alfa A & SI

[Cahill]

my mares SI has not been half so bad this year.
I have used a neem product that I thought worked well but because I have been concentrating on my youngster I have not ridden her this year very much and therefore cut out her alfaA (yellow bag).

how is alfaA for sugars and do you think this may have helped?

thanks.

 

[Leo Walker]

My boy had chronic sweetitch, diagnosed with a blood test, very well managed but he would still rip his face open and bite his stomach till it bled I took him off the rich grass, took him off alfa and fed him fast fibre, balanced minerals, salt, linseed and large doses of brewers yeast. He was out 24/7 with no rug or itching for the first time since he was weaned The only treatment he had was kill itch, aka benzly benzoate anytime he looked a bit itchy. I've never owned a sweetitch horse before, but as far as I am concerned it CAN be cured with the right diet and management

 

[YorksG]

We had a mare with sweet itch and removed sugar from her diet for other reasons, the sweet itch never recurred. I think the people in the past who named this condition knew what they were talking about!

 

[thatsmygirl]

I agree taking out all sugar helps plus keeping a rug on ( took my lads off to early this year) will help manage the condition. I don't believe it can be cured just managed to keep it at bay.

 

[Under-the-radar]

I came to the conclusion that Alfa A was worsening my girls problems about a year ago. She now has a zero alfalfa, low sugar diet, this summer she has had linseed and brewers yeast, and she is now just trialling topspec lite.

I have had her rugged all summer, but she actually has a full mane again! She has stilled rubbed her tail a couple of times, but only to the extent of ruffling up the hair rather than until the tail is bald!

I haven't used any other ointments or topical applications on her this summer - so managing her on a daily basis has definitely been much less of a pain in the butt!

 

[Cahill]

so,if I am wanting to give a token bucket feed of some chaff/fibre ,what do you think would be best?

thank you.

 

[Scarlett]

Alfalfa is well known for making some horses itch. I avoid it completely in my horses feeds.

 

[Under-the-radar]

so,if I am wanting to give a token bucket feed of some chaff/fibre ,what do you think would be best?

thank you.

I use readigrass for my girl - not ideal for the real fatties however as too high in calories.

Over the summer she literally has just a handful - enough to mix the linseed and brewers yeast into. Now the amount of grass is starting to decrease she has a scoop (round stubbs scoop) full in the evening.

Otherwise, Honeychop do an unmolassed straw chaff

http://www.honeychop.com/chopped-oat-straw.html

(my girls are too fussy and wouldn't eat the wretched stuff! lol)

 

[Cahill]

thank you,i will look into these and anymore suggestions.

 

[_HP_]

Alfalfa is well known for making some horses itch. I avoid it completely in my horses feeds.

This

If your horse has sweet itch it has an allergy to midge saliva. If by removing sugar or grass or alfalfa from the diet the animal stops itching then it didn't have sweet itch, it had another allergy.
I have a pony with sweet itch AND a grass/pollen allergy so I could remove all the grass/ pollen in the world but if he is bitten by a midge he will still itch.
There is no cure for sweet itch unfortunately.

 

[eggs]

This

If your horse has sweet itch it has an allergy to midge saliva. If by removing sugar or grass or alfalfa from the diet the animal stops itching then it didn't have sweet itch, it had another allergy.
I have a pony with sweet itch AND a grass/pollen allergy so I could remove all the grass/ pollen in the world but if he is bitten by a midge he will still itch.
There is no cure for sweet itch unfortunately.

Agree with the above. My friend's horse has sweetitch but this year was a lot better - maybe the dry heat made the midges less prevalent.

On the other hand I do have an itchy horse but he doesn't have sweetitch.

 

[_HP_]

I have 3 with sweet itch ....all of them are suffering more now than they have all year. Warm and wet...yuk...bring on the frosts

 

[FairyLights]

my horse has SI and a grass allergy, diagnosed by blood tersts. He had Piriton Marchto November, starting at 10 per day going up to 25 per day june july and Aug then reduciong back to 10 until I stop early Nov. e is rugged with a SI hoodie during the spring and summer.

 

[Under-the-radar]

HP - I am honestly very very sorry for your gang still suffering - but it kind of makes me think my girl is actually even better than I had previously thought. I took my SI rug off nearly 2 weeks ago, and bar a little scratch when she has come into the stable wet, she has done no itching at all. Which makes me

Fingers crossed we get a couple of good frosts soon xx

 

[Annagain]

I asked a question the other day about alfalfa causing skin problems and had a suprising number of people reply saying they thought it made their horses very itchy. I think it may be causing allergic dermatitis in my share horse. I've now bought some readigrass to use instead.

 

[Leo Walker]

This

If your horse has sweet itch it has an allergy to midge saliva. If by removing sugar or grass or alfalfa from the diet the animal stops itching then it didn't have sweet itch, it had another allergy.
I have a pony with sweet itch AND a grass/pollen allergy so I could remove all the grass/ pollen in the world but if he is bitten by a midge he will still itch.
There is no cure for sweet itch unfortunately.

Mine did/does have sweet itch, confirmed by a blood test as far as I know, and had previously had a lot of money spent treating him. When I bought him in June he had bleeding sores and scaly patches despite kill itch daily, full body rugs, a mask and sudocreme all a long his midline. He used to through himself about itching 6 weeks later he was out 24/7 with no rug and benzyl on about once a week, no sores, the odd dry scaly bit on his midline, but thats it.

 

[Cahill]

yes,i realise that SI has no cure.
my mare started being itchy about 6 yrs ago,the 2nd year was so bad she couldn`t be stabled and had to be flyrugged behind electric fencing.
tried lotions and potions but covering up was the only way and we have managed like this BUT this year we have used neem and not been rugged all summer with just minor rubbing and some broken hair.

now I am wondering if it is not SI ????

 

[maisie06]

interesting thread....I had a little welsh with SI that greatly improved one alfalfa was cut out, once changed to ready grass she was much less itchy, I also found that garlic made her MORE sensitive to midge bites...

 

[Cahill]

interesting thread....I had a little welsh with SI that greatly improved one alfalfa was cut out, once changed to ready grass she was much less itchy, I also found that garlic made her MORE sensitive to midge bites...

think garlic boost the immune system which we don't want because in SI the immune system is OVER active

 

[Under-the-radar]

think garlic boost the immune system which we don't want because in SI the immune system is OVER active

The Garlic thing is a funny one - I always also thought that garlic was a no no for SI. However, I spoke to a herbalist and she said that garlic can be useful for scratchy horses. I did feed garlic to my girl for a while, but to be honest it neither made things better or worse. However, this herbalist did get me to stop feeding my girl AA - she told me to cut out all bucket feed for a week to 10 days - she could have as much hay as she liked and eat out in the field, but no bucket feed. The difference in those 10 days of "detox" was amazing.

I think many SI horses can actually benefit from being managed (dietary wise) in much the same vein as laminitics.