Idea's Lumpy horse

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poiuytrewq

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Horse is retired so very very hairy and rugged lightly (100g, Up to medium over night if its really cold)
He has a straw bed, hay and a handful of light mix and a handful of chaff 2x daily to put arthritis supplements into. The light mix was a fairly recent thing (2/3 weeks) as he wasn't interested in chaff and supps.
I noticed his hair looked a bit odd a few times, end of last week but not 100% sure as i often do him in the dark! Then the hunt came round and he got really sweaty. took his rugs off and thought he looked a bit bumpy but couldn't feel anything and he was a sweaty mess so hard to be sure.
Then he was definitely lumpy. If this had come on suddenly i would of course have called the vet out straight away worried about his airways being effected but as its been so gradual i wasn't overly worried.
I cut out the mix wondering if it was protein or just delayed allergy to the mix. In the last two days its improved but not gone.

He's eating fine and drinking. Perfectly normal in himself and they are not itchy or painful seeming.
Its an allergy but i just cant work out what.
He had bute in the lead up to this due to a farrier appointment but has had it for every farrier apt for years.
Any idea's i may not have thought of?
nb- I will get a vet out for i imagine a steroid shot if its not cleared up tomorrow.
 
I couldn't speculate on what he might have allergic to, but it sounds similar to a pony I used to ride, he was a highland and had a really thick coat in the winter and would get a horrible bumpy skin thing unless he was fully clipped out, which his owner did to keep him comfortable. I always wondered whether it was simply he was too hot.
 
might be worth clipping the area to see if there is anything going on under the thick coat.

Kelsey came out in hives on her back end about 4 years ago, hers were itchy though, she literally wouldn't leave me alone, constantly backing up at me so I'd scratch her! vet gave 2 steroid injections but nothing worked, 2nd time we tested for cushings and it came back positive, they suggested that it would possibly ringworm, which I thought was a strange suggestion, because ringworm doesn't come out in lumps but once I clipped her, I found sooo many patches of some sort of fungal infection, I spent ages treating her. She was confirmed with cushings and until we got her level of meds right, the fungal infection kept reappearing!
 
TYSSANDI said:
Might be hives
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Yep, I'm sure it is but cant for the life of me think why? I wondered if anyone else had experienced the same in winter and ever got to the bottom of it.

nicelitte- I had almost thought of clipping him out but he is retired and living out and has never been a warm horse anyway. He's not too warm under his rug ever and I did leave it off for long periods during dry days at first. No difference.
 
Kezzabell2 said:
might be worth clipping the area to see if there is anything going on under the thick coat.

Kelsey came out in hives on her back end about 4 years ago, hers were itchy though, she literally wouldn't leave me alone, constantly backing up at me so I'd scratch her! vet gave 2 steroid injections but nothing worked, 2nd time we tested for cushings and it came back positive, they suggested that it would possibly ringworm, which I thought was a strange suggestion, because ringworm doesn't come out in lumps but once I clipped her, I found sooo many patches of some sort of fungal infection, I spent ages treating her. She was confirmed with cushings and until we got her level of meds right, the fungal infection kept reappearing!
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I plan to clip a chunk tomorrow just to see if i can see any skin issue. It looks good as far as i can tell just by parting it but it is so thick.
Someone suggested ringworm to me but I'm very dubious as he has his own rugs that were purchased new. Our fencing was all new to us and so were the stables so no chance of ringworm lying dormant.
He is 18 cushings might be possible.
 
poiuytrewq said:
I plan to clip a chunk tomorrow just to see if i can see any skin issue. It looks good as far as i can tell just by parting it but it is so thick.
Someone suggested ringworm to me but I'm very dubious as he has his own rugs that were purchased new. Our fencing was all new to us and so were the stables so no chance of ringworm lying dormant.
He is 18 cushings might be possible.
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Same with Kelsey, she's never had a 2nd hand rug and I'm on a private yard, have been for years, she was very unsociable so wouldn't have spoken to passing horses but apparently with cushings their immune system is so weak they can pick it up from anywhere! not really sure how it works! if deer can pass it on? but she got that and earlier last year she also go mites, poor old girl!
 
Kezzabell2 said:
Same with Kelsey, she's never had a 2nd hand rug and I'm on a private yard, have been for years, she was very unsociable so wouldn't have spoken to passing horses but apparently with cushings their immune system is so weak they can pick it up from anywhere! not really sure how it works! if deer can pass it on? but she got that and earlier last year she also go mites, poor old girl!
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That could also tie in with the vasculitis as i believe thats often immune system related. Wonder if you can still get the free testing vouchers
 
Mine is prone to this in winter. It's completely painless and doesn't seem to cause him any discomfort, so we just keep rugging to a minimum so his skin can breathe and on the rare occasions it appears we let it resolve itself. I did mention it to my vet at one point and he told me not to worry. You could clip as an additional measure, but seen as mine is retired we decided not to.
 
