Fungus on my show horses tail???

Question

I have a palomino gelding that i show regularly so yes i blue his tail and wash it all the time! I use a thickening shampoo plus MTG when needed. At the last show I noticed he was being really touchy to the tail and today when i gave him a bath i noticed large nasty scabs coming off and taking huge chunks of tail with it!!! I pulled all the scabs and unfortunately the hair with it and then i washed it with iodine shampoo bc the tail was inflamed and infected!!! after i washed it i rubbed it with MTG. It itches bc he was scratching when i was rubbing it!!! I have never seen this so could you help me? is it a sunburn, ringworm, alergy to the blueing? please help

Answer 1

"Sounds" like a contact dermatitis...which means your horse initally had an allergy to those shampoos and now has an infection on top of that.    At this point, I'd only use the gentlest of shampoos....maybe Johnsons baby shampoo if you must.  You'll want to get an antibiotic cream/salve from your vet and possibly antibiotics IM .... really you're in a heck of a mess with this.  Time will heal it but too much soap of any kind is not good.   The very best person to consult with on this is your vet!!!  Don't use any backyard "remedies" or other hocus pocus on that tail !!!!!

You do not want to further damage the hair shaft.  

Be sure you keep the harsh shampoos away from him....he has to be miserable every time he is shampooed ..... your showing may be waylaid for awhile while his tail heals up and that may take some time.

Edit:  Cowboy Magic and Mane&Tail are good conditioners....but only when your horse's tail has healed up.

Answer 2

It probably is allergic to the blueing but if it doesn't stop in the next few weeks take it to the vets.

Answer 3

It could well be a mite infestation. Sorry to say but your washing his tail to much. This year is a real bad one for mites.

We have cobs and our very feathered boy is on 21 day treatment for them. He has them in his tail too. Either side of his dock. It forms nasty scabs that ooze, he is very twitchy with it and had started to rub.

Get your vet to prescribe some treatment.

We are currently using a cattle wormer diluted in warm water. We wash his legs and tail with head & shoulders shampoo and rinse. Then with a pulling comb part the hair and apply the treatment dirctly to the skin. You have to take small sections of hair to be affective. Last treatment took two people 1.5 hours from start to finnish and he is a very good boy and stands still the whole time. If you have one that jumps about you may have to resort to injecting the treatment (the vet will do this) So far so good.

You must remember to worm egg count before worming again as you can overdose your horse while using this method of treatment.

Answer 4

my horse had fungus and we purchased a special medicated shampoos and sprays and basically everything. but in the end someone mentioned listerine and that made it go away like THAT. poof. haahaa of course we wasted all our money on expensive products but in the end simple listerine worked. some other people at my barn spray that on their horses tails when they itch or rub it. but with fungus we used medicated shampoo every day and scrubbed it. then left it in for ten minutes. rinse, then dry off with towl  then sprayed on listerine everyday until it was gone. not sure if your horse has that but its worth a try!

Answer 5

I have never heard of that happening before so you should probably consult your vet right away. It could be anything but if your horse is losing chunks of his tail then you don't want to mess around. Until you figure out what it is I would recommend not blueing his tail for a while or giving him a bath because it could be drying out his skin too much. Ive seen horses getting scabs on their skin because of excessive bathing. Horses need the natural oils on their skin and when you give a real bath with shampoo and everything you take all of them off. Blueing his tail all of the time probably isn't helping either.

Answer 6

"I blue his tail" - I'm afraid I don't know what this means! Anyway, shampooing regularly (which I assume is what you mean) can make him itchy as it dries his skin out which can cause him to itch, resulting in the scabs as he scrathes himself on the fence etc.

It could be an allergy to the blueing (only I don't know what blueing is). It's unlikely to be sunburn but any horse with pink skin should wear sunscreen most of the year round. It's not ringworm, that would affect more than just the tail. Ringworm is small, circular scabs surrounded by scaly skin and this isn't what you describe, ringworm would also affect the whole body (usually). It could be a sweet itch - an allergy to the saliva from midge bites, however, this would affect the mane and dorsal stripe too. If you email me with what blueing is and a few more details such as how often you wash his tail (ie. weekly etc.) and also how long ago this came on, how he is kept (turned out etc.) and whether he has scabs anywhere else I can offer a more detailed answer :-)

Answer 7

Try listerine. Braiding can be hard on the hair, so try leaving it unbraided for a while until the tail heals.  If listerine doesn't work you can try salsem blue shampoo.  It could be a fungus, or a reaction. If it continues have it vet checked.

Answer 8

I had a case of little itchy scabs on two horses in my barn,  My vet said that it appeared to be a nasty little mite that irritates the skin and then as they rub they cause sores which scab over.  I was given a topical solution to help the secondary infection and the horses all got wormed with ivermectin for three consecutive weeks to break the life cycle.  I am not saying that this is what you are facing, only your vet can do that, but it is possible.

Answer 9

Most likely it was initially irritated by your "washing it all the time".  When you do that, you remove the normal oils and bacteria that protect the skin and keep it healthy.  Once the skin is irritated, inflammation develops, and fungi and bacteria can invade and produce infection.  Iodine shampoo can be very irritating and should only be used in specific instances.  I would use normal saline or hydrogen peroxide to cleanse the area gently, and apply an antifungal/antibiotic ointment to it twice a day.  If it doesn't improve after a few days, call your vet.