Balding Arab

[dlogan]

I posted this before on the old DG, but maybe the new format will get me more answers. I have a part-bred Arab on loan and he has many nearly hairless patches on his body. The vet is saying 'non-contact dermatitis' and has not offered any remedies or even suggestions on how to make it better. It is NOT sweet itch. It seems to get worse with the spring coat change and the owner says it has also gotten worse year on year. Not sure when it started, but he has not always had the problem. No one seems to have any answers - I give him Top Coat and Farrier's Forumla in his feeds, but being hard to catch in summer (another story) he hasn't had much of that lately. I'm not entirely sure it was helping when he was getting it regularly, but its one of those 'makes me feel like I'm doing something' things. It does not seem to be painful in any way, and is mostly in areas where the tack doesn't touch him. I suppose its a cosmetic issue, but he is a pretty little pony and I'd like to try and do what I can to make sure he doesn't go bald. I have gotten very attached to him in the time I've had him on loan and my daughter loves him so I am willing to spend money and call in specialists if necessary.

Any similar experiences or suggestions on how to tackle the problem?

[naria]

A horse on the yard Im at gets bald patches on her face & sometimes her sides in the summer. The skin goes scaly & dry & the hair doesn't grow back until the winter. This year the owner has been putting moisturising cream on it at night & sunblock in the morning & that seems to have helped - fewer patches than other years & those that are there are smaller & have some hair growth. Her vet had also said it was a non specific dermatitis (which we took as "I don't know either!")

[moose]

My TB has suffered from bald patches on her face for the past 4 years which only occur during the spring and summer.

The skin would go all flaky, the fur drop out and not grow back. It was hot to the touch and obviously giving her discomfort. I tried every topical thing you can imagine to no avail. Sunscreen didn't help either (she is dark bay).

The vet said that it was caused by photo-sensitization, the result of eating too much clover. There are other plants which will produce the same effects like St Johns Wort.

The good news? After trying everything in desperation, and I mean everything, I used Restore from Global Herbs. It cleared the problem up very quickly and I've used it every year since. This year I gave her a small dose every day before the problem occurred and this is the first year that its not happened. ;D

Unfortunately you said that you have problems catching your horse and putting anything in the feed. Maybe you could put some medicine in a bit of black treacle (if neddy isn't too fat) and get him used to coming for that?

Hope you manage to get it sorted because its so upsetting when you have a pretty horse and you get a problem like this.

[erarab]

Hi

I had a horse which did a similar thing - it turned out to be an allergy to cereals/grains.

Once we changed him to an all forage diet it stopped completely - we also had to take him off straw so he wasn't getting any grain from that either.

Best of luck