Aural Plaques

[zeldalithgow]

Poor Trev appears to have aural plaques anyone have any experience of them

[harveydales]

No experience myself but, funnily enough, I was reading up about them a few weeks ago for another pony with them. I'll leave it to people with personal experience to reply first though.

[valerie n scout]

No help here either Zelda, sorry x

[Debbie]

Absolulely no personal experience, other than I've read at least in the US they think it's something to do with age and possibly flies transferring something from cattle. The latest I've heard, you're supposed to leave them completely alone, or at least have the vet sedate or anesthetize the area because fiddling with them can be very painful. Basically you don't want to create any headshyness.

I hope the vet can help steer you towards what to do. Over here, they leave them completely alone and in youngsters they seem to clear up on their own after awhile.

[April]

We thought Jester had them years ago and got the vet out as we didn't know how to treat it but it turned out someone had put super glue down his ears!! I remember going on a call out when I was doing work experience at the vets a few years after to a horse that had it and the vet just advised washing gently with hibiscrub and keeping the ears covered from flies. He said to use Vaseline to keep the flies out as fly masks that were safe for field use weren't really around then. This was nearly 10 years ago though so I expect how they treat it has changed.

[cadeby]

I have no experience of them personally, but have read a few articles about them in the scientific press. It used to be thought they were caused by fly bites, but now it's generally accepted that the equine papilloma virus is responsible for the condition, and because it's a virus, it's quite difficult to treat.

It might be worth discussing this article with your vet Zelda - if the study results are correct, then this cream sounds very effective although the size of the test group was small at just 21 horses, and the treatment itself looks very aggressive judging by the graphic photos

www.academia.edu/1551227/The_efficacy_of_imiquimod_5_cream_Aldara_in_the_treatment_of_aural_plaque_in_horses_a_pilot_open-label_clinical_trial

Hopefully someone will have personal experience of aural plaques so you haven't got to make a decision based purely on the literature. Poor Trev. He has such lovely,expressive ears xx

[Tynedale]

Is it not just a juvenile thing Zelda, a bit like warts on youngsters and they disappear.
I have read somewhere that someone had good results using canesten cream.
Off topic a bit but might help if they are thought to be viral, Delight had what looked like 3 sarcoids on her girth area last year and I applied Zovirax cream or the cheaper Tesco's version to the area every day for about 6 weeks and they disappeared completely.