn’t identify it. Tried malaseb and other topical treatments which didn't work. Most effective was steroids.

Sold him in the end (with full disclosure) but don’t think the new owner cracked it either. Fortunately it didn’t seem to bother him too much, it just occasionally meant no riding if they were in the saddle area.

I think with the knowledge I have now, I’d try a stricter programme of eliminating items to try and identify the underlying causes. Also not sure why we didn’t try antihistamines as it did seem to be an allergic reaction, but it was a long time ago now so I don’t remember.

 

[bounce]

Topical treatment didn’t work for my mare.
She had probably over 10 varying size lumps on both sides. My vet said it was worst case he had seen and forwarded photos to Liverpool university for further advice.

 

[horses99]

Ok if this doesn’t work will look until tablets then my poor boy has 38!! Didn’t realise how many he had until i searched and clipped him around them, Half are very tiny a few slightly bigger and then one which is like a thumb nail

 

[Green Bean]

My previous mare had a hairless little lump below her one eye so not quite the same, I sent her off for laser removal as I was worried it was a sarcoid, ended up being a fungal granuloma which are apparently caused by infection of a small wound and do need to be removed.