My palomino mare, Sadie, has had rain rot all winter and the hair is starting to grow back. However, the hair is growing in a dark sorrel color and she is a light palomino! My horse looks like she has spots all over he back. I'm really worried that this will be permanant. Is this normal and will the hair grow back its normal color eventually? I don't want this to happen everytime she gets rain rot, or I'll have an appaloosa!

 I can't answer your question, but I just wanted to say that my chestnut horse had rain rot last fall. It went away, but now that he's shedded out this spring there are long tufts of hair where he had the rain rot. He also looks like he has spots all over his back! I am going to try and shave the hair off and see if that works. Hopefully it isn't permanent.

I think it depends on the horse. My two year old solid black, appaloosa gelding had rain rot as a weanling( about 8 months old). for two years straight, it has grown in as black spots that are embossed. the weird thing is that they don't bleach out from the sun, like the rest of his coat, so it looks like he's a black on black appaloosa. Now, his mother had rain rot when she was about five, ( she's now ten) She is a white with black spots leopard appaloosa. When her rain rot healed, her white hairs weren't changed, but her black hairs became embossed, just like my black horse. Maybe it has something to do with the hair color.

 Minerals are a biggie for color. Especially copper and zinc. If the hair had come in white, I'd tend to say that it was done and would be white forever, but then my white horse comes in black with re-growth. Yours sounds like healthy, rich new growth. I wouldn't shave it off because you ruin the defense of the area against future rain rot. Supplementing minerals will help a lot with color and eliminate summer bleaching among a lot of other things. I've seen horses with their copper needs met and literally change color...their true color coming out. Never underestimate the benefits of those traces minerals! In the long run, your horse will have a brilliant true color and those patches will be taken care of in the process.

So, I suggest a good vitamin/mineral supplement, because Vit. A is also a good deterrent for rain rot.

I had something going on with my white horse's back last winter. It wasn't rain rot, though. Something else. He's bum high and has a small depression in his back that holds water just long enough to start something. I had gotten Thrush Off, which is also copper and works great on feets. I cleaned the area on his back and puffed a little bit of powdered Thrush Off on it and it stayed there for a long time. I just kept watch to make sure the the healing continued and it did, never looked back....one cleaning, one application and through continued rain storms. Stuff's great for dry thrush medication in the face of constant wet weather as well.  

Hope this helps.....

Hate to say it, but it might be permanent - try a coat supplement and see if when your horse starts to change to her winter coat again if the colors are more matched. For the person who was going to try shaving - that won't change the color, the entire hair is discolored from the root to tip. About the white hairs, those are permanent, as scars. 

I had a horse with really bad rainrot come in the barn, vet said to try SMZ's, MTG, Iodine, etc - nothing worked, then I decided to just start him on nu-image and mirra-coat as a combo (gave the req nutrients at less cost) and the rainrot dissapeared and coat looked better than ever w/no discoloration. So that is my new protocol - I treat topically and nutritionally. Of course the best cure is a good curry every day.

 My horse's scars are the same color as his coat, it's just that the hair is about a half inch long and stands up in little tufts! He has already shed out except for these tufts. It's not real noticable unless you look up close. That's why I mentioned shaving them, to see if they grew back long again. Never seen anything like it. 

When you stated really bad rain rot.. How bad? and what is SMZ?

Hi Dixiegal - While I can't speak to the original poster's horse's rainrot - I've had a horse come in that looked like he'd been in a fire - missing all of the hair across his back and on his hindquarters He was so sore that a soft brush could nearly buckle all four legs. I had to curry him really well to get all of the bad off, then I did MTG and the nu-image and mirracoat.

SMZ's aka TMP's - Trimethoprim with sulfamethoxazole - is a type of broad spectrum antibiotic commonly prescribed for horses. It's like tucoprim/uniprim, just a slightly different formulation and therefore different effectiveness. As with all antibiotics, always consult your vet before administering

 Just wanted to let you know that my horse's rain rot scars are gone now. The wierd tufts of hair finally shed out and now his coat is uniform again.Thank goodness. So not all scars will be permanent.

 Isn't that nice? Problem resolved. Does good to have a little patience and faith....... sometimes.