# My shedding horse is going bald



## davidsonknollfarm

I have a lovely chestnut TB mare. She always sheds out beautifully to a copper penny. This year her face is practically bald as well as her butt. Her shoulders and neck are very thin with a longer wiry hair still left. She did stay out all winter but was blanketed and has a shed -- besides we had a super mild winter. It doesn't seem to bother her -- she isn't rubbing. If I were to curry the head or butt it would be tender although it isn't red. Does any one have any ideas.


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## Saddlebag

There was something about this on another thread. We are thousands of miles apart yet a neighbor's horse's head lost a lot of hair on one side only. Vet did a skin scraping. Nothing. He suggested they treat it with hydrogen peroxide. New hair is growing in but no idea if the peroxide helped.


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## goneriding

I have a mare doing the same thing. Her diet is fine, I think it is related to a warm winter. Her skin is dry and flakey in some areas. Hair protects the skin, she has some areas exposed, hence dry and flakey. I just started to add a rice oil supplement to her feed in hopes it helps. Either way, in time her coat will come back in.


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## MHFoundation Quarters

It's happening all over. I've got a few doing the same. Didn't look fungal to me but had the vet take a peek anyway while she was in the area, she's seeing a lot of it this year. She said with the above average winter and early, quick spring they are losing winter coats without having a base grown in underneath first. Also asked my farrier when he was here Thurs, he said every place he has been has at least one doing the same thing.


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## davidsonknollfarm

Thanks for your help. I figured it was okay, but wanted to share with others to see what was going on. She looks sooooo funny. She thinks she is sexy right now too -- crazy in heat. LOL


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## SlideStop

Maybe she is lacking something in her diet? I would start her on flax seed and throw some MTG over the balding areas. That will help the hair grow back and takes care of any dry skin or fungus.
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## windspeed

Hi all! I had the same experience this year, especially with my copper gelding! I agree with MHFoundation Quarters. It seems to be weather related. And not all horses are doing it. Out of my three horses, only the one who usually sheds first is doing it. I just support his new hair growth now by stimulating blood circulation and getting the dry flakes off. A good natural grooming brush is best (I like the one with raised edges). There is a sale for natural grooming brushes going on here. Just 'like' the fb page and you will see the sale.


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## davidsonknollfarm

Because of the wet summer last year and crappy farmers, my hay wasn't so good, so that could be part of the diet. She is on Source which I find is wonderful for their coat. Kind of like a multi-vitamin.


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## mselizabeth

I just posted about this a couple days ago on the health forum! Apparently it's an epidemic this year. My guy's bald in the same exact spots as you. It should just be weather related. And should grow back in soon.
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## GhostwindAppaloosa

same thing here. skin underneath is however healthy and i can see the summer coat growing in so no worries.


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## FlyGap

All three of mine were doing weird things. My super fat healthy mare had a bare butt for a week. Rick's forehead went COMPLETELY bald but he was fine everywhere else. My grey gelding was really weird and had bare patches on his flanks. 
It's the weather. Lay off the curry comb on the thin area, their skin is sensitive and could even be sunburned. My grey was super sensitive so I just used a soft brush and let things happen naturally with him. He's lookin sharp now.


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## Saddlebag

What puzzles me is that a horse starts it's new coat about December. We just can't see it for all the winter coat. Shedding is based on daylight hours getting longer, not temperatures. Why would only some horses have this condition yet not all? Why her and not mine nor the other neighboring horses? Yet those who have it are spread about a huge geographical area with different weather patterns.


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## xxdanioo

A horse at our barn is shedidng like that. He looks so sad haha.


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## ResearchEquine

Hi, I've just experienced the same thing with my 26 year old chestnut mare here in the UK. Her hair around the stifle, in & around the hindlegs fell out in huge patches leaving dry bare skin. It looked like mange (!) but she wasn't itching at all & couldnt have reached to have rubbed some of the areas bare. 

This started before we put the clocks forward but we've had a unseasonally warm spell at the end of our winter & after doing some investigations online I came across 'Equine Seasonal Alopecia' (dont think i can insert url's so just Google it). As other users have posted this is where the winter fur sheds before the summer coat has started growing. 

My mare lives out & to be on the safe side I added a broad spectrum multi-vitamin & some cod liver oil to her twice-weekly feeds. After around a month the hair started to grow back & has continued to do so. Looked awful at the time & still a bit odd with patches of summer coat with long furry winter coat but nothing serious I dont think.


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## HarleyWood

weird! my Paint gelding is black and white and in his white you can see his pink skin clearly! he was at the trainers for a month got him back about 5 days ago. and he looks ready for summer but with very short hair on his neck and stomach/sides. while my other two are still shedding!


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## GhostwindAppaloosa

ive noticed it more on my darker horses. maybe they were getting warmer? not sure. My lighter white type horses dont have any of these issue.s


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## smilin1590

Yep, I'm having the same problem with my 23 year old chestnut. His face started getting bald and then his shoulder area. His skin looks healthy, I've just stayed on top of brushing him and also washed the areas with an antifungal shampoo just in case. He's got summer hair growing in but very slowly. It's got to be the weird weather this past year.


