Hi Jan,

Sounds like you and your horse have been through a great deal! Scratches is generally fungal, and I didn't see any antifungal preparations in your list. I have heard of a successful treatment by a veterinarian that involves DMSO (available from your vet or any health store), fenbendazole wormer (which is an anti-fungal and available through your feed store as Panacur paste), and nitrofurazone (an antiobiotic salve that you can get in a feed store). Mix them together in equal parts.

Apply the cream mixture after you've cleaned and patted dry the skin. Apply daily and do your best to keep her clean.

Her immune system is also important and I highly recommend Daily Start as a potent probiotic along with oligosaccharides that further boost immunity. this along with PreOx, an antioxidant preparation, and she'll have the tools to heal.

Keep me posted on how this works!

All the best,

Dr. Getty

Where are you from? Bayfield, CO

Thank you for your response. We had tried some fungal remedies, including the one you mentioned with no success. However, low and behold we have it cleared up. One more consult with CSU and I happend to get a resident who mentioned that they've had some luck treating what appeared to be scratches with mite meds, just your average over the counter dog flea/tick/mite drops. Their theory is while they don't show up in a cultrue, the mites come from the shavings and come and go, causing enough irration to do damage. Well two treatments and she looks great, they are 99% gone. I did a skin scraping and while nothing showed, they've all but disappeared. I appreciate your response and just wanted to share what happened to work for my mare, in hopes in might help someone else.

Jen

Where are you from? Colorado

How did you locate this forum? link

Hi Jan,

Well, how 'bout that?! What an interesting treatment! Thanks for letting me and my readers know so other horses can benefit.

Congratulations!

Dr. Getty

Where are you from? Bayfield, CO