Allergy tests +feed help

[Rosie'smum]

My mare got allergy tested on tuesday. Turns out she is allergic to many things and will be getting immunotherapy when we decide on which things to give her.

This is what she is allergic to;
She has had strong reactions to tree and weed pollen mixtures, farina mites, house dust mites, hay mite, itallian rye grass, daisy, biting midges and horseflies. Mild reactions to copra mite, meadow fescue and perennial rye grass.

Her hay is from the fields she grazes so doesnt get a break from it.
Her feed is;
Spillers lite and lean,
Honey chop oat straw,
Micronised linseed
Bespoke hack up consisting of;
Turmeric , MSM , Boswellia Serrata , Vegan Glucosamine HCL , Milk Thistle , Ginger , Spirulina , Spearmint.

My question is can she have Timothy hay/haylage?
Also she has thunderbrooks hay cobs, as they are alpine grasses and herbs is she still able to have these?
Also anything u think i should do different now with this information?
I can't elimate grass entirely and she has eaten down the patch she is on with a grazing muzzle. Im just aware that i need to move her fence but obviously dont want to but also dont want to ruin my yards fields with over grazing.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Does your yard have ryegrass grazing? If so you will need to move her, can you find somewhere that has old pasture? I think you will need to check with Thunderbrooks what their hay cobs contain although I doubt they will contain ryegrass. Timothy hasn't been identified as an allergen, so she should be fine with timothy hay, just monitor her carefully. I have had horses with allergies to all sorts, so I do understand how difficult it can be. Good luck!

 

[GinaGeo]

I have a similar story. Except mine was allergic to everything but grass.

What are her symptoms?

I didn’t end up going down the Immunotherapy route because I could cut everything out that was a trigger for him and that’s what I did.

In your situation I would use Timothy hay/Haylage. At least you’ve only got one species to worry about then. Can you keep her off grass for a prolonged period to eliminate the other species?

Could it be possible that she hasn’t had Timothy grass before/ for awhile? From my reading I understand that if they haven’t been exposed to it, they won’t have had a chance to have developed an allergic reaction to it?

The biggest thing that made the difference to mine was a good prebiotic and getting his hind gut sorted. The more reading I did the more I believed that he had gut dysbiosis.

Since we’ve gone down that track his skin has cleared up and his immune system is functioning much more effectively.

His all started when he had antibiotics for a nasty wound and then a diet change when he was two. We used various antibiotics and steroids to try and help. And ended up with Allergy Testing. It took a long time from the issue appearing to getting it cleared.

He’s five now and for the first time his skin is solidly clear and it is looking like he’s able to have the things he was allergic to without reacting now.

It was a really tricky time - allergies are hard!

 

[Rosie'smum]

So she had always been a bit itchy but only on her tail. Moved to current yard Aug 2018. She got worse last summer and for the first time ever i had to clip her towards the end of summer. The itching persisted into the winter and she started to actually injury herself. Got vet out and gave her steroids which helped and malaseb shampoo, which im not sure did much but knowing what I do now probably did. Also been using deosect and benzel benzonate. Tested for cushings and that came back negative so thats where i got the allergy testing. Also since vet visit as they mention the obvious sweet itch she had been in a boett 24/7 inc mask.
The grass is proper meadow grass with all different species in it. and YO has stated that there is no Italian rye but does some perennial rye as in his words is "everywhere" We had 2 types of hay as one was late cut and stalky off our summer field and the other is nicer meadow off the winter field. She'd been pretty much on the stalkier hay and when switched to the nice stuff had a massive itchy reaction to it, which got better with soaking.
They are in the summer grazing now and if she has rolled comes in with hives. Its really weird cause its only affecting her backend and itches mostly on her right side yet gets the hives on the left, but this is the side she lies on, gets up/down from.
Having a talk with hack up tomorrow and see what they suggest. They did current mix to help cleanse her system.

Shes never had timothy as far as im aware only from the honeychop lite and healthy but that was a while ago. That has made me a bit happier knowing ive got that option although not the expense of haylage and trying to source the hay.
Trying to go through what i can avoid makes making the jab easier then.

