Without seeing a picture, the bumps could be a few things. 1. If the bumps are under the skin and there's no hair loss or scabbing, they could be spider bites. If your horse is in pasture, he could've gotten in some tall weeds and offended a family of those ugly little creatures. 2. If the bumps are on top of the skin, there is scabbing and hair loss, they are probably rain rot. Although I've not seen rain rot on the sides of a horse. 3. Sweet Itch will cause hair loss, the bumps will look like poison ivy bumps, then open up and seep and cause the horse horrible misery from itching, then pain after rubbing itself raw to get away from the itch. Sweet Itch is caused by the bites from midge flies. Not all horses get it - depends on their skin sensitivity. If it is rain rot, betadine wash will help early on. MTG may help after washing with betadine. Someone on another message board uses Listerine. They said Listerine helps with tail itch too (unless the horse has pinworms and is itching its tail because of them). Listerine makes sense after I thought about. I haven't tried it yet, but there's a bottle in my barn now. Regarding the Sweet Itch, I had to have the vet out the first time. Now I know what to look for before it gets out of control, and I bought SWAT to put anywhere a spot develops. SWAT will keep the flies off the open sore, while giving it time to heal up. Hope this helps some. |