Lplates
Well-Known Member
Tnavas, I think it was your post I was reading. Just been down to see our pony and he is really very bald now - not just spots, but large patches. If this goes on, he is going to have no hair on his back and throat! My neighbour is a veterinary nurse, so I haven't seen the vet yet as v broke, but think I am going to call him out now. There are no 'bumps' like some of the rain scald images I have seen, and my neighbour consequently doesn't think that this is rain scald.
To give you all the information that I can think might be relevant, he is in his late twenties and came to us at the end of last summer, really hairy and head hanging down, losing condition. Got confirmation of cushings diagnosis from vet and he was put on prascend (half a tab a day) and has perked up amazingly. Just before Christmas we had a v cold and wet spell (we are in usually mild south west UK), so I bought him a m/w turnout rug which I thought he might need due to his age. I was taking this off daily, but confess to only taking it off every other day for a week while we had all that horrible rain and he wasn't being ridden. It is v muddy in front of his field shelter too, although we have farrier regularly who says no sign of thrush or mud fever and he has good feet. Unusually for a cushings pony, there is no evidence of laminitis we can see. He now has fibre beet twice a day and his weight has come back on beautifully. He has a slightly soggy field, but not too bad and he always has hay out - which he never eats.
From Christmas for six weeks he had our neighbour's pony as a companion on loan but she was too young and bouncy for my toddlers, so she has now gone back to her owner. He doesn't seem bothered by being on his own again, although I would like a companion at some point. During the first couple of days that the other pony was here, one of them had a couple of days with an enormous amount of worms in their droppings, but we don't know which pony it was. After two days there wasn't a single worm! We wormed them anyway, obviously. Then we found a few lice on the mare, so we de-loused them both with dusting powder, which is what my neighbour always does. Her pony was fine, but I was worried that it may be the underlying cause of this baldness, or part of it. Perhaps my pony reacted badly to the chemicals because of the cushings? I washed him immediately with vosene tea tree shampoo, just to get rid of any remaining chemicals. The only thing is that he is losing patches on his head, throat and chest, and I didn't put any powder there.
Or perhaps he got too hot under an unaccustomed rug and it is rain scald manifesting in a strange way, without the lumps. I do check him every time I go down there by putting my hand into the rug and feeling him just behind his front leg to see if he is hot or cold, he never felt sweaty there, but perhaps it was only his back that was getting sweaty.
I will try and post a picture. It is basically very greasy, scurfy skin and the hair is coming out in clumps. Because he has such curly cushings hair and he has a rug on, there is a lot of curly matted hair which pulls off every day when I take his rug off. Then when I run my fingers through the hair around the bald patches, it comes out in clumps, attached to bits of loose scurfy skin. Where the hair comes out it isn't raw, just scurfy. However some parts of some of the patches are very sore looking, like a layer of skin has come off. I don't know whether this is part of the condition or whether it is where he is rubbing and biting himself. The raw patches are all in the places he rubs/bites most.
He is obviously itchy.
I would like to leave his rug off (and I have been every time we have had a few dry days, especially when with the lovely warm sunshine we have had), but it is now wet again and I don't know if he rolls in mud or gets rained on, it will be ok?
Sorry for the masses of information, but this is everything I can think of. I really hope it is not something I have done to my poor pony through inexperience, he is such a honey.
To give you all the information that I can think might be relevant, he is in his late twenties and came to us at the end of last summer, really hairy and head hanging down, losing condition. Got confirmation of cushings diagnosis from vet and he was put on prascend (half a tab a day) and has perked up amazingly. Just before Christmas we had a v cold and wet spell (we are in usually mild south west UK), so I bought him a m/w turnout rug which I thought he might need due to his age. I was taking this off daily, but confess to only taking it off every other day for a week while we had all that horrible rain and he wasn't being ridden. It is v muddy in front of his field shelter too, although we have farrier regularly who says no sign of thrush or mud fever and he has good feet. Unusually for a cushings pony, there is no evidence of laminitis we can see. He now has fibre beet twice a day and his weight has come back on beautifully. He has a slightly soggy field, but not too bad and he always has hay out - which he never eats.
From Christmas for six weeks he had our neighbour's pony as a companion on loan but she was too young and bouncy for my toddlers, so she has now gone back to her owner. He doesn't seem bothered by being on his own again, although I would like a companion at some point. During the first couple of days that the other pony was here, one of them had a couple of days with an enormous amount of worms in their droppings, but we don't know which pony it was. After two days there wasn't a single worm! We wormed them anyway, obviously. Then we found a few lice on the mare, so we de-loused them both with dusting powder, which is what my neighbour always does. Her pony was fine, but I was worried that it may be the underlying cause of this baldness, or part of it. Perhaps my pony reacted badly to the chemicals because of the cushings? I washed him immediately with vosene tea tree shampoo, just to get rid of any remaining chemicals. The only thing is that he is losing patches on his head, throat and chest, and I didn't put any powder there.
Or perhaps he got too hot under an unaccustomed rug and it is rain scald manifesting in a strange way, without the lumps. I do check him every time I go down there by putting my hand into the rug and feeling him just behind his front leg to see if he is hot or cold, he never felt sweaty there, but perhaps it was only his back that was getting sweaty.
I will try and post a picture. It is basically very greasy, scurfy skin and the hair is coming out in clumps. Because he has such curly cushings hair and he has a rug on, there is a lot of curly matted hair which pulls off every day when I take his rug off. Then when I run my fingers through the hair around the bald patches, it comes out in clumps, attached to bits of loose scurfy skin. Where the hair comes out it isn't raw, just scurfy. However some parts of some of the patches are very sore looking, like a layer of skin has come off. I don't know whether this is part of the condition or whether it is where he is rubbing and biting himself. The raw patches are all in the places he rubs/bites most.
He is obviously itchy.
I would like to leave his rug off (and I have been every time we have had a few dry days, especially when with the lovely warm sunshine we have had), but it is now wet again and I don't know if he rolls in mud or gets rained on, it will be ok?
Sorry for the masses of information, but this is everything I can think of. I really hope it is not something I have done to my poor pony through inexperience, he is such a honey.
