06/12/2025
Absolutely great responses! There are many reasons you might see these but the most common are:
SLEEP DEPRIVATION: Horses spend majority of their daily sleep standing but can only achieve the required REM sleep while laying down. Horses that refuse to lay down for reasons such as pain, uncomfortable surroundings (single horse that lives outside, small stall, uncomfortable with herd mates etc), or weakness with a questionable ability to get up after prolonged down time to name a few, will fall into the deeper REM sleep while standing and fall. This leads to constant abrasions on the front of the fetlock or knee. Contrary to popular belief, narcolepsy is relatively rare in horses and usually not the cause of falling. Treatment for this is fixing the reason they wont lie down, so often extremely difficult to resolve. These will often be apparent all year round.
SUMMER SORES ((habronemiasis): These are chronic wounds that often appear on legs, face, or sheath. They are due to house or stable fly depositing larvae of the stomach worm into previously broken skin/ wounds and the larvae causing an inflammatory reaction due to the inability to complete their normal life cycle. Normally, the flies deposit the larvae around the lip area, the horse ingests the larvae, and they complete their life cycle in the stomach. You often will notice small, yellow, gritty granules when cleaning summer sores which is characteristic of these wounds. These can be small or quite extensive and often the more extensive are confirmed through biopsy. Treatment includes many options including ivermectin, steroids etc and is usually at the discretion of your veterinarian due to severity. IMPORTANT: these often will spontaneously regress in the winter and reappear in the summer. If in ge***al area, these will often cover up underlying and deeper reasons for the lesion (i.e. Squamous cell carcinoma) and the biopsy must be deep enough to get underlying tissue to diagnose properly.
Like many of you mentioned, you can get guards or wrap while the horse is in the stall and fly spray and proper wound care if important for prevention of summer sores. Wounds actually heal better COVERED which will also prevent those pesky flies from depositing larvae. Good fly control around the farm is also crucial. If you notice these, talk with your vet about potential ways to you might be able to resolve them.
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