Cruiser Crisis

My sister and I had a 4-day weekend. For the third consecutive week, we had to get the vet out.

Last week, Cruiser started to get hives on his face. He usually gets some hives in the spring. They are itchy, they break open and I treat them on my own. This time, they got worse every day. In a few days, he had half of one side of his face scraped up, and they were draining like crazy.

I got the vet out on Monday. By then, we figured out the problem. When I switched from his heated water bucket to his summer bucket, I accidently got the wrong bucket. It was the same color, but it was from a stall of a cribber. His owner pained the whole thing in No Chew to keep his horse from cribbing on it.

Cruiser, a horse with very sensitive skin, had an allergic reaction to the No Chew. I bet, when his head got itchy, he even used the bucket to rub his head--getting even more on it.
The vet agreed that it looked like it was cause by a chemical. Of course, we switched his bucket. The vet gave him a steroid shot and some steroid pill for a few days. I washed his halter and bridle, too.

He is so much better. He might just be a little bald for a while.