So I mentioned this the last time.

Horses like to rub what itches, don’t we all. When I was a kid I’d scratch a mosquito bite until it bled. But the question is why is it itching? (The tail, not the mosquito bite.) Or for that matter, is the tail really itching?

Okay, common sense over the years has taught us that some horses are allergic to bug bites. Here in Florida, everything bites. My horses up north would rub their tails if they had a tick in them. You can usually see flakes for certain issues. Break out the special shampoos and conditioners. There are all kinds of products on the market to stop itchy tails.

We would think that maybe they had worms. If they are on a good rotation of wormers, and are kept on schedule, that’s not usually the case.

This mare of mine that rubs her tail aka Friday, also starts rubbing her hind legs. Okay sometimes mares in heat will rub their tails. She does get dew poisoning too. Those flea bitten grays always have skin issues, not to mention tumors.

Now we have a curiosity. Nothing in her tail, not in heat, on a good worming schedule with no worms. Hello!!! So the problem is what?????

Move on to the next oddity. For a while her urine has been awfully strong. Yes all urine will get an ammonia smell when it sits, but her’s is way too strong right from the start.

I questioned my vet. The course of action for the urine was to put her on SMZ for two weeks and see if maybe we were dealing with UTI. Never thought to asks about the tail rubbing.

Bingo! The urine no longer had the strong ammonia smell and as a bonus the tail rubbing stopped also. This eliminated the broken boards from the tail rubbing. This was a win, win situation. So we were good for several months.

All of a sudden both the smell and the tail rubbing started again. Thus the electric fence was put back on. Spoke with the vet again and put her back on SMZ. Hope it works this time for good otherwise we need to have her scoped.

So once again I have to say that things aren’t always what they appear to be. Don’t just accept what is, pay attention, and check it out.

If it’s odd, it will be at my barn, but it does make for good posts.