Alfalfa and itching?

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Hatts24

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Have a very sensitive and itchy Cob, (have to watch for sunburn, sweet itch, comes up in hives with reactions, suffers with pollen, you name it...) and have seen a few snippets on a link between itching and feeding Alfalfa? Has anybody changed their feed and noticed a difference? Few people suggested I could try it for his itching but don't want to change for no reason. Thanks!

He's currently fed on Bailey's Lo-Cal Balancer and Baileys Light Chaff.
 
I had always fed alfalfa chaff with no problems but one year, in the late winter my cob started to itch like mad. He was scratching his bum and tail in particular so I wormed for pinworm. I had never seen any sign of the worms and treatment made no difference.... I began to wonder if we had early midges and he was developing sweet itch.
After he managed to remove half his luscious tail on a gate fastening I found out about alfalfa and itching.... Stopped all alfalfa in his diet and within a couple of days he wasn't scratching at all, though it took about a year for his tail to grow back.
 
We had an Appaloosa mare who simply could not eat alfalfa, it turned her loopy and brought her out in hives. I would always suspect food, of some kind as the reason for 'behavioural' issues. But I also had a mare who we had to give imported alfalfa cobs because she couldn't cope with anything else which was available at the time.
 
lamlyn2012 said:
If it's just recently started I'd consider rain scald. Are there little lumps?
Click to expand...

No he has been like this all the time and has got worse from May/June onwards. Came up in hives after a reaction to something (we still don't know what and hasn't happened again) back in June.
 
Most of mine are fine on alfalfa but my welshie comes up in lumps and gets really itchy so it's def worth an experiment I'd say.
 
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