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## FlyGap

Saddlebag I agree. It is weird, I thought diet at first but my really healthy mare that I've had for years did the same thing as my newer geldings. All three were on good pasture this winter with added hay, minerals, and feed. Cherie on the other thread said a deficiency but it shouldn't have effected my mare if that was the case. Idk! All I know is I was freaking out thinking they had lice but they didn't. Weird.
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## New_image

One of the boarders horses here, a chestnut gelding, is doing the same thing. The other nine horses (not chestnut) are reasonably normal, for the most part. One of my friends horses, another chestnut, is going bald also.


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## tecara

I got this off of another group I'm a part of... Seems like it is a wide spread problem... Not sure this is the answer but maybe worth looking more into....

Anyone ever heard of seasonal alopecia in horses? Where the horse is going bald in spots. Clumps of hair falling out. It is because it got hot so fast and the horses haven't had a chance for their summer hair to grow on and it is making the winter hair fall out in clumps. That is going on in my barn right now..no treatment ...it will grow back on its own, but I did buy some mtg to help summer hair grow faster. I thought I would let you know because I have never heard of it and thought it was interesting.


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## franknbeans

So weird. Will we then have to be careful about them getting sunburned? I would think we may. On the flip side, I have one not shedding hardly at all, who has been in all winter in MD-warm winter also, but he is still hairy, to the point that I am debating giving him beer (which I know works with slow shedders). Crazy weather. DKF-Frank can donate chestnut fur-he has plenty.


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## COWCHICK77

Mine are doing that too... no irritated skin underneath. Just looks like winter hair shed out faster than summer hair comming in.


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## MakeYourMark

Oh no! I hope I don't end up with a bald Lunar!! xD


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## clavoie

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## Shasta1981

My 28 yr old TB is doing this. Seems to be happening to older horses at our barn. Trainer and I figured it was because they were sweating more than usual with their winter coats on thanks to the unusually warm winter. I did get a chance to hose her a few times, but since the weather was so sporadic is was hard to be consistent. 

Anyway we figured the sweat build up contributed to the fur coming out? I don't know about you but this is when my horse usually sheds out anyway! I will have to research this alopecia... 

Does yours come out in little, tiny tiny patches about the size of 1 cm? This is happening on her rump, shoulders and now legs.


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## qh21797

My mare did the same thing!! Her hair grew back in about a month. It is most likely Seasonal Alopecia...When the weater turned warm here in GA quickly. It went from the 50's to the 80's in one week...Well needless to say my mare started shedding her wintr coat, but her summer coat had not yet started growing in. I was so afraid it was a fungus, but had the Vet take a look, and it was but Seaonal Alopecia


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## SugarNSpice

Same thing happening to both of my horses, as well as many other horses at the barn where I board. Started with their chests and moved on to their backs, flanks, and little patches here and there. Definitely think it's just the warm winter and early, unusually warm spring. Their bodies don't know what's going on, summer coats aren't ready yet and can't keep up with the shedding. Just for reference since people are saying it's happening to certain colors...mine are liver chestnut and bay, but it's happening to pretty much every color here. Paints with a lot of white and darker colors alike. I panicked a bit at first since my mare had terrible rain rot all over her body when I first got her 9 years ago now, and was scared it was a re-occurrence (she's never had it again in all this time), but all looks well. Skin underneath is smooth and healthy looking, might give them a medicated bath and/or use a spray on them anyway to be safe though.


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## AndreaSctlnd

My copper penny is the same way. I see new growth coming in but she is still shedding GOBS of hair and has bald patches.


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## RoosHuman

Same thing here! Just on one mare. I put on some MTG just in case, right now she has a thin but shiny layer that has grown in. Same thing at a therapeutic riding center nearby...


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## davidsonknollfarm

My girlfriend just told me her aged chestnut Gelding is losing all the hair on his face too.


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## Saddlebag

franknbeans, that's all you need, an alcoholic horse. Next thing you know he'll be galavanting about the neighborhood, coming home at all hours then demanding you feed him.


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## ktrolson

I have heard from more than one source that red horses tend to have less mane and tail hair. Not saying all of them. Maybe it's the same for their bodies too.


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## SugarNSpice

Saddlebag said:


> What puzzles me is that a horse starts it's new coat about December. We just can't see it for all the winter coat. Shedding is based on daylight hours getting longer, not temperatures. Why would only some horses have this condition yet not all? Why her and not mine nor the other neighboring horses? Yet those who have it are spread about a huge geographical area with different weather patterns.


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## Saddlebag

I recently came across and article on Seasonal Alopecia. I'd never heard of it in all my years involved with horses but it's out there and weather related.


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## franknbeans

Interesting. I never heard of it either. I will say that DKF's horse looked pretty good when I saw her yesterday.....the hair seems to have grown back.


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## hberrie

I heard that applying scope mouthwash to bald areas helps hair to grow back. Can anyone confirm or deny this?


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## MHFoundation Quarters

Mine that did this have all gotten their slick, shiny summer coats now. So glad, they were looking pretty unattractive. 



ktrolson said:


> I have heard from more than one source that red horses tend to have less mane and tail hair. Not saying all of them. Maybe it's the same for their bodies too.


Interesting theory. My sorrel was the worst with this shedding thing and she does have the wimpiest mane & tail of the bunch. Hmmm.


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## SlideStop

hberrie said:


> I heard that applying scope mouthwash to bald areas helps hair to grow back. Can anyone confirm or deny this?


The mouthwash will kill off any bacteria. So if there is a bacterial infection in said area, yes. If not mouthwasy won't have any effect of hair growth.
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