Girth itch, hurray!

[StraightForward]

Anyone with experience with this?

I noticed some crusty lesions around Miss Pickle's armpit about five days ago. She has just started US training, so she's going in the trainer's western saddle, which of course gets used on multiple horses. First he was using a mohair, and I *think* this just started when he switched to his neoprene cinch, but anyway, when we checked it out together the next day, it looked better, and seemed to be more in her armpit rather than directly where the cinch goes. For whatever reason, he used a different felt cinch on her yesterday. Well, today, it's 2-3x as much, so he didn't ride, and I slathered all the lesions with the silver sulfa the vet prescribes for scratches.

Planning to wash that off tomorrow morning and then treating daily with MTG, and having him hose her girth area after each ride. I also bought her a new string cinch so she won't be sharing with other horses, and I have a saddle blanket he can use under his pad as well. Does this sound like the right treatment plan?

One article I read suggested not riding for 2 weeks, but it doesn't seem to bother her, and we're 2 weeks into 30 days of training, so stopping right now would be pretty unfortunate (no indoor and we'll be weathered out in November, most likely). These aren't big, raw lesions with hair falling out, just pencil eraser sized crusty spots. Grr, we escaped scratches all summer, but she had little healing rainrot spots when I got her, and tends to get greasy heel on her hinds too.

[myleetlepony]

Do they make fuzzy girth covers for western cinches? I'd probably be inclined to try one to pad over the lesions.

It's likely from sharing cinches or it's possible she had a reaction to the neoprene; I've known a few horses that would react to it, especially if the area got damp with sweat at all, which is very easy with that material.

Did you try spot washing with betadine or chlorhexadine?

ETA...in the future, I'd probably stay away from anything that had neoprene (if he did, in fact, use a neoprene girth) like leg boots or halters with neoprene lining, just in case she *is* reactive to it.

[StraightForward]

Thanks MLP! I am suspicious of the neoprene as well, but it's hard to separate out the effect of working up an actual sweat, sharing a girth, and using the neoprene. I do have a synthetic girth I've used on her, but she's never worked up a serious sweat with it, and it might be a different material anyway.

I thought they were looking better this morning and a lot of the scabs came off with the pressure from the hose and nothing underneath was really raw and it didn't seem to be sensitive. I washed with Vetericyn medicated shampoo and then put M-T-G on everything. Hopefully it will beat a hasty retreat.

I do have some sheepskin laying around that I could probably make into a cover to at least protect the most affected area. She'll be switching to English tack just as soon as she's a little more agreeable about her new job, so I don't want to spend a ton on stuff that's going to get used 5-10 times. I do think I'll set her up with a couple sheepskin girth liners once she's going under regular tack though.