# strange sores on lips...



## Magaidh

I was looking over my boys this afternoon and noticed my 9-month-old draft cross weanling has a couple of odd-looking sores on the inside of his lips. They are exactly the same on both sides, and raw but not bleeding. There are no teeth in the way that they might be rubbing on, nothing out of place I can see that would irritate this spot. He went to the summer pasture just over a week ago.

Has anyone seen this before?


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## Indyhorse

Yikes, those almost look a bit like burns. I would guess since it is on the same location on both sides, it would be something he got in his mouth. Have you looked around his pasture to see if you could find anything?


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## AngeMoore

*Strange Sores...*

Do you have Buttercups in your grazing field - they can cause blisters in the mouth if eaten???


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## Indyhorse

You know, I did a quick google search and found some similar pictures - this might be worth exploring:



> Summer Sores
> Habronema infection (known as habronemiasis) commonly manifests as "summer sores," ulcerations of moist areas of horse's skin. Photo by Cookie Originals. Flies, flies, flies! Summer has arrived and so have those nasty flies. So, what are summer sores and what causes them? Yes, it is the common house fly and stable flies that are the intermediate hosts for the parasites that cause summer sores. Summer sores or habroniasis/Merck Vet Manual is a condition that affects horses. A parasitic larvae known as nematodes is the cause of summer sores.


Summer Sores, Jack sores, Bursatti, Habroniasis and Draschia megastoma in Horses

Here's some pictures of some horses with it:


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## Magaidh

Thanks for finding this information, Indy. It looks like summer sores is most likely what he has. :-( I dewormed about a month ago. I will give the vet a call tomorrow and see what he suggests.


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## Indyhorse

Hey, all I did was google "equine mouth sores", I had never heard of them, but they sure looked similar. Happy to help.


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## Magaidh

Update on this fellow.

I spoke with my vet a few days after posting this thread. He asked to send along photos. The sores grew quite a bit from the time I took these shots, as you can see below.

My vet didn't have many ideas as to what they could be. He agreed that it -could- be parasites, but he thought that unlikely since I had dewormed so recently. Basically he told me to treat them topically, which I did with a natural antibacterial/antifungal a few times. The sores are almost gone now, and I will take some updated photos for you guys to see.

Oddly, a friend of mine had this happen to one of her horses this spring, a middle-aged broodmare. She had never seen it before either. Perhaps it has to do with our unusually wet spring here in eastern Ontario...?


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## Indyhorse

Thanks for the update! Been reading up about this since you had originally posted, as it was something I had never heard of before. Believe me, it can get scary if not tended to.

With the pictures, I still think they look like summer sores/Habronema. I strongly suggest you google it and research it yourself a bit, I think you will be sufficiently convinced, as well as disturbed enough to really want to get on the situation and take it seriously. Perhaps send some of the veterinary articles about them to your vet if he isn't familiar with them.

Just because your horse has been recently dewormed doesn't really mean he can't further be exposed to them after the fact.

Also, from what I have read, left untreated, they can go away on their own and reappear again time and again, year after year. 

Action to take recommended by the websites I saw are as followed:

Aggressive deworming with Ivermectin
Application of an anthelmintic and an antibiotic directly to the sores
Fly management and control on the property
I have also read some people suggesting putting ivermectin directly on the sores



One article I read was about a donkey getting them every year, the donkey was located in Brantford, Ontario - not sure how far that is from you but I'd suspect it is reasonable to assume it's something that is in your area.


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## NdAppy

Going to agree with Indy advised. Sure looks like summer sores to me.


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## Magaidh

Thanks for the research, Indy. I am going to go ahead and get a fecal egg count done, and then I will deworm him once again. I suppose I should have done this sooner, but since they were shrinking and my vet didn't seem concerned, I thought he was on the mend. Better safe than sorry. 

Fly management....We live deep in the backwoods in Canadian Shield country and it is extremely "buggy" here. Horse flies, deer flies, moose flies (HUGE things), mosquitoes, etc. I spray them every three days with a pretty heavy-duty fly spray and they have some nice open areas in their summer pasture where the wind does a good job of keeping bugs down. I cheer on the hoards of dragonflies that come out every afternoon to eat my nemeses, hehehe.

I remember seeing something about fly trap boxes that I think it was you who built...maybe someone else. I wonder if this would even make a dent in the bug population here...somehow I doubt it. :-(

Brantford is about five to six hours from us, so close enough.

I'd also really like to learn more about natural parasite control using something like diatomaceous earth, which I have heard of people feeding to prevent parasites. (It doesn't kill anything that's already there, from what I understand).


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## Rachel1786

I had a gelding a few years ago that had that exact same thing, I never did figure out exactly what it was but it went away on it's own and hasn't come back since, i got the gelding in like 2005 and while i did give him away, I now board one of my horses where he is and he hasn't gotten them again...they are very strange, i thought they were similar to a lip ulcer or cold sore type thing


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## Indyhorse

Magaidh said:


> Thanks for the research, Indy. I am going to go ahead and get a fecal egg count done, and then I will deworm him once again. I suppose I should have done this sooner, but since they were shrinking and my vet didn't seem concerned, I thought he was on the mend. Better safe than sorry.


Hey, following your vet's advise is usually the smart choice, nothing wrong there, but I am just hesitant to shrug this off if it IS summer sores, because it can lead to some very nasty other stuff. 



Magaidh said:


> Fly management....We live deep in the backwoods in Canadian Shield country and it is extremely "buggy" here. Horse flies, deer flies, moose flies (HUGE things), mosquitoes, etc. I spray them every three days with a pretty heavy-duty fly spray and they have some nice open areas in their summer pasture where the wind does a good job of keeping bugs down. I cheer on the hoards of dragonflies that come out every afternoon to eat my nemeses, hehehe.
> 
> I remember seeing something about fly trap boxes that I think it was you who built...maybe someone else. I wonder if this would even make a dent in the bug population here...somehow I doubt it. :-(


Goodness me, I hear you about bug problems. Thankfully, my chickens take care of most everything, but I still have massive mosquito swarms because I have a lake right behind my house. It sucks! Just FYI, I think it is the common housefly that carried the little stomach worms that cause the summer sores.

It was AlwaysBehind that built the cool traps, I'll see if I can find the post where she wrote about it, or maybe I can get her to pop by this thread and tell you about it. I want to build them too!


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## Magaidh

Ah yes, lakes! Our region is called the Land o' Lakes. There are over 1000 in our county! We have two lakes, a pond, and a stream on our property...more than enough water for bugs to thrive. sigh


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## Left Hand Percherons

Summer sores will appear to get better on their own but it's more just a function of the life stage of the larvae. Double dose with Ivermectin (other classes of dewormer don't treat the stomach worms) and rub Ivermectin directly on the wounds 2-3 times a day. The sores should be gone in less than one week.


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## horsecrazy84

Check his gums! If there are any blisters or anything like that on the gums, tongue,etc it's probably Vesicular Stomatitis. But if the gums are fine then I say it's summer sores. I have not read the entire thread, sorry, what are you currently putting on it?


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