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  Discussion on Heat Rash????
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Member:
Rubysmom

Posted on Thursday, Dec 26, 2002 - 1:48 am:

I have a wonderful new gelding that I purchased in late October. He was already bodyclipped a month earlier, and is a lovely black bay color, 6 yo tb/westfalen cross.
I had noticed some bumps on him when I bought him, and we figured it was a sensitivity to his new bedding. They went away and all was well.
I body clipped him in November as he had gotten REALLY hairy. (we are in SoCal, very mild winters, light turnout blanket at night only).
Two days later he had bumps all over his body, mainly barrel and rump. They are small raised swellings (not "plaquey" looking like classic hives), no itching or discomfort, good appetite, bright eyed, normal temps.
They are much lessened now, but I noticed after I am done riding, the area under my saddle has what I can only say looks like a "heat rash". I hose or sponge the area with cool water, and the bumps immediately go away. Though I can still feel a very faint swelling on his skin.
I have changed detergents on my saddle pads, ran them thru many rinse cycles to get ANY soap at all out, and even used a "sensitive skin" detergent to clean them, and he still gets the "heat rash".
Any ideas or clues?
It's not life threatening, but very frustrating. His coat shines, he is in good weight, vacs, worming and teeth are current and my saddle fits him well.
I'm stumped. Should I have allergy tests done on him? We don't have gnats or even that many flies this time of year, so I have not fly sprayed him at all. He gets Betadine baths once every two weeks or so, groomed thoroughly by me EVERY day, and his blanket is not on him for longer than 12 hours and is breathable and suitable for our cool evenings.
I am thinking that it *may* be from clipping his saddle area instead of leaving a "saddle pad" as I usually do. <sigh> Friction from the short hairs? Agggh! Help!
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Dec 26, 2002 - 6:52 am:

I think you may be right Angela. We have had other reports of this reaction following clipping. Save your money, the current state of commercial allergy testing in horses (both blood and skin injection) is for rubes: it has no predictive value at finding allegins and I wish equine vets would cut it out until a good test is developed and tested. I know I repeat this statement about once a month but I continue to follow the research closely and this is were it's at right now.

Do you really feel the need to bath the horse in betadine every 2 weeks: this probably increases the growth of pathogens by killing off the normal bacterial flora. My horses go all year without soap. When necessary to remove sweat or mud, we bath with a thorough hosing of just water and their skin is healthy and their coats glisten.

The rubbing of the pad on the short stubble is irritating and you can experiment with different pads to see if something works better until the hair grows out some. Your cold water is an excellent treatment.
DrO
Member:
Rubysmom

Posted on Thursday, Dec 26, 2002 - 12:12 pm:

Thanks, DrO. Well you pretty much summed up what is going on. I just hate for him to be uncomfortable under saddle, but the bumps really don't seem to bother him at all. I know, the few times I've had a heat rash it's been uncomfortable, so I assumed it was the same for James. He seems just fine though, so I will experiment with pads and wait for his hair to grow back. LOL!
At least I can see a perfect outline of how the saddle sits on his back, and I can say for sure the saddle is NOT bridging, nice even pattern of bumps where the saddle sits on him.
Gotta look at the bright side!
Thanks for the scoop on the allergy testing too. I have heard some doozies regarding allergy testing, and really did not want to test unless it got really bad, which it has not.
I will cut out the Betadine baths and use cold water only, you're right it works GREAT!
Next time I clip, I am DEFINITELY leaving a "saddle pad" under the saddle area. Arrrgh!
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