The Fungus Among Us

Last week while I was at the Farmers’ Co-op I asked about fly prevention and one of the sales clerks told me about Equys products. Each of the all-natural, organic line of horse products is labeled for both human and animal use; in fact, she uses the mane detangler, which is a leave-in spray, on her daughter’s hair and loves it. Plus, she told me, they smell good. One product she mentioned three or four times for its efficacy in treating skin conditions and said that sometimes horses get a scabby condition that responds well to the natural product. Since that wasn’t my concern of the day, I filed the information in that sieve I call a mind and hoped that a smidge of the important information stuck for future use.

That afternoon the sun had been shining strongly for the first time in many days and I noticed that Lucy had soft, flaky, scabs around her pink muzzle. I wondered if it might be sunburn. Janet, I noticed, also had some little bumps around her muzzle but they weren’t peeling like those on Lucy. Janet also had a strange hardness to parts of her baby-soft coat. On her neck it felt as if she had some old cracked hide beneath her pretty spots. She seemed to like it when I’d rub those places, so I did.

On Friday and Saturday I noticed what appeared to be cuts on both Lucy and Janet. As time progressed, so did the number and severity of Janet’s “cuts.” I could not imagine how she had split the skin along the outside of both hocks and atop one elbow, and searched the paddock for dangerous spots. I found none. I tried once to communicate my concern to our Operations Manager, but we weren’t communicating on the same wavelength or something at the time. When she saw the filly on Sunday the poor thing was such a mess that she told me, “That animal does not look healthy.” We agreed that I would bring my concerns to the Co-op on Monday. Although I was urged to move mare and foal into a horse pasture—away from alpacas and goats—I chose to instead move the last of the goats out of the barn and give Lucy a stall of her own. Strange as it seemed, I had gotten used to having each horse in her own pasture.

Then Monday morning I was relieved to realize that Janet’s “cuts” were not cuts but rather patches of skin left after clumps of hair in soft scabs had peeled free. This was better than having so many injuries, yes, but once I related the peeling scabs to the leathery feel that now covered much of the filly’s body I was again alarmed. I took pictures of Lucy’s scab-free but now spotted muzzle, the filly’s scabby muzzle, and some of the more gruesome balding patches then set off for the Co-op in search of answers.

Surprisingly (to me) I recalled the mini-lecture about Equys products and was able to locate the product for skin conditions. The same clerk was available at the sales counter and she told me that the condition was bound to strike every horse in Wilson County at one time or another, and that it is a fungus that appears after rainy spells and in long wet grasses. Well, the home pasture is as short as possible without being denuded, but the rain we’ve certainly had, so I shelled out $25 and headed for home.

After spraying the exposed areas f skin, I reviewed the directions (Did I mention that I’m an idiot?) only to realize that one ought to bathe the horse with a medicated shampoo before misting the coat thoroughly with the product, then repeating it two or three times daily. Well, Janet has yet to wear a halter and I cannot see her standing still for a bath just yet unless I have help, so I finished spraying her coat and made a mental note to pick up a small halter. Yesterday I did have her wearing a cord around her neck for a time which she did come to accept, but all the touching we do is done on her terms—and she’s free to step away anytime. She always comes right back, but she’s not yet standing on request. In fact I would not have managed to spray her except both she and Lucy were in their stall and I sprayed her each time I could reach spots as she continually circled her dam and distrusted the spray.

So the fungus is among us at this time. I’m told it’s highly contagious among horses and sharing saddle blankets or brushes is a no-no. Brushes may be dipped in bleach before moving to another animal, but it’s best to have separate grooming tools for each horse. At least our girls are all in separate pastures’ I guess they’ll stay that way for a bit. And although I got the message that this is an equine problem, I’ll double-check tomorrow and ask if alpacas or goats are known to pick it up at all. (I hope not!)