Additional livestock! - Magic and friends

Magic arrived from the sales on a Friday evening, and seemed to settle happily into a warm stable and plentiful grub. By Saturday, though, it seemed that I’d bought more than I bargained for – it looked like Magic had brought some little friends along with him; ear mites ! The insides of his ears were covered in thick white crusty deposits.

I knew it could be one of several things, some more serious than others. I had not wanted to poke about too much on his first day, to avoid unsettling him further, but we had a yard quiz to guess what the condition could be. Suggestions ranged from a fungus infection to rain scald to cradle cap (?? Not sure about that one !) I thought it was plaques, but top votes went to ear mites – especially when, the next day being warm, Magic started shaking his head Was it flies, hayseeds – or pesky little mites jigging around in his ears ?

By Monday morning the white crusts were turning distinctly yellow – which signalled infection to me. Maybe the stress of going through the sale ring and moving house had lowered Magic’s immunity a bit, allowing the germs to set in ?

And so the vet bills for Magic started early ! And, it turned out, were a complete waste of time, and money. The young locum vet who came along (holiday relief for the main man) was very sweet. She was no doubt great with cats and dogs, and quite possibly a world expert on rabbits. But she knew very little about horses, it seemed. She was only little, and Magic is very big – so she didn’t actually touch his ears at all! Despite my offer of a standing block, she simply perched on tiptoe, murmured a bit, and then announced it could be one of several things ( well, whatdyknow!), she couldn’t be sure what, but it was infected and needed ear drops, three times a day. And, yes – (in reply to my immediate query) – it WOULD make him head-shy.

Well, she was right about that, anyway. Within two days Magic wouldn’t let me near his head, never mind touch his ears. ( And before the treatment started , he had been perfectly relaxed and happy about both.) Another two days and I gave it up. The treatment was proving worse than the illness – and in any case the yellow crusts had gone and more white ones taken their place. I was quite glad to see them !

Magic still has his crusty ears – it is plaques. They are caused by the papillomavirus and are related to warts, though clinically different. And, though they can look untidy, lots of finer-breed horses get them and generally present no real problems. Plaques are usually caused by flies biting, ( which is why hairy ponies, with hairy ears, seldom get them – because the flies can’t get past the hair to do the biting.) Once established, plaques are difficult to shift. Some people scrape them off and douse with iodine – but obviously risk head-shyness developing . Magic’s previous owner told me, ( some time later) that twice a year they would twitch Magic and then clean out his ears with baby oil, which seemed to keep on top of things. I did this recently, when Magic was sedated for having his teeth done. ( so we didn’t need a twitch.) .

And it has to be said there have been no more problems. For a while in the summer there were a lot of flies around, so I covered Magic’s ears when he was out in the field to prevent them bothering him, but I’ve had to do nothing else. Some horses do get very irritated and sore in their ears, especially if more flies get in, and then soothing ointments, like Mentholatum, can help. Dermofas is said to work wonders for soothing, and even helping reduce the plaque crusts. Thornit powder is also said to be good at reducing the crusts. The problem is always, how to apply such treatments without making the horse upset, sore, and increasingly head-shy? I only tried medication for a few days, but it took Magic several weeks before he would let me touch his ears again, and I had to find ingenious ways of putting on his bridle.

But he’s fine now, crusts and all. Magic has learned to live quite happily with his little plaquey friends – and so can I.