Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Warts and young horses

From: sue

I would first like to say the information I have received from your newsletter has been a wonderful resource for me. Thank you !! I have recently purchased 2 paint filly weanlings out in Iowa. I live in VT. Both have experienced what looks like warts at different times on their chins. Would you have any idea what this would be? Thanks Sue

Hi Sue - your youngsters sound entirely normal. Talk to your vet about young horses and warts! These warts - usually appearing somewhere on the muzzles of youngsters (yearlings and two-year-olds are usually the "warty" horses in any pasture) - are caused by the equine papilloma virus. I'll admit that these warts are not particularly attractive, but they aren't a health problem either.

If you ask around the feed store or the tack shop, you'll get a lot of different "cures" for warts. The ones that "work" are all based on the idea of triggering the horse's own immune response to the virus, so don't be shocked if you hear people recommend pinching a wart with pliers, cutting a wart, burning a wart.... and don't feel that you have to take any of that advice, either. Your vet will tell you that the "cure" is to wait a few months until they go away, which they will.

Remember, you'll typically find them on yearling or two-year-old horses. By the time the horses are three years old - in your fillies' case, probably by the time they are two years old - the warts are gone. The wart virus is rather like a cold virus, in that the symptoms will last as long as they last, and then they will go away - whether you "treat" the condition or whether you don't. Don't lose sleep over warts on the muzzles of young horses. If you worry about them and try to treat them, they'll disappear eventually. If you ignore them, they'll disappear eventually. But do call your vet - he can reassure you.

Jessica

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