Horse rubbed under the tail raw :-(

[_jetset_]

The past few days I have noticed that Grace has been rubbing her bottom... she has caused it to bleed on either side of her Vulva and on the underside of the tail she had rubbed it so raw that it was sticky yesterday morning

She has no hair loss to the tail.

I washed it with Sporal D, put some Switch all along her body and plastered the underside with sudocrem last night. It looks a little improved this morning and she has not rubbed it through the night, but what on earth could be causing it???

 

[shazza283]

Pin worms (Oxyuris equi) - live in rectum and cause tail and bum rubbing - fortunately most wormers kill them. If you haven't wormed in last 6 weeks might be an idea to do so - will say on packaging which worms each wormer kills -
Other ideas - is she mare with the foal ? - sometimes vulval/ vaginal/ uterine infections can cause itchyness - but usually accompanied by some discharge (not always tho') - and the last one can still be sweet itchy/ fly bite type reactions - my mare does rub her tail but underneath her tail both sides of vulva and bum comes off worst - softer skin - the tail never goes raw but I see some broken hairs at the top. The midges have been really bad since the wet weather took over.
I've had to electric fence all the top of my rails to keep her off . I use stop itch salve in and around her tail now and a bug rug - not on broken skin - we don't have any probs now that she hasn't got anywhere to rub and the flies are kept off.
I'd carry on cleaning and soothing (pseudocrem etc) and try to block off anywhere she might rub. The flies will be attracted now to the raw bits even if it isn't the cause so fly repellant around on the undamaged areas and on her. Check her tet up to date.
Hope all this helps

ps. quite rare but sometimes allergy to either detergent or dye on tail bandage if you've used one recently could be a cause

 

[_jetset_]

Arghh... funny you should say that!

She had a tail bandage on for the first time two weeks ago when we went to the vets???

She is up to date with worming, tet etc. and like your mare there are no visible signs on the tail that she is rubbing, no broken hair etc. just raw underneath it

I'll look at getting some stop itch salve for when the area has healed, and have been spraying Phaser fly spray on the outer side of the tail, avoiding the underneath.

 

[AmyMay]

Is she in season??

 

[_jetset_]

I don't know... I have never been able to tell with Grace (unlike Han, who spreads her legs and squirts at me if I so much as touch her bottom region

)

 

[fatpiggy]

My friend's pony did this while on box rest with laminitis. We put a light but oversized rug on to stop her making direct contact with the walls and slapped on lots of sudacrem (hard with a mare who can kick like lightning!) but eventually it got infected and she had to have an antiobiotic creme. That did the trick, but alarmingly a huge piece of dead skin and tail hair sloughed off as it healed - it looked just like a hairpiece!. Thankfully all regrew in double quick time.

 

[BigRed]

My mare does this every year. She likes to scratch her arse. She doesn't particularly damage her tail, but she squishes the tail so hard, that she makes the underneath of the dock, and the actual point where the tail comes out of her bum, very sore. It clears up quickly enough, but as soon as I put her in her stable, off she goes. Her worm count is zero. She is badly affected by midges, and these set her off even worse.

She is just an itchy person.