Good morning.... I just picked up a very nice team of 7 yr old Clydes Cross Mares. Sweet girls but one mare has a strange looking patch of skin that is at the top of her neck right under where the collar will rest. I thought it was just an old scabby area but upon further investigation reliezed that it looks to be more like a fungal thing. The skin is dry and cracked looking. If I pull or brush it, small chunks of hair fall out and she seems uncomfortable if you push on it to hard. She is not bald in those spots but the skin seems to be cracking below her hair. I haven't had much troubles with skin disorders so I'm not sure what it is or the correct way to treat it. At this point, I cleaned it and applied "Equus" skin treatment to it and looked in each vet book but no real answers. Any ideas from my more seasoned "porchers"????

Pam you might try putting some mild iodine on the area a couple times a day. Sounds like a skin fungus and shouldnt be a problem for long. You could also try a round of antibiotics like touciprim or gintimyicn, as they work on both gram positive and negative bacteria. However I think the iodine will probably do the trick. Be sure and get mild as the strong could blister the top of the neck and be more irritateing. Moisten the area and remove all the dead tissue you can without causeing a fight with the horse then start the iodine. Hope this will help you.

Pam...Probably the folks you got her from didn't get the top of the neck clean when they put the collar on or there could have been some dirt on the collar cap or pad. Could have been to much weight pulling down on her collar or one of several things that caused it. I have had some horses and some mules sore up there in the summer heat when they weren't hardened up yet. I never worried about it, just kept it cleaned off, put salve on and put a piece of sheep wool between the neck and top of collar and kept on working them. Wash it with an iodine wash to really clean it good and apply a good salve. I often use pencillin applied to the sore area and rubbed in real good. It will heal them up pretty quick. Just squirt some on it with a syringe and rub it in. Have used it on my hands for rope burns for 30 years or so and it heals them fast.

The kids old pony tends to get patchy scabby clumps of hair that fall out and cause some discomfort if you get very aggressive trying to get rid of them. I use something to soften them, like furacin or cheap walmart triple antibiotic ointment. Work on them over a period of days and slowly pick the clumps out. Seems only to be a problem when their hair is heavy in the winter.

Get some Dr. Naylor Blue-Kote , dauber
or aerosol. Kills fungus etc. Good stuff.

Thank you all for the sound advice. We'd like to keep this nice team of mares going in the right direction instead of giving them a reason to be pains. :0)