Aural Plaques Final Pictures

I have been meaning to do this post for awhile and I apologize to anyone waiting to see the results of the Aldara treatment. So here are the final picture. They are a little harder to see because the ears are not clipped anymore. There is about 95% improvement in the presence of Aural plaques in the ears. And that might be low because the ears are dirty it was hard to determine what was a plaque and what was dirt. In the spring I will clip her ears again and then show the results again.

For those just coming in at this post. My horse Broadway had aural plaques present in both ears. I did four weekly treatments of 1 packet of Aldara spread between both ears. The ears did become very raw and inflammed until they healed up and now look pretty much normal. She is far less sensitive about her ears being touched and bridling and haltering are no longer an issue. I would say the Aldara has made a huge improvement in her comfort and I would recommend the treatment to any horse who has these plaques.

As for the pictures let's start from the beginning Before treatment:

Week Two:

Week Four: See how raw and sore they look.

Final Result:

As you can see big improvement. Some of the white spots seen in the last picture scrapped right off but then I couldn't get a good picture. They don't look like plaques just dry skin spots. If anyone has any specific questions about the treatment or side effects please contact me and I can answer anything you might have. So excited this worked with minimal evasion and side effects.

I got a better picture showing after cleaning there are no white dots left.

Aural Plaques week four

We are now on week four and as I sit here babysitting drunk horse ( have to sedate her now to clean the ears) I thought I would show the progress. This is the last week for treatment and then we see what happens over the next month. I cleaned out her ears really well and got a lot of crusty scabs off. Underneath the scabs the skin is still pretty raw but there are areas of fresh, pink, healthy skin. I think this is a good sign and I just hope the hair grows back in dark like the rest of her. So all in all I think the treatment worked. I think I will post again only after the raw spots have healed up to show the final results. I will continue to clean the ears weekly to remove scabs.

Left ear

Right ear

Treating Aural Plaques

My new rescue horse has aural plaques. They are not bad, yet, but I don't want them to get worse. Aural Plaques are the white, wart looking growths on the inside of horses ears. As many as 25% of the equine population has them. Although their exact cause is not known it is thought to be related to the papillomavirus which does cause warts and other growths. In the past and for most of my time at Vetlink I have always told those who asked there is no treatment for aural plaques, and in the past there wasn't. Now with new research from the University of Minnesota there is hope. They did a trial on aural plaques (and sarcoids) involving the human drug Aldara (Imiquimod 5% cream). The conclusion of the trial is it worked very well. Talking with my vet we decided to try it. You can read about the study here http://www.cvm.umn.edu/cic/completedstudies/lamedsurg/aldarardvm/home.html. Broadway can be a little touchy with her ears and she has a habit of pulling back. I was wondering the plaques could be the problem. I started the treatment today. My veterinarian's instructions are a little different than the protocol in the study but ultimatly you are treating the same number of time. My instructions were to apply the Aldara once weekly for four weeks. During the treatment the plaques will get worse before they get better as the medicine uses the body's own immune system to fight the virus. I will be documenting the results here for anyone who is also dealing with aural plaques.

Here is the before treatment pictures.

I am so glad this treatment is available. While I have never seen aural plaques before adopting this horse, I had heard awful stories about how hard bridling was and how the horses hated having their ears and even heads touched. Hopefully with such good results more people will use this treatment for happy horses. Unfortunatly Vetlink of Parker is not able to carry Aldara at this time so it is something you will have to talk with your vet about.