Photosensitisation

[italylyns]

My horse was diagnosed with Photosensitisation today.

I feel terrible because i was treating him for mites and spraying the area daily but all i have done is aggrevate it and it is now infected and he is on a course of antibiotics.
Poor soul couldnt even put his leg down today he was in so much pain.

I am now treating it as advised by the vet and hopefully when it heals and i whack a load of factor 50 on he will be o.k!

Has anyone had/known anyone whos horse has had this and if the sun cream works???

 

[jens]

Hi
I had a mare who got this every year. It varied depending on which paddock she was in as to how bad it was. the vet said it was most likely a particular type of plant she ate that aggrivated it, though we never found out what it was.

One year, despite my best efforts, she ended up having to have her legs scraped to get rid of the majority of the scabs and after that I would apply sun block and I discovered those UV turnout boots. They look like a cross between travel boots and bandages but fit really well and stop the uv light reacting in the skin.

They arent too expensive and are easier than suncream as the photosensitivity doesnt just need direct sunlight

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Hmmmm.......

There's a big difference between common or garden sunburn and severe photosensitivity. Sunburn can affect any unprotected skin and the less hair and/or pigment that a horse's skin has in a given spot can mean the skin is burned by the sun's rays. Careful management -as you would for eg a child - should prevent it happening. But photosensitivity occurs, as the name suggests, when the skin not only burns but actually attracts sunlight. This is a common occurrence as a side effect of liver damage. One of the liver's functions is to break down the plant material that the horse eats. Badly damaged livers cannot do this properly so the chlorophyl in the plant begins to circulate in the horse's own system, crudely, turning him into a huge horse-shaped leaf. Green leaves attract the sun so the horse's skin is more badly damaged than with "normal" sunburn.

If your horse has been diagnosed with photosensitivity, there will be a reason for it. Sadly, a very common cause of the liver damage that then causes photosensitivity is ragwort poisoning. Ragwort poisoning is cumulative so can suddenly appear in a horse that the owner knows hasn't had access to ragwort for all the years she/he has owned it. The damage will have been done years before but symptoms only begin appearing when a significant portion of the liver is damaged. Livers can recover from damage from an infection but not from ragwort poisoning.

You need to know from your vet what you are dealing with. In any event, photosensitivity cannot be controlled with suncream. The horse will be liable to burn badly even on cloudy days. When my ragwort poisoned, rescued gypsy cob mare arrived she had the most dreadful photosensitivity I have ever seen. It looked as though she had push her entire head into a bonfire. The only certain way to protect photosensitive horses from the sun is to stable them from 9am to about 6pm from May to September. Rainy days are safe and so is late autumn, winter and early spring sunshine.

 

[silverbullet]

Not for photosensitivity but my grey has vitiligo so has very pink skin all over his body. He gets sunburnt ery easily. To save on suncream I bought him a UV rug which works really well.

Jens - can I ask where you got your UV boots from??

 

[hobo]

I agree with Box of frogs, though we find suncream with alovera helps make them more comfortable. We get in our cows now and then and it always means liver damage but with careful management no turn out in anything other than cloud so really only at night and cream for comfort useally after a couple of months things seattle down the skin thickens and they can be treated as normal. It may take till winter as it is only early into summer now. Our cases have probably been caused by St-Johns Wort plant or more than one adder bite. I have no exspearance with ragwort causing it which could be more serious. All our cows have recovered but have thick scared skin were the worst bits are. The most impressive one the white skin came off in sheets gross BUT THAT IS COWS so don,t panice. Like FROGS said get as much info of vet. Good luck.

 

[thundersprite]

i agree with the above and it might be worth getting you vet to do a blood test to see if the livers working ok,
my mare been battling a liver problem and it it wasnt picked up when it was i dont think she would be here now

 

[italylyns]

Thanks for your helpful replys!!!

I always think my horse is the only one with problems but this forum lets me knopw there are others out there and i appreciate your comments!
I have invested in some uv boots but my boy does have underlying health issues (diagnosed with a tumour earlier this year but still looking great!!) which means he has a low immune system so i think i have to brace myself for many more vets bills ahead!

 

[jens]

silverbullet: the boots I had were made by equilibrium (think thats the right spelling!).
If you do a google search they should pop up.

Box of frogs, my mare did unfortunately have liver damage. She was in her early 20s before she started displaying the signs of photosensitivity. With careful management she lived untill Oct last year when I let her go at the grand ago of 29 (she was full TB).
WHen she first got the scabs I put it down to mud fever which had always been an issue but it never got any better and just kept getting worse develpoing cracks and fresh scabs despite my best efforts! That was the first year and when I had tried all I could think of the vets tested and diagnosed her.
Once you get used to how to handle it it was easyer to keep on top of.