Skin Funk

My poor horse hates the heat. He's happy to work in it, but his skin just can't take it. Throughout all of the years that I have owned Izzy, his summer skin funk has been an issue. I have tried many, many topicals and a few feed-through remedies. Nothing has helped. The one thing that makes any difference at all is to hose off the sweat, and that only helps marginally.

Face funk

The face funk - you can see it in the photo above, is right where his fly mask sits. If I leave the face mask off, the flies torment him and his eyes get a bit goopy. Pick your poison, right?

Tail funk.

At the opposite end is the tail funk. No matter what kind of physical or chemical  barrier I use, Izzy insists on rubbing out not just the hair from his tail, but the hair from his croup as well. His poor tail is so thin at the bottom that it barely works to shoo away the flies.

Wither funk.

Izzy's mid-section hasn't fared any better. Both sides of his withers have big bald spots. For a bit, he even rubbed himself raw. His shoulders also have bald spots. The one part of his body that has no wounds is his back and girth area. 

Neck funk.

In the spring, as soon as the weather warmed up, I roached his mane. He hasn't let it grow back, but cutting it did seem to give him some relief. With a buzzed mane, he hasn't rubbed open sores like he has in the past. He does have some rubbed out spots along the edge of his mane, but at least they're not bleeding.

Butt cheek funk.

Over the weekend, I spotted a new rub. This one was across his butt check. It was scabbed over and crunchy. Now that the weather is cooling off and he can tolerate it, I am treating the bald and raw spots with a small smear of Zephyr's Garden Skin Rescue Salve. Now that he's itching lesss vigorously, the skin salve is helping.

I'll be glad when the weather cools off permanently. All of Izzy's hair will grow back in, including his mane and tail. And then, as soon as it gets hot again, he'll have it all rubbed out in days.

​If it's not one thing, it's ten others!