Possible girth gall, advice please...

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StoptheCavalry

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I posted about a week ago about the lump that arrived on my boys belly after we went for a ride, decided it is more than likey it is a girth gall after a combination of me stupidly over tightened my girth and wet muddy conditions anyway it has now gone down loads (smaller one completely) but I can still tell it's there. I have changed my girth to a slightly wider one and bought a sheepskin girth sleeve. I have ridden out once since as it didn't seem to be causing any discomfort and I think he was gettin cabin fever. So anyway my question is will it ever go away completely and is there anything I can do to help it on its way?

Thanks :-)
 
It should go down fully over a period of time, you have done the right thing changing girths having a sleeve on, keep it very clean, wiping over with salt water after riding will help both clean the area and toughen the skin.
 
Yes it will go away, but until it has, you can't put any form of girth on it. That will just rub and be painful to the horse. Imagine strapping up an open sore on yourself, plus it could spread infection.

Try washing with Hibiscrub, and then applying sudocream or wound powder.
 
Sorry I should have said. There isn't actually a rub mark, no broken skin or missing hair just a lump. It doesn't seem to be causing him any discomfort at all.
 
I have this with one of mine. He had some small bare patches - scars essentially - in the girth area when I got him. The first time we had a long ride he got a big lump in the same area. I thought it was a sarcoid:eek: and called the vet. Anyway, it went down, with sudocrem, in about a week. I had it recur a couple of times not so badly, and realised it was girth galls and he's clearly prone, hence the old scars. For years now I've ridden him with a sheepskin cover on a pretty loose girth and we've had no further problems but I know if I tightened up the girth we'd have the same again.

I'm able to have a very loose girth because he's bombproof, narrow (can get my legs round him) and we use a western saddle which is very stable.
 
When I rode out I made sure my girth wasn't too tight and that I didn't shift around too much. Difficulty with this is there is nothing to treat as there is no broken skin or soreness so not sure what to do about it or if it'll just go on its own
 
Mine's never been broken skin as such - only when lump was where existing scaring is. Other times it was just a lump, which would go down itself over a few days.
 
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