Skin bumps

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Morland

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I went to see a horse for sale today. Liked her very much (3.5 y o tb x cob, dk bay), but she had lots of bumps and scabs (smaller than peas) under her rugs, which owner said she had only noticed since re-clipping a day or 2 ago. It looked as though she'd had the problem for a while, tho. Some areas had lost hair in 'streaks' ie in direction of hair growth, about 2cm long. Horse quite itchy, but not desparately (enjoyed us scratching her!). Legs, neck, head clear but a couple of bumps on one ear (not head shy at all). She wore 2 thick stable rugs, is fed hay, sugar beet and h&p nuts. Spends time out in the field and in stable. Companions not affected. She was lively and alert and not stressed. Only possible cause I could think of was over-heating under rugs (she felt hot when we took rugs off to look at her). Any suggestions? If it's something easy to solve I'd like to have a proper look at her. Thanks.
 
Could be an allergy to something or an intolerence to a feed stuff, my mare has something that sounds very similar, I have cut back on her rugs and the lumps have gone but still very itchy so I am investigating a possible alfalfa intolerence.
Vet has seen mine and if the exclusion diet doesn't yield the results I want I can try steroids and/or anti histamines. Don't really want to go down that road myself so I have overhauled her diet to see if that will solve it!
Vet didn't seem to think it was a huge problem for mine.
 
Yes, could be heat bumps. How clean were the rugs? If they were dirty/greasy then that wouldnt be great for the skin. Also sweat/dirt can cause bacteria in hair follicles that causes bumps and lost hair. Particularly common after clipping and if horse isnt cooled down properly after exercise. Usually comes up under saddle area but if horse is too hot under rugs this can cause it. Its called bacterial folliculitis, usually easily sorted with good management and hibiscrub. Lavender wash (barrier healthcare) is great too, left on neat.
 
Thank you for replies. Owner is using hibiscrub, horse was clean; rugs were in good condition, but I didn't think of checking how clean till I'd left! Might have been a bit sweaty inside. I asked her to phone me in a few days to let me know progress/if she'd consulted vet.
 
My mare came up in lumps in the autumn, similar to how you have described as they were in 'streaks' - but they were mostly quite small although one or 2 were more like weals. No pus/fluid oozing etc, just little raised areas. With her I'm pretty certain she was reacting to the haylage - within a few weeks of swapping back to just hay the lumps went down. However, the areas where they were have grown back with darker hair (she is clipped out, and the regrowth looks the same colour as her unclipped areas).

[ETA - I could feel the lumps before I clipped her, but only discovered the real appearance when freshly clipped)

And... My horse also gets lumps when she changes her coat in the spring, but I think that is something to do with her hair folicles/blocked pores. Same week every year, more or less - managed with hibiscrub.]

Another horse on our yard has had an ongoing skin problem for >6months. With her, the lumps were only on her neck and again seemed to be in lines, or streaks. They came to little heads which you could scratch off quite easily. Again, no fluid. The vet did skin scrapings etc and nothing stood out as the cause - she has been on steroids for several weeks and it seems to be helping.

Not much help I'm afraid, could be several things. Hopefully she was just hot!
 
Could possibly either be heat bumps due to over heating, protein rash( but probably not!)/or skin infection or adverse reaction to clipper oil or batch of hay or even mites. A vet will be the best person to advise! good luck, hopefully it will be something simple to resolve.
 
I'd air on the side of cautiousness TBH. My friends horse has developed lumps and bumps all over his body and he has had some steroid injections. She is gradually stopping various feed stuffs, changing rugs, changing his bed, etc in an effort to try to find out what it is. You could ask a vet to do a skin scraping during a vetting if the vendor agreed to this and if the horse passes say to the vendor you will purchase the animal upon a good result from the skin scraping. It could be due to too many rugs, and it could be a reaction to the clipper oil if she has been recently clipped, but I would be wary of this second explanation if the vendor is telling you that.
 
Could be the clipping but a friend of mine has a horse that is allergic to barley and that comes up in lumps when she has been given it.
 
Something similar happened to a friend,s horse after she had clipped him. Vet diagnosed a simple skin infection. To treat she had to wash him with Hibiscrub. To prevent it she had to use cotton cooler under rugs and wash cooler frequently. He said horse comes in after work sweaty, cold weather so you put rug on (which might be a bit dirty), follicles are open because horse warm, so bacteria and dirt enter. He said doesn't matter how dirty rug is as long as the bit next to the skin on a clipped horse is clean.
Maybe if the horse was recently clipped they over-rugged her so she got sweaty under rug.
 
Echo everyone else, sounds because it is localised, ie only where the rugs go? that it is relating to the rugs, so heat, allergy to washing powder etc - a couple of horses I know get this around this time of the year if they are overrugged (which they usually are!!!).

If it was an internal allergy (ie something inhaled or eaten) it would more likely be more comprehensive in coverage, ie head/neck.

[ QUOTE ]
My friends horse has developed lumps and bumps all over his body and he has had some steroid injections. She is gradually stopping various feed stuffs, changing rugs, changing his bed, etc in an effort to try to find out what it is.

[/ QUOTE ]

Applecart14 - I would 100% recommend your friend contact Global Herbs and try her horse on their Response and Immuplus. My mare came up with a severe allergic reaction all over her body before Christmas - she was literally covered including her head/eyelids in lumps, which gradually spread to become huge welts. I cut everything out of her diet/changed her bedding, the lot, she had two steroid injections in two weeks - which worked each time for the 3 day period the steroids were in her system, then it came back with a vengeance. She even got grossly swollen knees on one occasion due to her turnout boots pushing the swelling upwards!

In desperation I decided that as I had nothing left to change in her diet/environment and the vets couldn't give her any more steroids, I would try some herbal remedies to try to flush and stabilise her system to stop her immune system working overtime.

Within 24 hours of starting her on the Global Herbs products, she was much improved, within 3 days she was pretty much fine and has been now for 4 weeks, even though I have put her back on the original bedding and feeds.
 
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