Shes always had a bit of a compromised immune system. She has a dust allergy as she always got bad heave line and tree pollen used to set this off but since moving to this yard thats hardly noticeable now. She had been scooped twice and just found mucus as she never coughs to clear it. They said that you would think with how much effort she puts into breathing that her lungs would be noisey but nope. This was few years back.

 

[GinaGeo]

Now this is going to sound a little left of field and comes following my own two year journey with a young horse with allergies for whom anti-biotics, steroids and various topical treatments (including Malaseb) only made worse.

But there are links between the types and quantities of bacteria in the gut and the presence of asthma and allergies. It's all to do with the Gut Microbiome and it would be worth reading up on it

If she was mine I would put her solely onto soaked or steamed Timothy Hay for a couple of weeks (keeping her off grass completely) to give her immune system a break. I would also put her on a really good prebiotic (I used Equibiome's Prebiotic as it didn't have fillers) to try and help support the hind gut. Mine also had Progressive Earth's Pro Hoof Balancer as that is the only one on the market that doesn't contain any of things he's allergic to and I topped up the Vit E as he was only getting dried forage.

If you see the symptoms clear then you know you've ruled out at least some of your problems. But it does take a long time.

I was lucky that environmental factors didn't seem to be an issue with mine, which will make it a bit harder for you - do you have access to a grass free area? As you have so many environmental triggers it probably would be worth looking into the Immunotherapy - my vet was starting to talk about it, but we didn't end up going that route because I was able to remove everything that was an issue.

 

[Rosie'smum]

Little bit of an update.
I have put her onto timothy haylage, as our hay is made from the fields she grazes, to give her a little bit of a break. She is out on a track with minimal grass ( mostly due to the lack of rain!) with a muzzle on to restrict how much is eaten. She also has a nose net to reduce breathing in the pollen.
She will be switching to night time turnout as of this weekend.
I have also just ordered some antihistamines and a pro/prebiotic to see if they help. I'm also using deosect for the flies but Benzyl benzoate doesn't seem to do anything to help.
I've slowly introduced the haylage so from tonight she will have that only but already she seems so much better. She has the odd itch when she comes in at night but it doesn't seem as manic as it was. She will go to scratch in the morning but if she catches you looking she stops. Almost like it's become a bit of a habit over the actual need to.

She used to be on pro earths balancers but when it came to summer she would refuse to eat and as she is on danilon i really needed her to eat. That is why she ended up on spillers lite and lean. That stuff is like crack! She will leave a whole 19acre field in the summer to run in as fast as she can for her breakfast of this! We have to go through this field to get to stables and I let her go as last year i had 4 to bring in, so she brought herself in lol

Interesting you say about the asthma and allergies and the gut as she has always had a slight breathing issue this time of year which I put down to tree pollen. Shes been scoped twice and just found mucus that had inflammatory responses to it ( something along those lines as it was a couple years ago) never a cough just a heave line. Vets always said with how much effort she appears to be putting into breathing they were always surprised that her lungs made no noise.

Vets came back to me with what they wanted to put into the injection but never consulted me so got a couple of things in there that would be pointless. Waiting on a response back from them with my findings but at this moment i wont be going for the immunotherapy just yet.

Also mentioned to them that she still has a lump from one of the test sites so clearly she is still having a reaction which i would put down to as the grass.

 

[GinaGeo]

That sounds like a positive update

Fingers crossed you keep moving in the right direction!

There's the threshold theory with allergies as well. They can cope with some things or small quantities of them without reacting. It can be one small change that pushes them over into a big reaction. That "thing" that pushed them over, isn't the only thing, but it can look like it.

It might be she can cope with those grasses, in smaller quantities as you are doing, if she isn't being exposed to it in her haylage too. Hopefully - this will mean you won't need to restrict grass completely And would be why the Tree pollen might seem like the trigger - it's the think that seasonally pushes her into reacting.

Pre-biotic is a good call and made the biggest difference to mine