pimple like bumps on nose, swollen legs....eek

[PePpAcOrN]

Hi, my friends horse, which she got last week, has come down with little pimple like dots all over his nose and around his eyes. The next day he had swollen legs from the knees down and scabs about his corronets, also greasy heel like. We thought it was mudfever and treated him for that. seems he's allergic to tee trees (there is a bunch in his field) and she put ointment on him and he blew up cos that had tee tree in it.

I went to horseland today and spoke to a girl who said the same thing happend to her 2yo horse, pimple like things, swollen legs THEN she said his chest down to his legs were swollen so she called the vet and he had no idea what it was but they got rid of it with some cortisone steroid injections.

She said to call the same vet and tell him about my friends horse. I called my friend... she said he horses chest had swelled up and that she had called the vet and she was comming today.

Thismorning i went to check on cruise and he had the little pimple things on his nose and a few around his eye. no swelling on the legs or scabs.

We have had ALOT of rain latley too. I'm getting her to get the vet to look at Cruise's nose, and if it's all connected, to treat him too, and i'll pay her back.

Does anyone know what this could be and has anyone experienced anything like it??

Her horse was also VERY hot. so was the girl from Horselands, horse. Cruise has no temperature...yet. BUT He was not himself when i rode him yesterday. Lethargic and not his usual charging off self.

Please cross your fingers it's nothing terrible.

Also... the spots are itchy cos cruise had scratched his nose until it was bleeding. :( i bathed it with bettadine and put a little antiseptic cream over the top, for good measure. also put fly repellant cream on his chest and legs. In case it's little bugs biting them.

what about foot and mouth??

Any ideas? Sorry this turned into such a long post. can't wait to hear what the vet says ...*sigh*.

[1 morejump]

umm, I'm no vet but I am really sure it isn't foot and mouth, only animals with cloven hooves can get it (cows, sheep, deer, goats, etc.). With the pimple like things being itchy and swollen legs it sounds like spring allergies. Have her call the previous owner and ask if this has ever happened before. The swelling reminds me of pigeon fever but if thats the case I have no clue where the bumps are from.

It kinda makes sense though, if the tee trees make him react the steroids should help being down allergic reactions. Best of luck! :)

[LMS]

Sounds like an allergic reaction to me.
Maybe it would be a good idea to find out what plants, shrubs & trees are on & around the area where the horse is kept.
You can then find out if these are toxic to horses.

I did a search on the internet regarding poisenous plants for horses (for my area) and came up with a long list of poisenous & toxic vegetation for horses. Ends up most of my property is toxic. Oh yay!:mad: But it can be controlled if I'm dilligent.

[PePpAcOrN]

Oh hey guys, thanks heaps for the replies.

The vet came out and gave my friends horse a cortisone shot. The scabs and swelling is from a fungus comming up from the wet soil. and he has reacted badly to it. As well as being allergic to Tee Tree. So he hasbeen given the all clear and the vet said he will be FINE by the weekend and to take him to the show we were planning on going to.

While the vet was there i got her to give Cruise his vaccinations for the year, and got her to have a feel of his teeth. I KNEW they would be sharp (his old owner said they had been done) but i just felt like he wasn't truly comfortable (he eats fine... but riding wise...). She said they were sharp. so there will be an exciting visit from the dentist soon for poor cruise. I also asked her what she thought of his age and she said *six or seven* so the old owner was telling the truth to me :D YEY!

So thank you both heaps you were both right... allergies. damnit... this afternoon we are fencing of the tee trees in the horses paddock.

BYE BYE!

[LMS]

Hey wait! Don't go away just yet!
Glad we could help but... did the vet mention what type of fungus? And once the soil dries up what about the spores?

[PePpAcOrN]

I had to leave while the vet was still talking to my friend about it (family stuff) and i'm going to find out all the details off her this afternoon, or even better... today during work *hehe*. Once i find out all the details and what not i will post back here :)

Because we don't want to have to deal with this EVERY time it darn well rains for 3 weeks straight (comming up to dry season tho which is a blessing)...

Otherwise might have to confine the horses to some higher drier ground untill the wet goes away.

