Mystery substance on face

[Annagain]

I was away this weekend so M's owner was on duty. He came in on Saturday morning absolutely fine but by the time it came for him to go out again he had a yellow substance on his forehead, right in the middle. I'm told it looked like someone had cracked an egg over his face, a yellow goo had streaked down his face and then dried solid, no stickiness as such, but it had stuck his coat together in clumps He's had it washed a few time and although the yellowness has gone his fur there is all stiff and where it's stuck together in certain places, you can see the skin behind - a bit like a crazy paving pattern where little rivulets have formed down his face.

I went up when I got back last night and it was obvious straight away that there was a funny patch on his face. I was only seeing the remnants, none of the yellowness, but it didn't look quite right to me. I wondered if it could be pus weeping from his skin - maybe a reaction to a horsefly? The skin looks pretty normal but the area does seem a little warm (hard to tell if he just had his head over the door in the sun!) There's no obvious wound and I can't imagine it would spontaneously start to weep and then stop with no treatment other than a wash?

It doesn't seem to bother him, although he was getting a bit fed up of me trying to wash it last night - his owner had already washed it twice that day so I can understand that!

Any ideas what it could be? We're stumped! There's no evidence of anything he could have rubbed on etc in his stable. He does have a swallows' nest in there so I did wonder if he'd managed to somehow get into contact with an unhatched egg but there's no shell anywhere in his stable and from what the girls at the yard said, this was a lot more than there would be in a swallow's egg.

 

[Polos Mum]

My grey horse has this some times, maybe smaller quantities - closer to a full tablespoon than an egg quantity.

After much pondering and thinking about when they get it and when they don't and locations on his body (coloured gets it too less often) I think it is him lying in slugs and squishing them. We have massive slugs and they do leave a yellowy / orange goo if you stand on them. !

 

[LaurenBay]

Is he stabled next to a mare?

When my Horse was on individual turnout, she was next to a gelding she particularly took a liking too (eg she turned into the biggest slut ever) she repeatedly sprayed him in the face and he used to come in with gunk and er girl juice all over him. Luckily the gelding owner laughed it off. It would quite often be over his face.

 

[Annagain]

My grey horse has this some times, maybe smaller quantities - closer to a full tablespoon than an egg quantity.

After much pondering and thinking about when they get it and when they don't and locations on his body (coloured gets it too less often) I think it is him lying in slugs and squishing them. We have massive slugs and they do leave a yellowy / orange goo if you stand on them. !

I now have an image of him doing a forward roll in his stable and squishing slug in the process! It's slap bang in the middle of his forehead, which makes it even more intriguing as other than rubbing on a wall with something on (and there's nothing on the walls) we can't work out how anything could get there! The only other possibility is that an egg broke in the next and the contents fell onto him, but I'd imagine the nest material would absorb it all rather than enough dripping though to make a mess of his face?, it would have needed to have fallen pretty quickly to get the streaks down his face, little drips would have dried before running down his face.

 

[Annagain]

Is he stabled next to a mare?

When my Horse was on individual turnout, she was next to a gelding she particularly took a liking too (eg she turned into the biggest slut ever) she repeatedly sprayed him in the face and he used to come in with gunk and er girl juice all over him. Luckily the gelding owner laughed it off. It would quite often be over his face.

No geldings only yard! Nearest mare is 1/2 a mile away, she'd have to like him A LOT

 

[LaurenBay]

Haha right ok, er I am thinking nest of eggs then?

 

[Sussexbythesea]

Could be ooze from a bacterial skin infection. Quite commonly instigated by a bite or nick and exacerbated by hot, humid weather. Sweating under a fly mask could trigger it I expect. I usually rub in Sudocreme rather than washing and it softens it and then later you can rub the area gently to remove dried ooze and loose hair. Mine is very prone to this although mainly on his legs not had one on his forehead although where his whorls are he can sometimes get a little scabby.

 

[Annagain]

Could be ooze from a bacterial skin infection. Quite commonly instigated by a bite or nick and exacerbated by hot, humid weather. Sweating under a fly mask could trigger it I expect. I usually rub in Sudocreme rather than washing and it softens it and then later you can rub the area gently to remove dried ooze and loose hair. Mine is very prone to this although mainly on his legs not had one on his forehead although where his whorls are he can sometimes get a little scabby.

That's really interesting. He gets a scabby rash on his legs due to a sugar allergy and he's had a little bald patch over one eye for a month or two (near but not touching this). His legs are fine at the moment as the sugar levels in our scorched grass are pretty low and his diet is very low sugar. Spring grass is pretty much the only thing that starts it off now we manage his diet as much as we can. I smothered it in filtabac last night, mainly as I was concerned the exposed skin (he's grey and that bit's pink skin) would burn (my other one gets smothered in filtabac daily as he has a pink nose) so it sounds like instinct may have resulted in me doing the right thing without really knowing what it is! He doesn't wear a fly mask as he loses them all.

 

[BBP]

Mine gets a sort of serum-y ooze where he gets bitten by horseflies and flying ants. He gets a localised flat swelling under the skin that spreads outwards and the bursts through the skin leaving a crusty yellow gunk that is hard to get off. He gets it all over his body poor boy.

 

[Annagain]

Mine gets a sort of serum-y ooze where he gets bitten by horseflies and flying ants. He gets a localised flat swelling under the skin that spreads outwards and the bursts through the skin leaving a crusty yellow gunk that is hard to get off. He gets it all over his body poor boy.

That sounds horrid. I didn't see the ooze (if that's what it was) but there's not been any swelling and it hasn't come back since being washed off so I'm hoping it's not that. Does it keep oozing for a few days or does it happen once and then it's over?

 

[BBP]

Usually it was just for a day I think. He hasn’t had it so much this year or last year but the year before he was covered in oozy serum scabs and welts. It took me ages to work out what was causing it. In the end I found a flying ant attached to one of them so my assumption is he was rolling on or rummaging through one of the big ants nests we have, and that they bite! He had them all over his head and body. Apparently they inject a toxin when they bite and he was reacting to it.