Bumps on nose - not viral

[Crystallos]

Our mare turned up with bumps on her nose and lips Friday. I'll be seeing the vet about it, but I wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this and has any advice.

Some history:

Smokey is 15 years old and spent most of her life in Southern California. We moved to Oregon and brought her up here in July. In California she was on a dry lot, but when she came to Oregon we introduced her to pasture. We had no problem with the transition and no bumps. We moved her into a new shelter area, that's basically a big stall right now, while the winter pasture was being completed. She had a bit of roughness to the skin around her mouth while living only in the new shelter. When I started turning her out on the grass, the roughness turned into these bumps. I think they are itchy, it looks likes she's been rubbing at them. It also needs to be noted that the stall mats in the new shelter were purchased used. We washed them off, but didn't use anything special. The other horse she lives with isn't having any problems. I started her on an antihistamine my vet gave me for her COPD after I noticed the bumps, but I haven't seen any improvement yet. I'll be keeping her inside until I figure out what is causing the bumps. Thanks in advance for any insight!

 

[Lil Eowyn]

Sounds like skin papillomas. This is caused by a virus, papillomas begin as smooth,raised,flesh-colored lumps that latter become gray any rough. They tend to occur on the muzzle and lips of young horses. Sometimes they can be found scattered on there eyelids,ears,lower legs and sheath.If they start irritating or bleeding the horse they can be removed by freezing them off (cryosurgery) or chemical cautery(acid) after time your horse will build a natural defense against this ,the horses imunity will naturally regress the warts in about 3-6 months. (I copied and pasted this from a yahoo answer)

Good luck! =)

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I'm glad you will be getting your vets input on this but I agree with Lil Eowyn, they look like warts (skin papillomas) and are not uncommon altho your horse is a bit older than the usual age for them I would guess that the move brought her into contact with the virus and she had not been previously exposed. If they are warts they will clear up on their own in time and your horse will have a lifetime immunity to them afterwards. Some horses never get them even when their herd mates do (a natural immunity perhaps or exposure earlier in life) but they rarely need any treatment other than time.

 

[disneyhorse]

I agree they look like they could be warts...

 

[Capall Beag IRL]

in Ireland we call them grass warts.

loads of home remedies but i find best thing is just to leave them and after

a few months they just disappear.

i find that ive never had them on a filly only ever on 2 geldings, 1 mini and 1 large horse

 

[Crystallos]

I spoke with my vet this morning and showed her the pictures, one from Friday and another from this morning. The bumps turned into scabs about 1 or 2 days ago and are falling off. Underneath the scabs is smooth skin. She's worried the mare might have caught "sore mouth" from the neighbor's sheep. We're going to send off a sample to test and make sure. In the meantime, I will need to confine her as it is very contagious to other animals and people. I'll post a picture from today when I can get help to take a clearer picture.

 

[Diamondinmypocket]

I had a big mare I saved from a bad situation. She came with a muzzle full of warts. My go to horse expert looked at them and said she was older than usual for the young horse warts. I decided to leave her be unless she really needed a vet. They never got worse here and after a few months were gone.

I figured she might have been allergic to something she was forced to eat and once she was moved, she did fine.

Either way she went to a new home fat and healthy with no warts. All I did was dry lot her and fed her well. Once she was recovered enough she went into the pasture and they never came back. I was told sometimes stress at a young age dosen't allow the body to act right. She was about 5, so it seemed to make sense.

I am glad you called the vet if it is something different. Hope she gets better soon!

 

[Crystallos]

Here is a picture of what her nose looks like today. She also has bumps around the base of her ears. She's been separated from the other horses, but nobody is happy about it. Smokey is my herd's glue.

 

[Lil Eowyn]

Lookin good! I'm glad she's getting better =)

 

[Jean_B]

I wouldn't worry about it. Just a case of warts - it didn't bother me if my horses got them. I always would try to pinch a few of them which forces the virus into their system so that they would develop the antibody to fight them, and would be immune for pretty much the rest of their life. Since she is 15 - she might have gotten them as a youngster and the immunity wore off. Sort of like a case of a kid getting a case of chicken pox. Rarely get it again. Unless she develops a spot that looks infected, no need to see a vet - save your money and just let time take care of it - Mother Nature's way of insuring she won't get them again.

 

[Crystallos]

Is it normal for equine warts to occur at the base of the ears? She has bumps there too.

 

[Crystallos]

It took two weeks, but I finally got the test results back from OSU and it is not viral. So it can't be warts. I had another vet suggest it was something called "clover scald", but I couldn't get a lot of information about it. He said, if it was clover scald, she has a severe case. So, between two vets, they aren't positive what it is. The original bumps/scabs on her nose and mouth are gone, but she still has some on the bridge of nose, ears and along the base of her mane opposite the side where the hair falls. I trimmed the areas that were still affected per vet orders and this is what I found. We are treating for symptoms at the moment. The ragged bits in the mane picture are actually the bumps/scabs. Anyone have an idea what this is? Or have experience with clover scald and could explain it to me?

 

[Lewella]

I think you might be dealing with two different things here. Those glumpy hair patches look like they could be rain rot scabs (fungal). The nose looks like some kind of contact allergy/rash.

 

[izmepeggy]

I had a big horse years ago that got those..Turned on it was from the dew on the grass.It was what we call Dew

poisoning .Had to wait for the dew to burn off before I could turn her out..Just a thought.

 

[Minimor]

I agree with Lewella--looks like a contact allergy that she had in her nose--obviously not warts once they started flaking off as they did--warts do not act that way.

That on her neck could be something different or it could also be a contact allergy--and it is just reacting a little differently on the neck than it did on the more sensitive muzzle.