[SCMSL]

I noticed yesterday my horse had a few pimples throughout her body, and on her pasterns.

Today it seemed more like ringworm.

I think everybody I know has a different way to treat it. How's yours?

[Lauren12]

Ringworm does not look like pimples, and typically shows up on the neck and thorax as small, focal areas of hair loss, potentially with some crusting/scabbing.

The best way to treat ringworm is to go to CVS and buy a buttload of Monistat. Attempt not to make eye contact with anyone as you are carrying said Monistat to the counter, hope to GOD you don't run into anyone you know, pay with cash, and run out of the store and straight to the barn as fast as possible. Hide your stash in the trunk, and hope you don't get pulled over on the way!

You'd also need to thoroughly clean everything that has touched your horse with a dilute bleach mixture, or a dilute betadine mixture or a dilute chlorhexidine mixture (brushes, tack, saddle pads, wraps, water buckets, food buckets, stall walls, grooming areas etc). It is quite communicable and can spread from horse to horse very quickly.

[Marshfield]

Lyme sulfur dip. Stinks, but cheap and effective.

[crosscreeksh]

I've always treated it with an application or two of strong iodine spray...and it's gone.

[BuddyRoo]

Scrub area with nolvasan/shave if needed. Apply Tinactin or similar antifungal for 10-14 days.

If it really is ringworm, that's probably your best bet. But more than likely you've got rain rot going on and might want to add in a triple abc to the mix.

[jen-s]

Diluted chlorox. WWAAAHYYYY cheaper than anti-fungals and works with the first application.

[BuddyRoo]

Out of curiosity for the iodine/chlorox users...if a one stop useage worked....really worked...then why would they have actual drugs for these things?

I think it's kind of irresponsible to recommend treatments with stuff that isn't at all designed to treat and then to further say it's a one stop fits all.

I mean, bleach can kill lots of stuff, sure. So can some iodine. BUt really, neither are proven at all to treat a fungus or bacteria long term.

[Lauren12]

Out of curiosity for the iodine/chlorox users...if a one stop useage worked....really worked...then why would they have actual drugs for these things?

I think it's kind of irresponsible to recommend treatments with stuff that isn't at all designed to treat and then to further say it's a one stop fits all.

I mean, bleach can kill lots of stuff, sure. So can some iodine. BUt really, neither are proven at all to treat a fungus or bacteria long term.

Ringworm sticks around for a while, and needs to be treated until AFTER it's gone, to make sure that it's gone, so you're right on that one! Treating just once will kill some of the fungus, and leave others, thus promoting resistance. So, you really need to treat for a while - until all the lesions are gone and hair begins to grow back again. It's also preferred to treat with a specific drug, i.e. an antifungal for ringworm (Monistat, which I suggested earlier, works great).

Chlorhex, iodine and bleach all work well killing most bacteria, some fungus and a variety of other pathogens. They work great for killing stuff with prolonged contact (why we suggest cleaning the INANIMATE objects with this, like soaking your brushes in a bucket of dilute betadine, because it needs prolonged contact time to work). However, using these on the animal can also promote resistance by killing indiscriminately. In the areas where chlorhex or iodine are applied, not only will the ringworm fungus be affected, all the normal commensal bacteria of the skin will as well. This can promote the potential development of bacterial resistance, which is why we recommend specific drugs for specific therapies.

However, bacterial infections like Staph and Dermatophilus on the skin respond really well to washing and treatment with chlorhex and iodine, and they work really well to kill the bacteria and stop the infection. I'm not sure what you mean by "neither are proven at all to treat a fungus or bacteria long term," because they absolutely are. You just have to pick the right man for the job.

OP: Figure out what your horse has on it's skin (vet is best). For ringworm, best treatment is a topical antifungal (Monistat), applied once or twice a day until the lesions get better and hair begins to re-grow in the affected areas.

[jn4jenny]

Out of curiosity for the iodine/chlorox users...if a one stop useage worked....really worked...then why would they have actual drugs for these things?

