Biting his leg till he bleeds?

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OneHoofBeat

New Member
Jan 24, 2017
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Went to turn the ponies out last week, noticed he had blood all down his front leg. Cleaned the blood off, and there was a tiny wound, looked like he bit himself to he bled.
He seemed fine, just stuck some wound spray on it since it wasn't very deep.
He hadn't done is since, so I thought nothing of it.

I've gone down again today, and same leg, has blood on it. Clean him up, check his leg, and isn't another bite wound, leg is a little swollen, but not as much blood and it's higher up this time.
He's not biting any where else. Just this one leg.

I'm going to treat his legs for mites, but I would of thought he would of gone for all four legs and not just the one?

But if it's not that, what can it be?
No heat in legs, No dry skin, checked for lice, and everything seems fine.
 
I would treat for lice/mites as a precaution anyway, even if you think they aren't there. It could just be an unlucky bug bite on the same leg twice, or it could be this is the only leg he can scratch to that extent comfortably perhaps or maybe he's found a scratchy spot that he can only access facing 1 way so can only get that leg.
 
Seems odd - so you've seen him biting it? Mine gnaws when her feather mites are bothering. Could there be something stuck in the wound? That is making it itch and making him worry it with his teeth??? Bit like if we get a spell stuck in our hands, I can sometimes not see it but feel it and it sort of itches before becoming painful and then I just have to remove it (normally sharp hay or wood splinters).
 
Many reasons.
But if mine goes through an itchy spell, it's usually a combo of flies, urine, too hot.

My usual checks are-
Scrub all the legs with a curry comb to remove any loose hairs, dried piddle. Mares back legs/ gelding front legs.
Scrub all the legs with dermoline.
Shorten the tail and shorten the feather.
Get right in there with nettex, one bottle per two legs.
Repeat the above in two weeks bar the hair trimming. :D
 
Treated him for mites even though he had stopped biting his legs, but I just wanted to be sure. I thoroughly brush his leg every day because he wear tendon boots, and I'm iffy about things making his boots uncomfortable.
I decided to go ahead and treat all the ponies for mites, even though the other two showed no signs, just incase. As my cob does have a lot of feather.

So far, he's not doing it. But I've found two-four small lumps on his leg that he's biting, none on the others, so I'm going to start putting fly cream on his leg - I have it for his stomach and sheath. So I can just add that onto his legs, but it's driving me nuts not knowing what it is.
 
Can you get a photo?
Lumps suggest something either infected or irritating. Maybe a bite that got a bit of dust in it.
Was going to day dirt, but we don't have any, it's dust as so darn dry.
 
newforest said:
Can you get a photo?
Lumps suggest something either infected or irritating. Maybe a bite that got a bit of dust in it.
Was going to day dirt, but we don't have any, it's dust as so darn dry.
Click to expand...

You can't see the lumps, You can only feel them. There small. I can touch them and they aren't bothering him.
 
I brought Jess fly boots a couple of years ago, she only wears them when the bugs are really bad as she gets bites on her legs and then stamps a lot. She just gets tiny little scabs to start with but they seem to itch and drive her a bit potty.
 
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