Photos by Veronica Green-Gott.
I have been very lucky to have a horse who doesn’t usually suffer from skin conditions like Scratches (scientific name: pastern dermatitis). So, when Sally initially asked me if I could review Show Out Products’ solutions for Scratches and the like, I was going to borrow a friend’s horse who is prone to developing the scabs. My horse must have read my emails and gotten jealous. I show up at the barn the next day and what do I see? Scratches on her pasterns. How kind of her. In truth, it really was perfect timing and I was very excited to have some new products on hand to try out.
Just so we’re all on the same page– what is pastern dermatitis? Referred to as Scratches around the barn, pastern dermatitis is a type of skin funk (we’re very scientific here at EN) that horses regularly develop on their pasterns, fetlocks, and on the cannon bone. It first presents almost like rain rot, with little tufts of paintbrush-like hair coming off of your horse when you curry their legs. If it’s left to develop, it turns into painful, raised scabs. If the scab comes off, you’ll find an open, red, and oozing sore underneath. It’s not fun and, if your horse is particularly sensitive, picking at the scabs is a great way to get kicked.
On to our not-so-patient patient: LB is a 9-year-old Off-the-Track Thoroughbred mare; I purchased her from the Foxie G Foundation when she was 3, just two weeks after her last race. She’s simply a lovely horse. A plain bay, I’ve always counted my lucky stars that a) she’s the color of dirt and b) rarely develops any skin issues. But after a very rainy spring turned the pastures muddy, I arrived at the barn after working at the Kentucky Three-Day Event to find out she had developed some significant pastern dermatitis on her hind legs.
Pastern dermatitis, we meet again.
Normally, I would use diluted chlorhexidine to clean the area and top it off with some zinc oxide or whatever random product I had impulse purchased last time I visited my local tack store. This time, I had a new weapon in my arsenal: Show Out Equine Skin & Scratches Spray and Shampoo. To my eyes, it’s a pretty gentle product. It uses Tea Tree Oil and “ProH Technology.” The secret sauce, aka ProH Technology, creates a low Ph environment that the back of the bottle says bacteria don’t like. The lower the pH, the more acidic the environment, and the fewer bacteria survive.
I started with the Show Out Equine Skin & Scratches Shampoo. I very nearly went with my normal routine of diluting the shampoo in a bucket of clean water, but luckily turned my brain on in time to read the back of the bottle and realize it specifically says not to dilute the product and to use it generously.
Now, have you ever gone to pour out some shampoo and have a glob of soap plop out onto your sponge? Personally, I hate those shampoos because the glob is difficult to spread around. Show Out’s shampoo is the exact opposite. It’s nice and liquidy, suds up quickly, and spreads easily, allowing a little bit to go a long way. I do have one cautioning statement here– pour slowly. Otherwise you will lose some product to the ground as it comes out quite fast.
I poured it directly onto my curry comb for the best scrubbing action and it seemed to work well. It doesn’t specify whether or not you should let the shampoo sit for a certain amount of time, but I scrubbed her pasterns first before doing the rest of her body so the shampoo could work for a couple minutes. It started to look better as soon as I rinsed the soap and dirt off, leaving her coat shiny and soft for the next 20 minutes until she rolled in the paddock. I handgrazed her while she dried and then sprayed the areas pretty generously with the Show Out Skin & Scratches Spray.
Finally, I lightly covered the worst spot on her pasterns with Bag Balm. Now, this isn’t in the instructions on the bottle, but Bag Balm is a great SWAT alternative to keep flies off a wound and after scrubbing in the bath, the dermatitis was bleeding and oozing just slightly, making it a prime target for flies.
I’m going to be honest, I had relatively low expectations. There are lots of products on the market that advertise great results and often fail to deliver. This time, I was pleasantly surprised. I make it out to the barn three or four days a week. When I came back two days later, I was really surprised to see a lot of improvement over a short period of time. It also helped that the sun had come out and the ground was starting to dry up.
