sores

Question
My 17 yr old mustang mare has has scabby sores under her belly by her udders since i adopted her earlier this year. There are also some bumps under the skin. Horse vets didn't know what they were but wanted to do a biopsy which I couldnt afford. A vet tech looked at them and thought they weren't cancerous, thought they were from flies. I had a friend to a biofeedback treatment on her who said they weren't cancerous either. i was putting wound salve on them, now using some other salve for gall sores, but not sure what gall sores are! And ideas, suggestions? Thanx L

Answer
Laila,

Given their location I would suspect bug bites. What kind, don't know.  We have issues with gnats in this area that can make a real mess of the horse's skin.  Just a little info, gall sores are caused by something rubbing the area, generally tack-related.  Like the rubs/blisters you get on your heel if your shoes rub when you wear them barefoot.  

What you need to do is calm the skin down.  The immune system has overreacted.  If fly season is over with in your area then you simply need to get things calmed down and healed.  She could have possibly also developed a fungal infection in the lesions as well.  Buy a bottle of witch hazel and 2 kinds of essential oil - found at health food stores generally - lavender oil and tea tree oil.  You may even be able to buy the tea tree oil in the grocery store.  Grocery stores in this area carry it, surprisingly enough.  Anyhow, get a little spray bottle, 4 oz. or so and mix up a solution of 15 drops of lavender oil and 12 drops of tea tree oil per ounce of witch hazel.  Shake the bottle each time you use it and spray the area several times a day for 3-4 days.  The witch hazel soothes the skin, lavender helps with the skin irritation and the tea tree oil takes care of fungus and is a pretty good antiseptic too.  The sores should dry up in about a week.  Forget the gall salve, it's probably clogging the pores of her skin there.  Try some cortisone cream that you can buy at a drug store, grocery store, Walmart, etc.  Smooth that over the area to help reduce the inflammation in her skin. The skin around the udder is thin and sensitive, just remember that when you are treating it.  The lumps under the skin are probably calcium deposits or scar tissue.  In either case, they will go away in time once you get the problem cleared up.  If they don't then you may have to scrape the money up and get them biopsied to find out what you are dealing with unfortunately but try this first.  It's not an expensive treatment, the oils run under $10 a bottle and go a long way, witch hazel is very inexpensive and the cortisone cream is as well.  

Good luck and let me know how this comes out.

Lyn