I think it's kind of irresponsible to recommend treatments with stuff that isn't at all designed to treat and then to further say it's a one stop fits all.

I mean, bleach can kill lots of stuff, sure. So can some iodine. BUt really, neither are proven at all to treat a fungus or bacteria long term.

Based on my one super annoying experience with ringworm in a horse, the truth is somewhere between your position and what others are saying.

Ringworm itself can be knocked out with a pretty wide range of anti-fungals, including the hardcore stuff like bleach or Nolvasan, a povidone iodine lathering shampoo, other anti-fungals sold in drug stores like clotrimazole or miconazole cream, etc. Ringworm spores, however, are a total b*tch to kill--and once they go airborne, your horse and everything around your horse is a ringworm target. Pretty much the only thing that reliably kills ringworm spores is a 1:10 bleach-to-water solution. You can kill some of the spores with Nolvasan/chlorhexidine but it's not nearly as effective as bleach and leaves some spores behind.

So assuming you've got a case of ringworm that's mature enough to give off spores, you need a three-pronged defense: something that kills ringworm on contact, something that will at least contain the spores/keep them from going airborne/deprive them of oxygen if possible so they're less likely to mature into ringworm, and ideally something to actually kill the spores. So for example, my horse had ringworm on his muzzle where I wasn't willing to put bleach. I used a chlorhexidine solution applied with a paper towel (so it could be easily thrown away), then covered the area with miconazole cream.

[vxf111]

Lyme sulfur dip. Stinks, but cheap and effective.

This. And atheletes foot cream too. Stinky. And cats love to be dipped in it (not) but it works.

[staceymc]

One part Monistat, one part Vagisil, one part Lotramin, one part Desitin. Incredibly embarrassing to purchase, but works great.

[crosscreeksh]

Out of curiosity for the iodine/chlorox users...if a one stop useage worked....really worked...then why would they have actual drugs for these things?

I think it's kind of irresponsible to recommend treatments with stuff that isn't at all designed to treat and then to further say it's a one stop fits all.

I mean, bleach can kill lots of stuff, sure. So can some iodine. BUt really, neither are proven at all to treat a fungus or bacteria long term.

You've never heard of "Free Enterprise"??? Home remedies have worked for ages. Put a fancy label and a few more additives and it becomes a money maker for some pharmacedical firm!!! Not saying the expensive stuff doesn't work...just sharing MY experiences. And I do keep treating until all symptoms disappear. The iodine just works fast. I've got a good cure for scratches, too, but we won't go there.

[deltawave]

Lotrimin cream. But other products work fine as well. The body will typically gain the upper hand eventually and knock it out treatment or no. Treatment just prevents the horse from looking like hell in the meantime.

Chlorine bleach is great for disinfecting a lot of things and is my "go to" product for thrush. But I don't care to put it on or near a horse's face, eyes, or any areas that might be irritated, even if it's dilute. Or on a kid. That, and not any sort of Big Pharma conspiracy, is why there are gentle, safe, effective medications -- so we can minimize exposure to chemicals that are more noxious.

[jen-s]

What jn4jenny said. For many years I used a lamisil, desitin, monistat (or neosporin depending) combo, but then one of my good friends in rescue clued me in to the diluted bleach idea. I absolutely agree about not using it on delicate skin (mucus membranes, face, etc), but for not-so-delicate areas, it works great. And occasionally it might take a couple of applications, but not often--especially if you can let it soak in/scrub in for a few seconds.

[Beethoven]

I like using the lotramin ultra spray! Convient and easy and you don't have to touch it. I have personally used full strength bleach on myself when I had this one ringworm spot that would not go away after weeks of treatment. It worked like a dream, but I think going with the other stuff first is the way to go.

[shakeytails]

None of my critters have ever had ringworm, but I've gotten a couple of spots on me a time or two. Never did figure out where I got it from, especially since I have a pretty tough immune system. Monostat worked like a charm.