Best ringworm treatment?

[Callisto]

Hi all,

some of you may remember that DD's lead rein pony came back off loan in October with horrendous sweet itch. I hogged his mane and it seems to slowly be clearing, though it is very difficult to treat, and even get the dry skin out, due to his immensely thick winter coat.

Anyway, he seemed to have a couple of new patches on his forehead, one just where his forelock hair ends and one directly below on his star. I gave them both a good scrub with a rubber curry today and all of the hair came away to reveal two round bare skin patches, the biggest about the size of a pound coin. I think the poor chap has now got ringworm, though it is possible (is it possible?) that the sweetitch was ringworm all along. And of course DD's new pony who shares a paddock with him, has got patches of hair loss on his face too, though nowhere near as badly as the other one.

I've no idea where the ringworm has come from. He has been back with me for around 9 weeks now and the other ponies they have been out with don't have it. The paddock I use for them hasn't had horses in it for at least three years and we haven't been to any rallies or competitions since he has been back with us. This is the main reason I am wondering if it was ringworm all along, though it certainly didn't appear to be ringworm and seemed a classic case of sweetitch.

I'm really at a loss as to how to treat it. His coat is so thick and dense that it is almost impossible to find the patches until the hair is coming out in chunks. I suppose that I could clip him out and stable him until I have got on top of the infection, though I am very loathe to do this, and I also have to think what to do with the other one, who can't be turned out with any other ponies now.

So any advice would be really very welcome. Sorry for the essay!

When we collected Cassie she had ringworm (vet spotted it when he came the next day to do her jabs) He prescribed a wash which cleared it up in 5 days, but we had to be really careful about reinfection (fortunately she was quarantined as new to the yard). I cleaned everywhere she'd been with the solution and burnt headcollar, rug, brushes etc, and wore gloves/dealt with her last etc. We were very lucky, it cleared up and didn't come back and no other horses were infected, but it needs vet strength treatment

Oh, and if you stable him you'll then have spores in your stable which could then reinfect him. It's not that serious, but horribly contagious and can take a while to show.

canesten, surely?

I definitely remember accompanying a yard owner to Tesco and buying dozens of tubes of canesten and a bottle of brandy and feeling a bit self-conscious at the check out

Have you checked him for lice? We've he ponies come to us with it and face is a classic place for them to rub. They accumulate in the forelock and mane. Our Meg had a huge rubbed spot the shape of Africa when we got her back and several other smaller patches.
Lice can be quite hard to spot, and occupy the traditional sweet itch spots of mane and tail, causing excessive rubbing. when we got Skye and she was absolutely crawling, she had patches on her face where the hair fell out when i groomed her. lice would also infect others causing his field mate to scratch too.
I think you probably need toget the vet out to check him over. And if it is ringworm, remember, you can catch it too! it's HELL on Earth

I had one on my leg once, I think I must have got it from a calf that our then yard owner bought at a market as none of the horses had it (can't think of anywhere else). Luckily it didn't spread anywhere else and the doctor prescribed Canesten as it is a fungal infection. It cleared up fairly quickly, thank goodness, though not before I'd had to go to a summer christening . I tried to cover it up with a plaster but then people just kept asking me what I'd done to my leg!

I caught it from my dad! He is diabetic, and apparently it's not unusual. He was topless one day and I hugged him! It was horrible. (Ring worm, not the hug) I got it across my chest. I have never itched so much in my life!

Thanks for all of the replies. I'm pretty sure that it is ringworm - there have been cattle in that paddock recently and the places on the other pony are round too.

Oh bugger, no doubt I'll get it just in time for Christmas - is it hideously unsightly? No doubt DD will get it too as she loves to kiss them on their faces.

Canesten is a great idea, I shall get a vat of it from the chemist today. I guess I need to treat any wooden fencing/gates in the paddock too, luckily not much of that, will bleach solution do the trick? There are also some bug trees in the paddock - will I have to disinfect th trunks too? Can't burn the rugs, I only got them a couple of weeks ago. I have got a spare for each pony - should I treat with canestan for a couple of days and then change rugs or change when I start the treatment?

I may also treat for lice just to make sure that I've covered all of the bases, though he is much less itchy on his neck since the cold weather and lack of midges and he isn't scratching his bum at all now.

You need to get proper advice. Bleach solution could be terribly harmful to any animal that bites or licks the fences an I'm really not sure about the trees. Also, I'm not entirely sure, but a friend of mine mentioned restrictions in traffic on animals from places with ringworm for quite some time. I hope that's not the case! but definitely worth checking. It would be awful to spread this around.

I'll ask my farmer bil whose cattle this must have come from, good point about bleach and the environment.

The wash we had from the vet was only about £15 so probably cheaper than canesten in large enough quantities. Our yard used to be a dairy farm and they are laid back about all sorts, but not ringworm because of the way it spreads, and how long it lives in wood. I'd really get the vet out for this, probably cheaper in the long run

I also meant to say that Cassie didn't itch at all with the ringworm, so it could be something else

I've just hada chat with my lovely farmers daughter friend. She came up with an interesting theory, that as a child, only some of her dads cows ever got ringworm at any one time, and he didn't really do much to treat them, and she thought it might well have something to do with a lowered immune system. It would make sense regarding your newly returned and a bit itchy pony, and my dad with his diabetes problems and also that new horses at our friends riding school which used to be a beef farm would often get itchy scratchy ring wormy type stuff on arrival. Not that it's caused by immune system problems, but that this means they pick it up more easily. Maybe a good vitamin and mineral supplement might be worth trying along side anything vet recommended?

That's very interesting Saggy. I've heard that horses can become immune to ringworm though I don't know if this is for ever or just a limited time or even possible. The ponies are currently on a small scoop each of Hi Fi no molasses with a generous dollop of veg oil. I could easily put a supplement in too, though they do have a red rocky in the field. I'm driving past Countrywide tomorrow, guess I'll be calling in now (and heading straight for the supplments bit and looking neither right nor left at the lovely Joules clothes... ).

I've spoken to BIL and he says there is no ringworm in the herd at present. My SIL's horses were turned out with the cattle over the autumn and none of them have ringworm either.

Both ponies are looking really well and they are both bright and happy so I am reluctant to call the vet out over what appears to be a very minor skin problem, but if the hair loss doesn't clear up or gets worse that will be my first port of call.