Thanks for your interest will post again in 12 or 13 hours ahha :D

[LMS]

Gaah! 12 - 13hrs that'll make it 5 ish in the am here. Oh well...:D
Can you find out about the questions I asked?

Reason being that on my property I'm in a similar situation. A fungus/spore caused a guttural pouch mycosis in my mare over a year ago. She should've died but she somehow pulled through.

When I asked my vet and the university about it they couldn't give me a definite answer because there were too many factors. Could be the trees, the damp soil, the hay... Or she'd already been infected at her previous stable.

Like your friend, I'm trying to eliminate as many sources as I can.

Thank you ma'am:)

[PePpAcOrN]

Ok i got around to questioning her (my friend) and she said the vet told her it was a bacteria that was *washed down* (hilly area) into our field with all the rain. And because she had only had her horse there for a week he had not ajusted to the bacteria in our paddock so it affected him much worse than my boy. She has a cortisone cream to put on any swelling and itchy spots that might come up in the future... Cruise has it on his nose tonight to help get rid of the little bumps and scabby bits. The vet said to wash them in Malaseb (a chlorhexidine "antiseptic" and ketokonazole... "antifungal") type solution/shampoo, twice a week.

And she said they should become immune to the bacteria unless it has a big bloom in our field again, but just to wash them with the solution and they should be fine. :)

Thats no good about your paddock... could you maybe have a burn off and keep her elsewhere untill the grass grows back?? Thank god she didn't die. Sounds really shocking.

If it's caused by the wet ground.. i dont know?? maybe ask your vet who helped you when she was very sick, what you can do to prevent it happening again.

definatly not the hay because my friend and i get our hay from different places who have different suppliers, yet both our horses wern't well. In our case it was the soil. I hope that may help you. :)

good luck.

[Jessey]

Not sure if its anything to do with these spots on noses, but you know when young stock get warts all over their faces, our vet calls them milk spots and says they are to do with bacteria in the mares milk (which helps build immunity) and on her and the pasture and to leave them be and as their immunity builds up they dissapear. Perhaps it is something that wouldn't normally effect them but if they have not been in contact with it before or if their immune system is a bit low they are wosre effected.
Perhaps a course of Echineacia (sp?) or another immune bootsing herb would be of benifit?

Best wishes

J x

[LMS]

Now that I think of it: my neighbour's horse had a very similar reaction to your friend's horse. He also came from the area my mare came from.

Unfortunatly, medication didn't help him so she had to send him back. It was such a shame, she only had him for 1 or 2 months and they were getting along so well.

The reason why we thought it was the hay for my mare, was because it ended up being a bad batch as it was harvested & baled not completely dry. After a few weeks it started to smell odd & puffs of yellow dust (spores) was billowing when you opened the bale. No matter how much you fluffled it out, you couldn't get rid of it all. So, I burned it all & got hay that was baled in a different area. That summer had been a really wet one.

Last summer was still bad but I took my mares off the property and got hay from three different suppliers (three totaly different locations). The best hay was from an area that the ground is sand (so well drained).

On my property there's two 1 1/2 acres bush lots that's mainly red maple, silver maple and some hard woods. I'm slowly convincing my husband to cut down some trees that the horses would have access to & hopefully planting non toxic trees like weeping willows & relocating some birches.

We're gowing to plow the main paddock & get some soil brought in to cover it all then reseed. Hopefully that'll help.

Anyhow, I'm stealing the thread here. Sorry!

[PePpAcOrN]

oh no your definatly not stealing it hahahha!!!

It definatly seems in our cases it was a low immuity to certain bacteria/substances. And having only low to no exposure to it, then a sudden rush had left them struggling to fight it off.

Might start giving a little echinacea... Thanks Jessey!

Thanks heaps :D

[LMS]

My vet suspected that my mare's immunity was low as well & put her on "Visorbin" which is a green sweet syrup choc full of vitamin B's in order to boost it.

Next time I get a horse from another area, I'll make certain I give it something to boost its system.

I really hope your friend's horse (system) adjust to its new surroundings.