Allergy testing - tell me your experiences, please?

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Nepenthe

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One of mine is due to be tested for a rather extreme allergy soon...and I'd like to hear your experiences regarding allergy testing;
- how did your vets do it?
- did the horse have to come off meds?
- did you manage to avoid the allergens more effectively afterwards?

I'd also like to hear if your horse had treatment to desensitise it to allergens.

Thanks again
:D
 
Mine had the york test due to outbreaks of urticaria. This is when they test the blood against a number of typical allergens. He had high numbers (i.e. intolerant or allergic too) against wheat, barley, rye, oats, linseed, peas, storage mites, and soya. Removed all these from his diet, but he still gets the rash every November through to the end of January - sometimes later.

Tried antihistamines and these noticeably reduced the reaction to something far more manageable. Clipping him out has also helped immeasurably. Reaction has changed from huge weals & plaques all over his body & face that would burst releasing a yellow serum that would encrust in his winter coat to a couple of small bumps here & there.

If we had not achieved this reduced reaction, I was looking to go down the route of hypo-sensitisation (immunotherapy) that you mentioned. I researched this and it looked very interesting at the time. I should imagine that there is even more info on it now then when I was desperately searching a couple of years ago.

Good luck with your allergy testing - it can be a real head scratcher! :D
 
I had my horse allergy tested as he was really itchy and itched his hocks raw. I did suspect sweet itch and was going to buy a boett but decided to have the blood test done just incase. The results were surprising but also pretty unmanageable as he was allergic or borderline allergic to loads and loads. Mine came back as a list with a number next to it. This number meant either allergic, borderline/positive, borderline, negative, so I started to try and eliminate things. It was hard as some were obscure but he was allergic to red clover, alfalfa, wheat, lots of different flies, etc etc. Trying to find a feed without wheat in it was almost impossible but I elliminated what I could and didnt see a difference. TBH, nothing was off the scale and his symptons apart from his hocks werent that bad. I discussed doing the desensitising but decided against it. Its expensive and no guarantees. Dont get me wrong, if he was bad I would have done it.
His hock rubbing stopped soon after and seems seasonal, usually November time??? so I wouldnt say sweetitch. He was skin scraped too for mites but that came back clear
 
Natalie_H said:
That's spooky Louby. Does it finish at the same sort of time too?

P.S. Have you bought another lorry yet?
Click to expand...

Cant remember tbh, Im sure I will soon find out :)
Dont mention Lorries, travel 4 hrs again today, cant seem to find anything. You dont know of any do you :D
 
Keep me posted as to when his starts. Would be interested to see if there is any correlation between the two. I'll let you know this end too.

I'll keep my eye out for lorries - wouldn't have thought you'd come this far but if you did 4 hours today then you probably will! :D You are Manchester way aren't you?
 
I was offered the REACT allergy testing program by my vets for Sunny's extreme summer pasture COPD. It involves shaving an area on the neck then applying a number of common allergens to the skin. The area is later inspected for a reaction to the various allergens then another area is shaved and the allergen/s that got a reaction are applied in different strengths to find the lowest strength that the horse's body responds to. The firm then make up a "personal serum" that is injected into the horse daily, tapering off to weekly, then monthly, then only as needed. However, this can cost up to £1,000 and the results can give false positives and the end result serum often doesn't work at all. My vet had this done on her horse that had severe sweet itch and it made no difference whatsoever.
 
I have had my horse tested twice with the blood test against a panel of various allergens. The first was completley negative - we probably tested too soon after withdrawing oral steroids. The second one showed a small group of allergies but nothing so significant it explains his severe summer airways problems. I decided to go down the vaccination route with the things highlighted by the test. However I would not have done so had my vet explained these were monthly injections for life and the practice would not allow me to give them.

They are small injections under the skin - I work with animals and have to give injections of various kinds. The notion of paying a vet to come once a month for the rest of my horses life is ridiculous frankly, especially when the evidence for these things working is very poor in horses. Most of the research has been in dogs. I know there is a risk of anaphalactic shock with the early injections but tails off after about three. Another horse on the yard had the vaccinations - it was a time limited course and they allowed the yard staff to give them (same practice!!!). I know now to cross question my vet and not expect him to communicate effectively!!!!!!

My boy's problems begin in late March/early April so I suspect a tree is involved but no trees on the panel produced a reaction.
 
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