Last summer my horse Maxx and my sisters 2 horses (all on my property) seemed to keep shedding little bits of hair all through the summer well after the winter coats were gone. It got to the point their hair was actually thin. They also seemed to get bumps about the size of a quarter all over the body and neck. The vet came out and said it was probably the well water and bug bites. After $2K in well treatment equipment the problem is back this year and the well water is fine. I have tried to check the skin and soil for bugs that could be causing the bumps but can't seem to find anything. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Did you change your fly spray last year? A friends gelding has an allergy to Pyranha and can't use it on him any more. Have you tried medicated baths? My boy is prone to rain rot, one evening sleeping on damp grass and it starts.

Are they on Pasture? We had a mare & a gelding that would react to eating acorns like that..the vet called them Protein bumps. Our mare got them every year in the fall and our gelding would get them if we get a load of hay in that is a little "hotter" than normal, they look a lot like bug bites at first and then our silly mare would itch them and cause them to get worse. Now she has to stay out of the pasture in the fall
Silly girl.
Just a thought.... might want to look into it

Sounds like an allergy. Being on the east coast not sure what you would be dealing with. It is strange that it affects the whole herd. Without a whole alot more in vet bills you could try by cutting your fields short -apprx 3"- change their schedule in @ night out during day then vice versa, maybe section off or change the field they are in, a turnout out sheet or an otc antihistimine-one thats made for horses.

Do you have any pictures of what it looks like up close?

Well first of all thanks for the suggestions! I am just north of Phoenix in the desert so there really isn't any "pasture" here so I don't think it's rain rot, unless they could get it from the damp soil? I have a few stalls that open in to a 50 foot round pen. All the horses have the run of it most of the time. The bumps started slowly disappearing over the last couple days. Protein bumps sounds like a possibility. Maxx (the one with the worst bumps) likes to eat the seed pods from the mesquite trees (and anything else he can get in his mouth). I have been keeping him away from indigenous plants and I put them on a good supplement that the vet recommended. She said they could still be rebuilding their immune systems from the heavy metals in the well water last year.

Thanks again.
http://www.horsechitchat.com/equinef...boy-Happy1.png

Hey there! I may be a little late on this, but knowing your area VERY WELL (I grew up in Tucson ) and having kind of a similar experience with my gelding, good chance are they are bumps from flies.

In fact, when I lived in AZ my gelding had to a get some sort of shot two years in a row because he lost a lot of hair and was bumpy... and it was from the flies.

I wish I could remember the name of the shot, just for future reference, but I cant.

Glad your problem is solved for now! Hopefully it doesnt come back.

P.S. No way it's rain rot. No such thing in AZ. LOL

Painthorseman & Chenay,

Sorry haven't been more on top of checking the postings. But your horses may have what is called flybite dermititis, from your description. It also goes by several other names such a sweet itch, summer itch, etc. It is not just the flys that bother them but also mosquitos and the knats and noseems. The problem normally shows up in spring and progressively gets worse as the summer goes on and tends to peak during monsoon season when the humidity spikes. Then as the nights begin to cool like they are doing now (thank god)the problem slowly goes away. The best thing for these horses is to rinse them daily to everyother day with either plain water or something like EQ Solutions or EZ-All. Then keep them in fly sheets or have good fans they can stand in front of. Try not to use fly sprays as it only irritates the skin more. If your horse gets open sores along his mid line (down the middle of the belly) I have a client that makes a great product that the horse can wear to protect the area from the biting bugs. Some supplements that are high in omega fats (like flaxseed) will help also. The drugs you were talking about Chenay is Hydroxyzine, Prednisolone and Depo-medrol. Normally if you know this is what your horse has you can get a shot of Depo-medrol in the spring and that should hold them most of the summer, then if you have flare ups you could put them on a coarse of Pred. and the Hydroxyzine. Now the Depo & the Pred are steriods and the Hydroxyzine is an antihistomine. There are many different ways to use these drugs and you should discuss them with your vet and make sure that this is right for your horse. I know how you both feel. My friend has a horse that up until 2 years ago when we got him on the right program, looked like a skinny walking scab for most of the summer, he would lose so much weight because he was so irritated. The horse was not from AZ when she had purchased him.

Good luck and hope this helped,
Queen Creek, AZ


PS. Don't let them eat to many of the mesquite beans. Once assisted on a surgery of a horse that got impacted from eating to many beans as they don't digest well.

***Off Topic***

Good to see you posting Pa8nt, I have missed you!

cheryl thanks

Yes, What everyone else said.

Haha!, I totally missed this thread.

The well water doesn't sound so hot to me. Sounds like it could be bug bites/mosquitos or an allergic reaction. I have a mare that is allergic to some type of plant in our furthest back pasture (and only that pasure), she gets small bumps under the skin about the size of a nickel. Generally, none of the other horses have that problem. I have had a similar "looking" reaction when we had a problem with fly/bug bites.

At the saddle shop that I used to work at, many people swore by "bag balm" for fly bite dermatitis. It is supposed to help keep the flies away too.