scratching

[kaykell7]

my mare has recently started scratching her face on thegate post and has scrathched areas red raw. have you got any suggestions why she might be doing it and how to stop her and wether to put anythiing on the bits where she has no hair. some one said bath her in some antibacterial type shampoo because it is probably all the grime in her coat from over winter but i think its to cold to bath her. she has always liked scartching but had never done it like this before do you think she could be doing it because she is bored? the field is muddy and has no grass and although she does have hay she doesnt have a constant supply. as she is a highland and will eat it until its gone even if it means she is about to explode she doesnt stop when shes full. any ideas greatly appreciatd :D

[lisae]

I had a horse get lice one winter, and the louse dust twice at a ten day interval solved the problem. You can see them if you look carefully at the base of the hair; they're very tiny though and can look like gray dry skin flakes.

[virtuallyhorses]

If you can't see the reason for this behaviour - lice, mites, rain scald etc then you need to get your vet out to determine what the problem is. If there is nothing evident to him\her they will take a skin scraping for examination and this should let them prescribe the correct treatment.

There's not much point in using a 'shotgun' approach to treat an unknown problem. You could well spend a lot of time and money treating 'lice' or whatever only to find out that its a bacterial or viral infection and in the meantime this spreads. (or vice-versa)

[western]

the problem your horse might have is lice. you can put some powder on it and your horse might stop itching.

[jenna_horse]

I have a New Forest that used to itch and nobody knew why. So we tried 'Kill-Itch' which soothed the areas and cooled them down as she used to rub on the trees and the areas would get quite warm. It really done the trick and all her tail is growing back now. Try and give this a go... you might be as lucky as we were!
Jenna xx