pl;ease help!

Question
Hi!Today i noticed for the first time that my horse, after bringing him in from the pasture, turned around in his stall, looked quit uncomfortable and then begin to rub his rear end agaist the stall bars, not vigurously per say, but not gently either. I've seen other horses do the same, yet never mine. What causes him to do that? I would really like to know to make sure he's ok! Thank you!

Answer
Maria,

I can think of a couple of reasons for this, first and foremost being pin worms.  That's a common sign of them.  You have to lift his tail and inspect the skin around his rectum very carefully.  The pin worms look like very tiny, light-colored dots.  When was the last time you wormed him?  What did you use to worm him, what kind of wormer was it?  Not all wormers are effective or will even work on pin worms.  Right off hand I can't tell you the whole list of wormers but anything with ivermectin as the worming agent works on them.  I know there are others but the best choice is to read the label.

That would be the first thing I would check.  If that's not it them carefully inspect the skin on the dock of his tail, down at the roots of the hairs.  Is the skin dry and flaky, cruddy looking, or otherwise not normal?  If so, then he's got a skin or possibly insect problem that needs to be addressed.

He's itching and you have to figure out what the problem is.  Once solved this behavior will stop.

Hope this helps.

Lyn