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Discussion on Thickened skin which is cracking
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Member:
patricia
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Posted on Wednesday, Aug 27, 2008 - 8:01 pm:
My 16 year old gelding recently showed signs of scratching his butt about 6 inches to the left of his tail. Where the hair (and dust) were disturbed, I noticed two vary small rubs. I checked his tail for ticks and there is no sign of rain rot so I merely put a topical cream on the two small spots. Over the last 10 days the raw spots have disappeared, but in their place the skin is cracking and shedding. There is no raw skin, there is no moisture of any kind. Also, the patch of skin around the site is thickened and hard in a circle about 4 X 6 inches. It does not appear to be painful at all. It just looks like a layer of skin is drying up, cracking and can be peeled off. Strangest thing I have seen. Any ideas what this might be?
Could it be trauma to the skin from the initial rubbing? Seems to me there would have been more damage apparent if that was the case. The two little rubs were about 1/4 the size of a nickel - small.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Thursday, Aug 28, 2008 - 7:37 am:
Hello patriciaKW,
Yes the trauma could cause the changes you describe.
Considering the itching there are many possibilities and for a complete list see Diseases of Horses » Skin Diseases, Wounds, and Swellings » Hair and Coat Problems / Itching / Irritated Skin » Overview of Pruritis: Scratching & Rubbing.
Recently I have seen a case of pinworms in a horse well dewormed with ivermectin products that differed from typical culicoides in that the horse did not rub the tail head primarily. Mostly the skin to each side of the tail about 6 inches down from the tail head was rubbed bare. There is a growing resistance in pins and rounds to ivermectin and moxidectin that has caused a change in our parasite monitoring program. The above article has a link to the pinworm article that explains about diagnosis and treatment.
DrO
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