Help! Do you know what these are?

[redcascade]

Just a bit of background first off, Red is a 12YO TBxWB who gets small, bite like lumps on his neck, I have had him a year and he got them then and his previous owners say he used to get them. I haven't really got a clue what they are, they are like very small fly bites with a very soft, easy to remove scab on the top, if you scratch the area he likes it so it's obviously itchy, for this reason we believe it's fly bites. But, he also got them in the winter when he was rugged up with all the snow and he gets them in the summer, then we think they could be a heat rash? But THEN!!! He got a cough the other week and this seems to have subsided with soaked hay, and a more open stable so it could be an allergy to dust or something in the grass! The vet was out the other week and didn't seem to be too worried about them but I'd really like any ideas or suggestions on how to heal/prevent them as he now has some on his face which he has rubbed raw
So the question is what do you think they are and what can I do to help him?
Here are a few pics,
the ones on his neck:

The one on his face :

And finally while I'm here, what's his weight like?

Anyway, sorry picture overload, chocolate buttons if you got this far

 

[Sam22]

Could be rain scald, bacterial folliculitis, allergy/hypersensitivity, mites, or unlikely but autoimune disease.
Your vet should not have ignored them, it needs to be diagnosed properly so you know how to treat. If I had to pick one from just looking I would go for bacterial infection from the neck but the face would lead me towards allergy or mites.
The only thing YOU can do is treat as if bacterial infection and wash with antibacterial shampoo but even if doing this I would use Malaseb which you have ot get from the vet.
If I saw your horse I would take hair plucks, tape strips and swabs for culture to try and find out what it was and if these weren't diagnostic I would go on to take a skin biopsy.

 

[nadinek82]

My friends horse had a similar thing on one side of his face and neck and nothing she tryed would get rid of it. Around that time i had bought a tub of rosemary and sulphur cream from the saddlers to try it and was amazed at how good it was. Within a couple of weeks of putting it on twice a day it was completley back to normal, new hair had grown and the horse wasn't scratching anymore. It's a great cream that seems to have lots of uses

 

[TheBlack]

it looks fungal try tea tree oil or athletes foot spray/powder. try not to pick it as it spreads like wildfire! The neck bumps look like an allergy.

 

[indigobay]

hi, this looks like some kind of lice or mite under the skin, get the vet to test with a skin scrape, poor horsey its very uncomfortable so sooner rather later.