update on aural plaques

smokey

smokey

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To carry on from previous thread about aural plaques, I've now had my vet out to check them, and her advice is to massage the ears inside and out every few days as part of her grooming. The idea is to be consistent and reasonably firm, ie, no allowing the horse to pull away. Build up the firmness until you are rubbing all over the inside of the ear. The idea being that she will become de-sensitised to it and more tolerant. She also gave me some anti- bacterial cream (the name escapes me right now!) which also has a sun block, advice is to apply this every few days and massage in. Apparently baby oil works well too. Going to give it a go and see if it helps, anyone else who trys this, could you feed back on results please?
 
Im following the advice of 3 different vets in different parts of the country incl the head horse man at Royal Vet College

All of them (independently, they didnt know what the others had said) say def leave well alone

Good enough for me.....
 
Honestly, leave them alone. Three of my 5 have them, I did a bit of fiddling with the first one which made her more grumpy and touchy to handle, then left well alone, have never touched the other two and have no problems with any of them now.
 
My horse has them, they were discovered when he was vetted. Vet advised me to leave them alone but to make sure my boy had plenty of fly spray on him to prevent them spreading (obviously not in his ear). SO far no problems
 
Agree, leave them be. They won't affect your horse just look unpleasant but best to stay clear.

The problem with rubbing them is that scab/foreign bodies could fall into the ear canal then you do have a big problem potentially.

My boy has small ones and they've never affected him :)
 
All comments appreciated, thanks. I think I should clarify, my horse has had plaques for years, and they have never bothered her until a few days ago, nothing major, just a wee twitch. Vets advice is geared towards de-sentistising the ears so that she doesnt become headshy. The cream is anti-bacterial, and the aim is to keep the plaques soft to prevent them scabbing. At the moment they are tiny discs, hardly raised. We tried the rubbing with her last night and she was totally relaxed and appeared to be enjoying it. This is more to try to prevent things getting worse than to cure them, I understand this may be contrary to other advice, but I trust my vet totally and am going to give it a go. Will let you know how I get on.
 
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