Summer Sore - any suggestions?

[Heart's Journey]

Good friends of mine have a QH gelding that has a summer sore on his right front leg. They have been dealing with this since last June, even resorting to surgery, but haven't "cured" it as of yet.

Does anyone have any suggestions? remedies to share?

thanks in advance

[KrazyTBMare]

When they did the surgery, did they biopsy to make sure it is indeed habronema and not pythiosis?

If it is a summer sore, which my gelding had, the vet made up a mixture of DMSO, liquid Ivermectin, & Furacin to apply topically to the wound every day. You also have to give weekly Ivermectin (my vets protocol was 1 dose every week for 4 weeks). Def supplement with probios to help the stomach.

I did have my geldings surgically removed as I thought it may be pythiosis. When the biopsy results came back, it was habronema, a summer sore, but there was nothing alive in the biopsy. I had just double dosed with Ivermectin 2 weeks before and the vet felt this is why there were no live worms/parasites in the wound.

[Heart's Journey]

I will ask them tomorrow as I'm borrowing him this weekend to go camping. They mentioned it to me and said how hard a struggle it's been to cure it.

I'll tell them your suggestion as well.

[MunchkinsMom]

According to my handy-dandy second edition "Horse Owner's Veterinary Handbook" by James Giffin, M.D and Tom Gore D.V.M, on Summer Sores:


Summer sores may heal, only to break out again next season. This suggest that a hypersensitivity reaction, related to the presence of adult stomach worms, is a factor in some cases. Horses with summer sores are nearly always heavily parasitized by Habronema. Severe itching is present.

Treatment: Early summer sores respond well to ivermectin paste, which is effective against both the adult worms in the stomach and the larvae in the wound. The inclusion of ivermectin in a deworming program will reduce the frequency of summer sores.
Skin preparations containing organophosphate insecticides, wettable powders, and antibiotics can be applied beneath dressings or massaged into larger open sores with good results. Your veterinarian can provide you with a suitable prescription.

[Cherry]

Since this is a sore that isn't healing I think I would have the vet out and test the horse for insulin resistance using Dr. Kellon's criteria on the Yahoo Equine Cushing's and Insulin Resistance board: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/EquineCushings/ . I'd also ask the vet what he thinks should be done about the situation! ;)

The other thing I would do is put the horse on Lysine, an amino acid, and keep the horse on it until I started seeing some healing going on. Start with the standard dose for a few days and then up it a scoop every few days until you're feeding it at three to four times the recommended dosage. Lysine aids in the repair of soft tissue.

[Foxhound]

I got rid of a summer sore on one of my previous horses by applying Frontline (at a vet's recommendation) 3 days in a row.

[Heart's Journey]

They're going to try the ivermectin. It's looking much better now as the flies are gone with the cold and its formed a scab. He had been wrapping or covering it to keep the flies off, but left it off this weekend and it seems to have made a difference. I will suggest they read this thread.

They have been applying Vetericyn per their vet.