Skin Disorders
Skin scraping
One of the tools a veterinarian uses to diagnose a horse that is itching excessively or one that is losing hair is a skin scraping. A skin scraping consists of gently scraping the affected areas of the skin. It enables both the full thickness of the epidermis and the contents of the hair follicles to be sampled. The sample is then looked at under the microscope for such things as external parasites, infectious organisms or atypical cells.
Skin biopsy
While many skin conditions can have a straightforward diagnosis, in some situations obtaining a skin biopsy may be necessary to obtain an accurate diagnosis. This procedure is usually easy to perform in general practice. However, sometimes a horse may require a general anaesthetic in order for us to obtain suitable samples. An accurate diagnosis will then guide the appropriate treatment plan.
