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Discussion on Musky funny sort of smell on a horse
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Member:
liliana
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Posted on Wednesday, Aug 12, 2009 - 12:31 pm:
Hola from Cozumel my dear HA family,
Some of you know my rescue menagerie and may remember Alfa boy Chechen.
Well he seems fine but he has a funny sort of musky, spicy smell, I really do not remember having smelt that before it is not a bad smell it is just very strong. I bathed him and washed his sheath, (He was not amused) and he still smells! Any ideas, does anyone else have smelly horses?
Any ideas? Does anyone else have smelly horses, he is about 17 now
Big (((hug))) to all
Liliana
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Member:
vickiann
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Posted on Wednesday, Aug 12, 2009 - 1:34 pm:
Hey, Liliana --
Nice to hear from you.
One must wonder if there is anything different going on within the diet that could cause this smell.
I don't know whether an overall musky, spicy smell indicates any kind of sickness or physical problem.
Does he seem to be feeling fine?
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Member:
liliana
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Posted on Wednesday, Aug 12, 2009 - 7:25 pm:
Hi Vicki,
Great to hear from you too, and thanks for writing!
For economy reasons sometimes I do not have internet, but I still read the threads whenever I can, and remember the good old days when I could be at the computer reading, learning and having fun with all the anecdotes from the great HA family.
Funny you should mention feeding, unfortunately also for economy they do not have alfalfa every day, and also sometimes it is dry and burnt,(of course I do not feed them that) they roam free on the 8 hectares and pick and choose their food, from trees to leaves, there is a local tree people call Chaka that seems to have a meaty sort of bark(spelling?) which he loves, (which incidentally is the antidote for Chechen another local tree which has a very irritant effect on the skin), he eats them like corn on the cob sort of speak. Actually hence his name and the Alfa mare Chaka she was his partner before they came to the ranch; he was a handful when he arrived, so I used to rub my t shirt on her (Chaka) and then approached him, he would sniff it and be kind of hypnotized with delight!
Sooo you may be right it could be some plant that he eats! He has a good weight, he had suffered from chronic thrush for years and now his feet are rock hard and no sign of thrush, he is his normal, tantrumy and mischievous guy he has always been, still the Alfa, but he is just smelly! The girls are in heat, d'you think it might be a hormonal thing causing the niff?
Love
Liliana
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Aug 13, 2009 - 4:30 am:
The normal dietary items probably does have some subtle effect but not one I notice. Certainly some ingested items can effect the horses odor, garlic comes to mind. The bacteria that colonize the skin can have a powerful effect on odor. Does this horse have any skin conditions?
DrO
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Member:
liliana
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Posted on Thursday, Aug 13, 2009 - 12:34 pm:
Hello Dr. O,
Thank you for writing, well his coat is not as mirror shiny as it used to be but it still shines.
What was worrying me was at the beginning of spring when the ticks started coming out he did not let me anywhere near his ears and it took me a good two or three months to get him to more or less let me clean them and he had lots of ticks in them they were a bit watery the first time but they are normal now.
He does have a hairless mark on the jaw but it really looks like a bite to me, and some mosquito and summer’s fly scabs but nothing unusual really.
Another thing to mention would be a very old wound he has on his hamstring, it happened around 9 years ago, before he came to the ranch, apparently he was kicked by Chaka, and fell on some wooden stake and some splinters are still inside, there is a draining hole that sometimes has green puss and sometimes it has a watery bloody stuff coming out of it.
When he arrived the same vet that attended him at the time of the accident told me that they had not been able to clean all the little splinters as the operation was taking too long and the horse went in shock with the anaesthesia he also said that after such a long time (over two years) the splinters would be encapsulated and they could not be removed without damaging his leg. As I have mentioned as far as equine vets we are in the dark ages here in Cozumel.
Someone recommended me a “vet” that said he could operate on Chechen and remove the splinters, and when I asked what the procedure would be he said that he would cut in circles (apple core style) till he came across the splinters and then flush them with the hosepipe.... err if he was a potato it might work.
I can’t think of anything else really...
Kind regards
Liliana
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