Scabs on tail

[Ecila]

I have asked the head girl at our yard about my mares tail (she is a horse bible on legs i swear!) but i just wanted any suggestions you guys have.

I have a 14.1 mare, she lives out at night and comes in for a few hours a day. she lives witht he main herd of about 40-50 horses. She isn't the boss of the herd but she certainly isnt a push over. She is in with the in croud, most of which are bigger than her and very protective of each other.

A few days back i noticed she had quite a few big scabs in her tail. I didnt think much of it as she is covered all over in scabs from fighting and losing! I probably should have said something then, but being me i left it to see what happened, after all they are only scabs.

Now i have discovered she has them on both sides of her dock and the skin underneath is pale and flakey. She has a bacl base to her tail which is normally dark grey. She hasnt scratched it at all as she has a lovely full tail.

I have a few ideas of what might have happened but i wanted to know any more thoughts.

 

[Tierra]

My grey gets dry and cracked skin on that very delicate area just under the top of the tail. Id initially found it over summer when i thought my horse had rubbed his tail.. further investigation showed this irritation underneath that was obviously itchy and the actual tail rubbing came from this.

Id been treating this with sudocream over summer as it was purely like dried cracked skin.

My vet was on the yard one day to see my horse for something unrelated and i turned him out while chatting with the vet over a cup of tea. My horse was running round like a lunatic with his tail (typically for him) held absolutly upright like an arab.

After 5 minutes or so, he came over to us and i noticed the area under his tail bleeding so the vet looked. He was 99% sure that he was actually cracking the delicate skin under his tail from the way he was carrying it. This then got itchy and caused the tail rubbing.

The vet said it was nothing to be concerned over and to just keep slapping cream on it when it occured.

Sorry - this is slightly long winded.. and im not sure if the problem areas is the same as my grey, but just thought it could be something to consider

 

[Ecila]

Mine is on top of her tail, either side of her dock (probably should have put that in the first post!) I asked one of the liveries at the yard as he is a retired vet, he thought it might be mud fever type thing, but she has never got mud fever any where else before.

The head girl had no idea and said she has never seen any thing like it before. Thinking about it i think she may have been bitten on her tail, its broken the skin and because i didnt notice it (im normally good at noitcing as she is allways covered in war wounds!) it got infected.

 

[Tempi]

Bloss got this last year, i put her on feedmarks equidermus and it really cleared it up. i also washed the top of her tail in tea tree oil shampoo. I now feed her sunflower seeds instead and she hasnt got it since.

im positive your pony hasnt been bitten, its just something about this time of year - a couple of horses at my yard have scurfy tails at the mo.