Lumps and bites - Advice please :)

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Carrots&Mints

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One thing after another! Poor Mr M has recently acquired lumps on his left side just behind his shoulder and a big massive bite just under his belly which has swollen up!

Weve been given some shampoo called Dermallay Oatmeal from the vet and have some fuciden cream as well to put on but just wondering what could be the cause of it? Me & my friend are wondering if its straw mites? Someone else mentioned protein lumps (for the ones behind his shoulder – the one on his belly is definitely a bite) but he has been on the same feed for well over 2 months now so would have thought that would have occurred relatively soon after being fed what hes being fed??? Also, they are defintly not sarcoids.

Meant to be taking him to Cheshire County on Wednesday but that’s off the cards now!
 
The bely bite sounds like a simple fly bite which he's reacted to. My boy had a huge lump on his neck a few weeks ago from a reaction to a fly bite and it went down after a couple of days. The ones on his shoulder could also be fly bites or blocked sweat glands? Again, my boy used to get these under his saddle when he was on working livery and they didn't groom him thoroughly enough and they kept using the same saddle cloth. This year he's had none of the lumps under his saddle. My vet also recommended that he was put on a feed balancer which as helped with the condition of his skin and coat immensely. Does Mr M have a balancer with his feed?

Most of the horses affected by mites at the yard I'm at tend to be affected mainly on their legs and they tend to bite them as the irritate so much.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Fingers crossed you can get it sorted, these things always seem to rear their heads just before a big competition.
 
Well he’s had little lumps behind the shoulder for a while and we just thought it was heat lumps as I was rugging him quite abit to keep his coat. And he’s not quite broken in yet so doubt its anything to do with saddle or dirty saddle cloth just yet.

Im so paranoid about fly bites as he’s recovering from sarcoid removal surgery, so I’m really keen to keep flies away!!

Ive looked into changing his bedding to the Bedwell Equinola as that seems to have added tea tree and lemon so that will keep the eeby jeebies away perhaps??

Is it worth a try changing his bedding??
 
My vet did recommend changing from straw to shavings as my boy is prone to bacterial infections in his heels (similar to mud fever but even when it's dry!) that was when she also suggested adding a feed balancer. I recall now that my saddler also suggested a feed supplement that's given to cattle (you have to buy it from a cattle feed supplier and I can't remember what she said it was called as it was over a year ago and I didn't try it) she said it does something to help remove toxins or impurities and it has helped horses prone to bumps.

My old roan ISH used to get lumps which weren't sarcoids in random places and at various times of the year. I never did get to the bottom of those but blocked sweat glands was what people always suggested. He was a fat pig though so it could have been protein bumps and a balancer may have sorted it but this was over ten years ago when balancers weren't really used much so I never even thought of it.

I would try changing the bedding as straw these days seems to harbour way more problems than it did in the olden days when I was a gal.
 
Thanks Detalfyer!

Well hes currently fed a mixture of stuff at the moment - Conditioning Cubes and High Fibre cubes, Alfa A pellets, Equibeet, garlic and brewers yeast, along side really rich haylage which we are not feeding as much! Hes been on that for at least 2/3 months now.

Just ordered a load of equinola to pick up tonight, hopefully that might help.

Also, the straw is kept near 2 calfs - do Bovines carry any insects or things of that sort???
 
We use equinola and hardly have any flies in the stable, I mentioned to vet yesterday and he said they wouldn't be out til August so who knows! I like it though so even if it doesn't help with the flies it's easy to work with and economical.
 
Following with interest as my coloured horse is a nightmare with lumps/bites/scabs/ticks at the minute. He seems to have very sensitive skin, normal fly repellent brought him out in blisters (luckily I tried it on a small patch first) He also has small lumps with scabby bits in the middle on his shoulders and around his elbows I wonder if its when they lay down they are reacting to something either a type of grass or ants/bugs in the grass? Also bald bits on his head where he rubs it. Someone suggested feeding linseed as it sooths the skin so have put him on this? He is currently out in a fly/sweet itch rug and mask but doesn't help with his legs!. Also been advised to try him on anti histamines, not sure about this?.
 
Carrots&Mints said:
Thanks Detalfyer!

Well hes currently fed a mixture of stuff at the moment - Conditioning Cubes and High Fibre cubes, Alfa A pellets, Equibeet, garlic and brewers yeast, along side really rich haylage which we are not feeding as much! Hes been on that for at least 2/3 months now.
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Quite a few of those ingredients can cause lumps and bumps in susceptible horses, in the case of my welshie any form of alfalfa or beet for example. I had another horse who could not take any sort of grain or grain-derived product except oats - check the feed bags for things like wheatfeed, beans, barley etc. They can build up intolerances too, same as us.

I know it's the middle of the showing season so you may feel its the wrong time of year to be experimenting but it may be worth re-looking at your feed.
 
catkin said:
Quite a few of those ingredients can cause lumps and bumps in susceptible horses, in the case of my welshie any form of alfalfa or beet for example. I had another horse who could not take any sort of grain or grain-derived product except oats - check the feed bags for things like wheatfeed, beans, barley etc. They can build up intolerances too, same as us.

I know it's the middle of the showing season so you may feel its the wrong time of year to be experimenting but it may be worth re-looking at your feed.
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Hi Catkin, he's been on this feed for a while and also if it was an intolerance to something or another would it not show up everywhere and not just on one side of the pony behind his shoulders?

When I went to check on him this afternoon the lumps seem to be abit smaller than yesterday, the special oatmeal shampoo says used 3-5 times a week so will do it every other day to see of we notice a difference.

Also we have an equinola bed now so hopefully if my suspicions are true then we won't get any more lumps (wishful thinking?)
 
taraj said:
Following with interest as my coloured sensitive skin, normal fly repellent brought him out in blisters (luckily I tried it on a small patch first) He also has small lumps with scabby bits in the middle on his shoulders and around his elbows I wonder if its when they lay down they are reacting to something either a type of grass or ants/bugs in the grass? Also bald bits on his head where he rubs it. Someone suggested feeding linseed as it sooths the skin so have put him on this? He is currently out in a fly/sweet itch rug and mask but doesn't help with his legs!. Also been advised to try him on anti histamines, not sure about this?.
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I asked my vet about antihistamines and he said they were pretty much useless in horses? He did say something about using a steroid spray of they didn't go down, you could ring your vet and ask about that? X
 
Vets always told me that antihistamines were not much use for horses and yet this summer I tried them on my old pony who has had bad sweet itch all his life and having really good results.
 
Antihistamines work well, you just need LOTS! Watch out for swellings, mine was I presume bitten, huge lump which then went and left a sunken dip, not good for a horse I want to show again. :(

Bovine papilloma virus has been speculatively linked to sarcoids, so I'd be using a very good fly spray/fly rug that wraps up the horse. A good base is Avon Skin So Soft, add a teaspoon of various essential oils (a teaspoon may be way too much for sensitive skinned horses, always patch test) such as neem, eucalyptus, citronella, tea tree, cedar wood, a few capfuls of dettol, top up to one litre with cold water.
 
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