Piriton is a possibility but you need quite a lot. If rugs are new, could be an allergy to a combination of his own extra hunt- induced sweat and the lining of a new rug? Or something growing in the field? Could maybe still be the mix but taking a while to recede........
 
His rug is no longer clean no! :( he is a swamp monster and they were actually new last year. I decided to try not cleaning turnouts this year as 1-I have too many and 2- to see if it does keep them more waterproof.
I may give him a neck and belly. I guess if it turns out not to be that I can always layer a bit it it should get freezing (sold all his heavy stuff on retirement)
 
We have a connemara on the yard who has now had his belly clipped because of itchy lumps. Vet said possibly caused by mites but he's made them worse by getting hot & scratching under his rug. Steroid cream calming them down.

Btw - you can bulk buy piriton online. I use it in the summer when one of mine gets the itches and can rub herself raw if it's not stopped quickly. 20 tablets in feed.
 
Hives similar to this?



My gelding is allergic to grass and this is what it does to him. From April to August he is covered in these. At certain times during autumn and winter he gets hives on his flanks, neck and sides.

In the summer months he has 20 piriton tablets a day. I reduce this over Autumn and winter.
 
I'd bet my house on it being something in his feed - probably the mix as the rash seems to coincide with adding the mix. My share horse gets a terrible mud fever like rash on his back legs if he has sugar in his diet. It took us years to figure it out (we went through all sorts of possibilities from mud fever to his tail getting wet and rubbing on his legs to allergies to his bedding!) but within a month of twigging it was sugar and changing his diet his legs were fine. Improving after a few days suggests it's the food too but it will probably take a good couple of weeks to calm down completely. If M accidentally get a blast of sugar (like when he broke out of his stable and ate a 2kg bag of carrots someone had left around) it will flare up in hours but take at least a week to settle down again.

Canadian Pox is another possibility - like rain scald from getting too sweaty under a rug. My old boy had this. When he semi-retired I stopped clipping him but I still put a rug on as I though he was old and would need the extra warmth. I was obviously very wrong so I left him rugless after that. He was a Section D though. Silly me!
 
cauda equina said:
If he's very very hairy does he need a rug at all?
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My immediate reaction is that it is heat - he's getting too hot. I've seen in the past where horses have had thick coats, that are rugged too much, get hot and the sebaceous glands get all over-excited and they form scabs that unhelpfully look a lot like ringworm. This combined with not getting the rubbing/exfoliation action form being able to roll with no rug on, on an abrasive surface leads to bumps and scabs. Even a ruddy good brush with a stiff brush helps :)

My next reaction is the feed, but not because of something in it, just that he is having it and he is getting sugars and starches that he doesn't need as he's retired. You can manage weight through forage, oils and minerals alone without compound feeds.

I would still seek advice of the vet though.
 
Mines clipped and came in from the field one day a few weeks ago covered in lumps, not itchy and seemed totally fine in herself, I gave her some Benadryl, 7 tablets day for 3 days and started her on Global Herbs restore and it cleared up, suspected Hives - she's had similar before in the winter, tried the Steroid injection and it did nothing. she's not over rugged as gets too hot so has a PE 50g rug, I'd rather her be slightly cooler than too hot.
 
He truly never ever feels hot or sweaty under his rug. However I do admit he is very hairy and maybe could handle not wearing one... 😬 He does misery in the cold or rain so well that I always assume he's miserable and hates it.
I am going to go out and swap it for a light weight as it's p'ing down and I don't want him to be too wet to rug tonight
 
Have you checked the ingredients in the mix? Is there any barley in it? Barley is notorious for bringing horses out in lumps/hives.
 
TGM said:
Have you checked the ingredients in the mix? Is there any barley in it? Barley is notorious for bringing horses out in lumps/hives.
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No I haven't actually. I threw the bags out but can probably check online.

I've clipped a chunk off his side to look at his skin and it would appear the skin is fine.
So I did a rough kind of bib clip incase of heat. I've also swapped his rug for a lighter one. He felt a bit chilly when I put him out but has a shelter and it's not cold cold tonight.
He was weirdly non co-operative to clip and played up even for that small area so I wonder if it hurt or irritated him.
I then noticed his tummy has larger swellings so I clipped round one of those aswell (he now looks totally bizarre)
I think I'll try and get him on the lorry (dismal loader!) tomorrow and pop him down to the vet just to double check it's not anything serious.
The other weird thing was that baring in mind he's always hated being bathed when I was hosing some rugs off he came and stood in front of it like he wanted me to hose him too.
Maybe that are hot?! (Maybe I'm loosing my mind slightly?!)
 
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