Three out of my four horses have white faces. Two are pintos, one has a wide blaze, the other is mostly bald-faced. The third is a pink-skinned few-spot appy.

 I use Quic Shade sunscreen and/or human sunscreen on all three noses, depending on which is closer at hand. All their noses burn and peel if I don't. Lately, I have been grabbing the Quic Shade more often than the human sunscreen, simply because it's a smaller bottle and doesn't have much of an odor. They seem to accept it more readily.

I've noticed in the past few days that the two pinto's noses are bright pink with very little hair left. Though I can see new hair growth starting in already. The appy is not having this problem.

 Do you think this could be an allergic reaction of some kind? I have used Quic Shade and human sunscreen before, and did not have this kind of problem. If I don't use the sunscreen they burn badly.

I also use full size fly masks, which help, but they almost always get them off their heads before the sun goes down.

Does anyone else use sunscreen, either human or especially for equines? Any hair loss issues? BTW- I am using the human sunscreen with my vet's blessing. Thanks

Ok, so it's getting worse now and I am beginning to think it's an allergy of some sort. I read a while back that white clover can make some horses photo-sensitive. My older, baldfaced mare actually had some bleeding, like an abrasion under her right eye tonight when I brought them up from the pasture. A good sized patch of no hair at all, rubbed raw. It was either overcast or raining all day today so I doubt the sun did this.

I do have an abundance of white clover in the pasture this year. My older mare has been grazing on this pasture for eight years, the other pinto three years. This is the first time anything like this has happened.

The appy is not having any problems at all.

I will be calling the vet in the morning for his assessment, but curious if any of you think it could be an allergic reaction to white clover or perhaps something else.

I use WalMart's brand of diaper rash creme on my horses noses and for the scratches that one of them gets perpetually during the warm months.

I know of a lady whose horse's pores got blocked from her using too much sun screen and she had to have the vet out.

Here's a link to alsike clover poisoning that might also be helpful

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/info_alsike_clover.htm

Great website, thanks. I am guessing from the pictures I have the Alsike clover as well as the white and the red.

I will have to write to them and find out what "long-term exposure" means. I am wondering if it means year-round all the time, or long term over several seasons... the latter would be bad news for me. We have short seasons here in Maine and I am hoping the "Short" exposure they've had means no liver damage.

This is frustrating though, because my horses have been on this same pasture every summer for years.  This problem has just now presented itself.

BTW- my vet had never heard of allergic reactions or poisoning from clover....

I have kept them in the dirt paddock for the last 24 hours. Already a HUGE difference. Their noses are not so pink, and the bleeding spot is healing up nicely.  I put Aloe Vera Veterinary Cream on their noses, followed by the NO-AD sunscreen.

I have also used the zinc-oxide based diaper medicine on their sunburns before. I like it because it lasts all day!

"This is frustrating though, because my horses have been on this same pasture every summer for years.  This problem has just now presented itself."

This same thing happened to my friend on the WPA border.  For years she has put her horses in her neighbor's pasture on the "upper" road.  Two years ago, her Spotted Saddle Horse ended up with a horrible case of cellulitis while she was on vacation and her niece (grown up with her own kids and horse savvy), was taking care of the "farm".

The vet said the cellulitis was the end result of Alsike Clover poisoning.  Until that time, I didn't even know it existed and we were all open-mouthed because she had used this field for years when her own pasture got down.

Quite a bit of money and medicine later, her horse healed up fine from the cellulitis and has never appeared to have any residual affects from the alsike poisoning.

We are both 60 and both of us were practically born on a horse, and have always had horses.

We keep wondering what happened to the Good Old Days when coggins was unheard of, our horses didn't need shots, and we turned 'em loose to run side-by-side with beef cattle on a 100 acre pasture, thick woods and barb wire fence and no one ever got hurt or sick and didn't get worms

Good luck with your dilemma.  I hope you can get it resolved.  Any chance your local Ag might be of some assistance?

I've used bullfrog on my appy mares nose for a couple of years now.  She hasn't had a problem or a sunburn since I started using it.  It took her a while to get used to the spray though.

So, a couple weeks later and they are improving. I have switched totally to the NoAd sunscreen - much easier to put on and I think they find it soothing. Whatever is left over, I put on my own nose!

One of my mares is away for three weeks, and her facial hair is growing back, still a pink nose, but I guess that comes with the territory.

My older paint mare is still home. I switched her to a different pasture, slowly trying it out. Yesterday she spent the entire day on this different pasture and came in last night looking fine.

My vet did some research and feels it is probably a contact allergy that caused the irritation on the nose and lose of facial hair. Because of that they burned worse than normal. He doesn't think their photosensitivity was raised by the ingestion. The photosensitivity is a result of the hair loss, which is a result of a contact allergy.

He felt that the findings on the clover toxicity and the subsequent liver damage are somewhat inconclusive.

He said that if I felt it was necessary, he'd draw some blood and check the liver enzymes. I may do this for my peace of mind. Once liver damage symptoms are visible, the horse is in serious trouble.

Diaper rash cream!!!  I use the cheapest generic brand I can find.  It will not only block the sun, it will heal any skin that is already burnt.  I have a SSH mare who has very thin hair at the root of her tail and gets terribly burnt in the summer.  The diaper cream works every time.

RIDE ON!