Something is eating my horse!!! HELP

[KarinUS]

Something is eating DJ! Perhaps it's something local (insect or plant) causing him to have these weird sores?
Yesterday they just looked like bumpy bite marks. The only thing weird was that he usually is the one that bites and not the one that gets bitten by his pasture mate. Plus the sores didn't have that typical bite mark shape.
OH mentioned that when he was little the cows would sometimes get bitten by flies that laid eggs in the skin! :eek: .
I thought that's just crazy talk again ;) but today I went out and the sores were open! Oozing. One sore still looked like yesterday so I took a picture of it as well and labeled it '1'.
What is going on? Does anybody know?

[horsey1]

:eek: I think they are insect bites and they dont look good what are you putting on them, they look very angry and sore

[KarinUS]

I know! The weird part is that they don't seem to hurt. The first day I put on Tri-Care but it got kind of guey. So the second day I tried something different. I have some 'Calm Coat' which has tea tree oil in it. I dapped it right on the sores and he didn't flinch at all.
I am wondering if they really broke open by themselves or if he bit them open (in case the original bumps were insect bites)?
All but one of the sores looked dried up this morning.
The other horse by the way doesn't have any open sores- just one little bump.
I gave him a dose of antihistamine this morning just in case it was a reaction to bites. :(

[galadriel]

There's a condition called "summer sores" where a horse has a minor abrasion or other opening of the skin (like a nasty bug bite) and a certain type of fly lays eggs in the open part. Then the open part gets worse and opens up further, gets nastier, etc. I can't recall what you have to do about it (I'm thinking ivermectin spread directly on the sores) but I'm sure you can find it :)

There are also warble flies, which are particularly nasty. I don't recall what they look like, except that the area is quite circular.

What you're looking at there could still be soemthing as simple as a bad bug bite that was accidentally opened from scratching at it, or some such.

[KarinUS]

I had looked up Summer Sores before but it didn't seem to match because of teh location (on his butt rather than the typical summer sore locations) and size os the sores.

Someone mentioned Ringworm because of the spots being so nice and round but I have never seen ringworm get so yucky- have only seen ringworm on cats though- well and on me after treating the cats with Lotrimin for 2 weeks... ;)

If they were itchy bumps he could have opened them himself. The two bumps on his belly are still just bumps while the easy to reach butt bumps are open.

[tb_rider]

My mom's horse gets bitten a lot to. under her belly they are little insects, nats, they bite and yes can lay eggs under the skin. She has what is called sweet itch. try reaserching it. I dont know if thats what it is but its an idea. treatment for it is,keeping bug off him whenever you can, leave a fly sheet on, treat the wounds with any kind of antibiotic oinment, that what we do. and also put "SWAT" ointmets on the bitten area, they should clear up. Once a horse gets sweet itch it can turn in to a life long problem. not all the time though. keep his stall fly free.

[KarinUS]

He is scratching them open himself! The few bumps on the side are still looking normal but I watched him scratch his butt under a tree and I think that's how the ones on his bum opened up.
We had some rains recenetly which tend to bring out fire ants. Does the #1 bite look like a fire ant bite?

[LokiSofi]

where do you live?? I saw a programme a short while ago about vampire bats biting cattle and horses in America. They naw at the flesh where a horse has been bitten and their spit is like a local anaesthetic so that the animal can't feel it. But then when it wares off the animal becomes itchy.

[parsharainbow]

There are also warble flies, which are particularly nasty. I don't recall what they look like, except that the area is quite circular.


They look like Warble fly attacks to me too actually.

Warbles look like wasps, they have black and yellow bodies but their body is curved upwards into almost a U shape, they are often mistaken as wasps although they lay eggs under the skin rather than sting which is what causes the reaction, hope this helps in some way whether to identify the culprits or rule them out

[galadriel]

Fire ant bites are pretty unique...and if an animal gets into them, they're likely to have a whole area covered in bites (looks like a rash or hives). The fire ant's bite swells up at first, then a little bit of pussy stuff comes to the center and makes the bite very peaked and pointy. It's also insanely itchy; if a horse reacts the way a person would, the horse would probably be rubbing until they were all open and raw (not just some of them).

[galadriel]

Hmm--come to think of it, the close up looks like something I had a while ago this spring. On my hand, a couple of sores, with little white spots in the middle. I was guessing that it was a spider bite (or rather, two spider bites, because I had two spots like that next to each other, and each had two little white spots).

They were mildly annoying, but not itchy and not painful. I kept them covered in antibiotic ointment and eventually they went away.

[tb_rider]

The more i look at it the more i think i was wrong about it possibly being sweet itch. it does look like something big bit him. but try putting a fly sheet on over night and see if the bits stop. if the pest cant see his skin, maybe it wont bite him.

[KarinUS]

Whatever got him only got him that one time. The sores are starting to heal and the old bumps did not open up. I can't see any new bumps or sores so it must have been a one-time attack.
I am just glad the sores aren't spreading. I hate battling a fungus stuff.
Hopefully this was just a one-time thing. Since I put calm coat on it it has stopped itching and he has quit scraping them open on that tree.
No more blood and yick. :)

[lisae]

I was thinking the same - southern state, spider bites.

The cattle grub things that migrate out of the skin are larger and have to be removed by hand (our goat got one years ago) and that is one nasty parasite.

[KarinUS]

The allknowing internet says cattle grub and warble flies are the same.
What about wasps. Unfortunately we do have a couple of small wasp nest under the barn roof...
He's looking very native now by the way with his SWAT rings around each sore. I didn't want to interfere with the calm coat and it seems like evn just a ring around has been keeping the flies off.

[tb_rider]

i'm glad to here the bumbs didn't spread, and i hope it was just bites. good luck with those wasp nests. :)