[humphreymctush]

One of our ponies has an ear plaque. I diagnosed this myself by looking on the internet. He is sensitive in that ear. Please could anyone who has sucessfully treated this condition tell me how they did it. I am reluctant to treat the ear on a regular basis with baby oil or whatever because the pony is not happy having his ear touched. I remember my frustration when I had a cow with silage eye. The vet gave me some cream to put in twice a day. After about 4 days when the cow finally went crazy I called the vet again who gave a single injection to clear up the condition.

[Pony-n-trap]

Has the vet seen him?  I would get them to take a look at it, am sure you know how easy it is to end up with an earshy horse, not the best when you want to put a headcollar or bridle on.

[humphreymctush]

I will take him to the vet but I still want to hear from anyone with experience of this condition.

[lachlanandmarcus]

My 17hand hunter has it, you can imagine how easy a horse that tall makes it to get at his ears......
He was seen by the head equine vet at the Royal vet college when we lived down south as they were our vets for the horses at the yard we were at.
He said that putting the creams etc on can often do more harm than good, as it makes them earshy (or  more earshy!).

Since then, we have managed it with full ear cotton fly fringes to keep the tiny blackflies which cause the plaques out of his ears, and also by putting on his bridle in 2 parts in summer when its worst, undoing at the cheekpieces to split it. First part (headpiece, browband & top half cheekpieces is popped on first, and then bit and noseband section, doing up the cheekpieces last. It sounds a hassle but is the best way to ensure you are not bending the ears which is very painful for horses with a lot of plaques. You might not need to do this if it isnt as widespead.
Mind you at least my chaps are just a layer in the ear, the eventer Headley Britannia who won Badminton and Burleigh 3 day events a couple of years back
has them coming right out of her ears :-O and she has her bridle put on in 2 bits too.
Def worth getting your own vets opinion too as vets do vary on this but we've chosen to manage it rather than try and blast it, partly cos with 17 hander you can afford for him to get any worse earshy than they have to. I should say tho that this summer hes decided he wants me to clean out gunk from his ears when he comes in from the field, which is amazing as we couldnt touch them till recently.

[humphreymctush]

This is really interesting and very helpful thank you. My own vet (more of a farm vet) had never heard of ear plaques before, and my daughter has worked out for herself how to get the bridle on by undoing the cheek piece so as not to squash his ear. I will get an ear hat next time I'm out.

[scotelf]

My little Welsh A had them diagnosed 3 years ago and trying to clean them with the liquid the vet gave was too traumatic for her. A top half head mask does the trick in summer, and she will now let me trim her ears if I am very careful with her. She is okay getting her bridle and halter on though. They don't bother her at all now. Hope your daughter's pony gets relief from her mask.