What is this on Rocky's mouth?

IrishMilo

IrishMilo

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Before riding this morning I noticed poor Rocky's lips! The only thing he's had out of the ordinary over the last few days is a few small bunches of cow parsley that I picked for him yesterday, which I'm now worried was Hemlock (even though my Picture This app said it was cow parsley).

His bit fits well and is always clean, buckets are washed out every day and his contact with other horses is absolutely minimal so I struggle to see it's something viral. I have the vet coming on Thursday to do his teeth luckily so it can be checked then but I was wondering if anyone has any ideas as I'm stumped.


IMG_4861 (2).jpegIMG_4858 (1).jpeg
 
My first go-to would be buttercups or clover too, but if not, summer sores?

Summer Sores

Habronema or Drashia larvae cause a localised inflammatory reaction in the skin creating exuberant granulation tissue in a circular red, weeping sore. They can occur anywhere on the body of the horse but are most common on the lips and face, legs and any area of trauma to the skin.
www.westgatelabs.co.uk www.westgatelabs.co.uk
 
99% of horses won't eat hemlock even if it's presented to them. My guy can pick it out of a bunch of cow parsley (don't ask me how I know, thanks mum 🤦‍♀️) so if he ate it it was extremely likely not to be hemlock.
 
That looks most likely to be a reaction to something he is eating.

‘Summer sores’ also a possibility which is a kind of catch all term for mouth ulcerations believed to be linked to fly larvae and you would generally ivermectin for that, but they are usually much more spherical and raised.
 
Mrs. Jingle said:
Could it be summer sores? Do they seem itchy at all?

Edited to say great minds @Surbie ! 😊
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It's all making sense now. He has been itching his nose on his legs a lot lately but I just assumed the flies were bothering him!

Thanks guys!

ETA: I'll see what the vet says just to be sure before I give him anything but I'll report back.
 
ihatework said:
That looks most likely to be a reaction to something he is eating.

‘Summer sores’ also a possibility which is a kind of catch all term for mouth ulcerations believed to be linked to fly larvae and you would generally ivermectin for that, but they are usually much more spherical and raised.
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Yeah they’re usually more discrete and delineated than this.
It’s also early to be hemlock flowering and I’d be surprised if you’d got him to eat it.

So I vote something else, inside of mouth ok?
 
Got any hogweed near you? Looks awfully like cow parsley but it is highly toxic and causes burns.

Can’t remember whether they’d eat it outright, but it’s hideous stuff to get near!
 
If there’s any long grass at the fence lines of his grazing he could have got buttercup blister burns while grabbing the longer grass.

I’ve noticed the shaded damper perimeter areas on my land that’s non-grazable where the buttercup leaves and grass are long and lush looking.
 
teapot said:
Got any hogweed near you? Looks awfully like cow parsley but it is highly toxic and causes burns.

Can’t remember whether they’d eat it outright, but it’s hideous stuff to get near!
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That's giant hogweed (the common hogweed is almost invariably fine to eat (also for people). Some pink skinned horses may have issues with it on sunny days but there is some evidence that liver damage predisposes to photosensitivity). If the OP had gathered giant hogweed with her hands she'd probably be in hospital now.
 
Burnttoast said:
That's giant hogweed (the common hogweed is almost invariably fine to eat (also for people). Some pink skinned horses may have issues with it on sunny days but there is some evidence that liver damage predisposes to photosensitivity). If the OP had gathered giant hogweed with her hands she'd probably be in hospital now.
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Yup, it’s hideous stuff, but was thinking more if said horse had been sticking nose places, rather than humans pulling it. Was just a thought as have seen it do similar damage :)
 
I'll have a look everywhere that he's grazed over the last few days later and I'll try to get a good look in his mouth/tongue as well. There's very very few places he could have eaten something to cause burns as he only ever grazes his paddock or a tiny patch in the yard where I've never noticed any odd plants!
 
teapot said:
Got any hogweed near you? Looks awfully like cow parsley but it is highly toxic and causes burns.

Can’t remember whether they’d eat it outright, but it’s hideous stuff to get near!
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Is hog weed out yet ? My husband ran through the stuff last year on a race and had blister hands.
 
Hemlock isn't on flower yet but cow parsley is. Hemlock has a very chemical smell to it which honestly you wouldn't be able to miss where cow parsley doesn't really smell of anything. Hemlock also has purple blotches on the stem where cow parsley doesn't, it is hollow inside. Highly unlikely a horse will eat hemlock but worth a check where you hand grazed him just to rule it out. Hope he is better soon
 
IrishMilo said:
Before riding this morning I noticed poor Rocky's lips! The only thing he's had out of the ordinary over the last few days is a few small bunches of cow parsley that I picked for him yesterday, which I'm now worried was Hemlock (even though my Picture This app said it was cow parsley).

His bit fits well and is always clean, buckets are washed out every day and his contact with other horses is absolutely minimal so I struggle to see it's something viral. I have the vet coming on Thursday to do his teeth luckily so it can be checked then but I was wondering if anyone has any ideas as I'm stumped.
looks similar to this below
Click to expand...

Summer Sores

Habronema or Drashia larvae cause a localised inflammatory reaction in the skin creating exuberant granulation tissue in a circular red, weeping sore. They can occur anywhere on the body of the horse but are most common on the lips and face, legs and any area of trauma to the skin.
www.westgatelabs.co.uk www.westgatelabs.co.uk

looks similar to this https://www.bridleandride.com/Summer-Sores-Strange-round-marking-on-horse-lips
 
I had a quick look again tonight as he was eating and it looked slightly less angry, I'll have to have a proper look again in the morning!

There were about 6 buttercups in the field and a few in another area he grazes but really not very many at all. Nothing else at all that looked suspect aside from a rogue bit of cow parsley that had grown over the fence (I'm going to check on my app tomorrow that it's not Hemlock). Very odd but hopefully he just ate something weird somehow.
 
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