I stuck with a schedule of spraying LB’s Scratches every time I was at the barn and saw huge improvement over a two-week period. By the start of the third week, the Scratches were essentially gone and the hair had grown back in. Now, there are some environmental factors at play here. The mud dried up and I could keep the area clean and dry, which I believe allowed the spray to work efficiently.
Two-ish weeks later, voila!
While the mud dried up, the flies unfortunately stuck around. LB has always been prone to Sweet Itch around her udders and girth area and the gnats this season were brutal. The oozing and crusty scabs around the poor girl’s udders were not comfortable and she was so itchy she was lifting her hind leg like a dog so I could scratch all the right spots. My new friends at Show Out had also sent me their Wound Spray. On a whim, I decided to test it out on all her irritated bug bites. I followed it up with more Bag Balm to keep the flies from biting the area and sent her on her way.
Now I think LB would probably be mortified if she knew I were posting photos of her udders on the internet (sorry LB), but luckily she doesn’t get great WiFi in her pasture and will never know. The improvement I saw here was huge! Over a week, the bites slowly disappeared. As long as I kept the flies off the area with Bag Balm, they didn’t come back.
Before
After
In July, LB started to develop the early stages of dermatitis on her cannon bones. While I sprayed her legs right away, I didn’t see that much improvement at first. Realizing I had skipped the shampoo, I went back and shampooed her legs before following up with the spray like I had done before. Success! Her cannon bones cleared up quickly and didn’t progress. She still has a little bit of hair to grow back, but with regular currying, I fully expect her legs to be back to their usual healthy selves soon.
I would recommend learning from my mistake and using the shampoo as your first line of defense against dermatitis. In my experience over the last few months, the shampoo packs a big punch, but is less convenient than simply spraying the area quickly and turning the horse out. When you see a new skin issue pop up, shampoo first, then follow up with the spray until the condition goes away completely.
The spray isn’t just more convenient, it also has a pretty big range, which is great if you have a horse with a bad case of dermatitis that is less than thrilled about having you work on the painful sores. In these cases, the spray was super to have on hand. I could stay a bit back from the area and cover the dermatitis without risking being crouched down by the hind legs of a grumpy horse. Note: LB was the perfect pony I expected her to be when treating her dermatitis, but a few of the school horses were not as thrilled about being my guinea pigs.
Carly and obNOXious (yes, that’s really his show name) aka “Nox” being good sports and showcasing the Show Out shampoo. Photo by Veronica Green-Gott/Golden Fleece Marketing
My only gripe with the Show Out Scratches Spray is that it can be a little hard to tell how well you’ve covered the dermatitis or wound. The spray is clear and thin, almost like fly spray. It would be nice if it had a slight color to it, so you can ensure you’ve covered the whole area as thickly as needed.
Show Out did send me another product that deserves an honorable mention: the Show Out Solid Deodorizer. This little blue tub doesn’t look like much, but it is a workhorse in disguise. I put one tub in my bathroom behind the toilet and one in my car. I put this little tub to the ultimate test when I accidentally left my muddy, stinky running shoes in the car overnight. The next morning, Sally and I were driving an hour each way to the Maryland International at Loch Moy Farm. When I first opened the door that morning, the car stunk. I pulled the shoes out and within 20 minutes it was like it never happened. The deodorizer is not like Febreze, it doesn’t cover up the smell with another scent. Instead, it absorbs the bad odor. Don’t ask me how, the only answer I can come up with is simply magic.
How EN Does Product Reviews:
We believe that product reviews are the most useful when they’re honest. We will always let you know if we’ve been compensated in some way for writing a product review; in all review cases, we reserve the right to write with honesty on our experience with a product. This review of Show Out Products was compensated as a part of an advertising package. This review reflects our writer’s full experience using this product.
If you want to save on your first order of Show Out Products, click here to take advantage of a deal exclusively for EN readers.
