Can foods affect sweet itch?

Boxers

Boxers

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Our pony does not have sweet itch at the moment but I beleive he's had it in the past and it is well managed with keeping him in at night, and putting a fly mesh on him during the summer etc.

But I'm just wondering whether foods could affect him in any way? Could sugars irritate his skin, ie, sugar beet, and what about protein in haylege?
 
I don't know much about sweet itch but have heard a rumour that adding marmite to a horse's feed helps to stop sweet itch - now they do the squeezy bottles this is easy to add....
 
I'm sure i read somewhere that garlic heightend the immune response so could aggrevate the condition.

Also been told to feed yeast to calm the immune system down, don't know could be just old wives tales.

x x
 
My friend owns a welsh D who has really bad sweet itch, she had blood tests done and he's allergic to loads of stuff.
The only feed he can have is ride and relax and speedi beet.
He's allergic to dust, every fly possible, olive trees??!!

Everything!!!!!!!
 
My warmblood has really bad sweet itch. Several things have improved the condition since he moved to be with us:

1) Of course it is coming to the end of the sweet itch season but midges are still out in force near us and it is mild for the time of year;
2) I have stopped feeding alfa-a - some sweet itch horses are said to be worse when fed alfalfa; and some non-sweet itch horses seem to itch when fed alfalfa;
3) He's now not near running water and doesn't have trees in his field;
4) I have stopped using the god awful Itch Stop crap he was being smothered in and gone over to the killitch that has helped my welsh cob go from having no mane/tail throughout summer, and cracking a wall through rubbing so much, to having hardly any desire to scratch. Itch Stop makes their coat greasy and although it may help the sweet itch (not convinced), it makes them rub for a different reason!

His sweet itch cleared up within days of him coming to us. I am sure the main reason is it being a different location with better environment. Next year he will be in a snuggy hood - he was in a rambo duo thingamy, but he's so big that it doesn't cover his belly, and that's where he gets scabby because of it!
 
B vitamins are supposed to be good for skin, hence yeast and marmite. Not sure if foods woud be bad for sweet itch, however if your horse is sensetive to midge bites its possible it could be intolerant to food stuffs too.
 
Apparently the B vitamins in the blood, provided by the yeast in marmite/ brewer's yeast etc, emits a smell that midges do not like; so midges are less likely to want to eat your horse if he smells like gone off milk and tastes like... well, marmite? Seriously who'd want to eat that crap!? I know if I was a midge I'd not be going within 50 miles of a horse that'd been on the marmite. BLEUURRRRRRRRRRGH!
 
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that garlic heightend the immune response so could aggrevate the condition

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Oh help! I fed him garlic granules all summer because I thought it might help as a fly repellant as it does in humans!
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He has no sores or scabs but does have flakey/dandruffy places, particularly his mane and tail. When he went to PC camp he was bedded on straw and came home with a few sores at the top of his tail.

I have started to add sugar beet to his feed and soon he will be on haylege instead of hay, so I just wanted to see if these might be detrimental at all.

Thanks for all replies
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I have heard that some food intolerances do show very similar symptoms to sweet itch but as far as I'm aware sweet itch is an over reaction to the midge bite only..

My cob has severe sweet itch...he is no worse or better no matter what I put in him and I've tried allsorts in the 10 yrs he's had it. NOTHING cures sweet itch..it can only be managed and I've found the best thing to be location. My cob is on the side of a valley..a very exposed field well away from muck heaps and water sources and has had the best year yet this year..

Its most likely that it was the change of location that caused him to rub his tail..
 
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